Super Bowl Notes...
-Since I can be negative on occasion, let's start out with a positive. The Steelers were the best team in the playoffs, and have been the best team in the NFL ever since the Colts decided to take the rest of the season off. Hats off to them.
-And another compliment; I like the way they celebrated their victory. They took it with dignity and class, which was nice, if expected. What a joy it is to win the title! But what presence there is in, when doing so, to realize how fortunate you are. Too often teams make it seem like winning their championship is the most important issue in life, while there are many things outside of sports that hold more importance. I think the principle players of the Steelers get that.
-I've heard some say today that the Seahawks played the better game and that Pittsburgh got lucky. I'll have to disagree. The defense of the Steelers played a great game, only allowing one touchdown when they were forced to guard a short field. Other than that, it was all field goal attempts and punts. How many times did Seattle punt from around midfield? They were hardpressed to get past it. And Pittsburgh had no problems getting close to the endzone. That's why I think the better team won.
-I'm disappointed with the Seahawks. Their clock management was terrible. They didn't come anywhere close to tackling Parker on his touchdown. And, when you're playing the Steelers, you simply have to by ready for any skill player on the team to throw the ball, especially if that player was a college quarterback. When they're doing some handoffs in the backfield, and not leaving the backfield, you simply don't leave Hines Ward uncovered. Based on that alone they deserved to lose.
-I'm also disappointed with at the Colts. They should have been the team that won it all this year, with their remarkable play in the middle of the season, but they simply don't have what it takes to win in the postseason. I made one bet in the playoffs, and that was against the Colts. Manning and Dungy need to look at their mentality and preparation going into a playoff game and figure out what they do wrong. I don't think they take it seriously enough. I hope they get it right one day.
-Finally, I'm disappointed with all special teams everywhere. Can we please stop holding players on punts and kickoff? After twenty games you can't get this right? Especially when the player you're blocking isn't anywhere near the ball. Stop doing that!
-I thought the Stones did pretty well. They brought a lot of energy, and even got the censors dancing a bit. Not bad at all for a half-time show.
-Boy, Shaun Alexander ALWAYS shows up for the big games, doesn't he?
-Did anyone think having Brady flip the coin was a good idea? Especially with so many great players on the field. And his coin toss was pretty poor (not that it matters much).
-Some judgment calls. I think the ball just barely touched the goal line. I think it technically was pass interference, even if I wish it weren't. And I don't think that was holding, but I'm no expert on holding calls, which have always seemed pretty arbitrary to me.
-Chris has mentioned earlier that maybe, just maybe, the referees were making questionable calls to help the team they think should win when the Colts played the Steelers. I'm not anywhere near officially claiming that there's a problem (and I don't think Chris is either), but that holding call was officially questionable. Still, despite some legitimate complaints, I think the Steelers deserved to win.
-I watched all eleven playoff games, and most of the times I wished I was doing something else. There was not one great game in the batch. I'm glad football's over, and I can't remember ever saying that before.
posted by Mike @ 2/06/2006 04:44:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Mike-
Thank you for the positive comments about the game! I will agree with you, the playoffs seemed flat this year but hey, my team won last night so I am not too upset.
The officiating is something I think can be debated throughout every sport on every level. The officials see things that most do not see and sometimes they get it wrong-not that any of them would be willing to admit it.
Do I think that the Steelers played their best game ever? No, they were off a bit and I really wanted to see some of those beautiful passes that Big Ben put up on the way to the Super Bowl. I also wanted to see Bettis get a TD just to put a nice little bow on the package but that was not meant to be either. The defense was solid, keeping the Seattle offense from getting close to scoring.
Seattle? Gee, I think my cat has better time management skills than the Seahawks. They never got in a hurry to huddle, set a play. . .in fact, I think I could run down the field and back before they got set for the next play. Their coach didn't seem really fired up either, well with one exception, as he was leaving for the half he was chewing on ref's butt out. . .
I have read some comments from MSNBC, etc about how unfair the game was and that Seattle should have won it, etc. Here is my take, the game is done, there were some questionable calls on both sides, both teams had some issues with their game and somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. The Steelers defended their endzone preventing the Seahawks from scoring. The offense could have played better. . .
Plus, their story is better (in my opinion). They wanted The Bus to go out on top, Big Ben promised him a trip to Detroit this year and he delivered. Bill Cowher wanted to give Mr. Rooney "one for the thumb" and he did. This is a team that mangaged to be sucessful on the road since January 8th.
Like Mike said, they were nice about the win, appreciating it. This is a nice team and even though Joey Porter shoots his mouth off quite frequently, he is there to encourage his teammates and he comes to play.
So, there are my two cents about the game. This is coming from someone who has watched a lot of football in the past three years and enjoys the "sport" of it.
I really liked this post. But I have to disagree on one thing: I thought the Stones sounded bad. Now...I don't even have cable...so perhaps there is some mojo that happens to the audio of a higher quality television and digital signal...but through my tv...they sounded like grandfathers. I didn't think the instruments were tight. Mick was alright, I guess... but even he sounded winded by the end of the first song.
That's just my take.
I thought the game was okay. I do think there were majorly blown calls by the refs. But...that being said...don't we hear that every year? Isn't there this steady swell of complaints on the officiating? Again...there were awful calls...but do you think we'll ever have another NFL playoffs, a World Series, or a Stanley Cup Finals without the press and the fans picking apart the officials more than the game?
I'm just glad the Patriots didn't win again.
KW-it wasn't your tv. We were commenting on the sound during the pregame show. Apparently, nobody can figure out the sound for a live musical performance. The Stones were okay. I have enjoyed the flashier performances of years past. The stage looked amazing though and I read somewhere how about how many pieces the stage was in and how long they had to put it together. I don't think Mike mentioned this but was this year's batch of commercials crappy or what? They had a year and a few of them were either from last year or have been played before the game. Oh well, still glad the Steelers won.
My other reaction was how silly it is to pose with the Lombardi Trophy when you haven't won it yet. I wouldn't have done it.
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