Refs on today's Super Bowl

[PACardsFan]

come on.. each call was pretty much interpretation of the ref. That is what happens when humans are involved. they are going to make mistakes. Anyone find it coincidence that recently calls "seem" to be getting worse? It's the nature of the sport. Each freakin play is replayed like 10 times a game.

BTW that call for holding (where the pass got to the one) was the correct call. It wasn't blantant but the guy did hook the defenders arm. ABC in their zest to call it a bad call only showed one angle.

I considered myself neutral when this game began, but I was rooting for Seattle by halftime. I'm sorry, but that was the worst officiated "Super Bowl" I can ever remember. Not only did the Seahawks have to contend with playing a road game, but the officiating was extremely one-sided to boot. One could say that those calls could have gone either way, but the fact remains that they ALL went against the Seahawks. If I were a Seattle fan, I would be fuming. Hell, I don't like Seattle & I'm fuming. When the officiating is that bad, it diminishes the NFL as a whole & the NFL was definitely diminished by yesterdays game.

 

[clif]

I considered myself neutral when this game began, but I was rooting for Seattle by halftime. I'm sorry, but that was the worst officiated "Super Bowl" I can ever remember. Not only did the Seahawks have to contend with playing a road game, but the officiating was extremely one-sided to boot. One could say that those calls could have gone either way, but the fact remains that they ALL went against the Seahawks. If I were a Seattle fan, I would be fuming. Hell, I don't like Seattle & I'm fuming. When the officiating is that bad, it diminishes the NFL as a whole & the NFL was definitely diminished by yesterdays game.

So you subscribe to the notion that the game was fixed for the Steelers to win since every call went against the Seahawks?

Bad calls questionable calls are nothing new. It doesn't mean the NFL had a fix in.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

I'd be more pissed that we dropped passes, screwed up special teams, let up too many big plays, didn't manage the end of both halves effectively, and didn't capitalize on many of the opportunites during the first half when Pittsburgh was clearly on it's heels than I would have been at the refs. Sure the zebras were horrible, but the Seahawks have only themselves to blame for losing yesterday. The "everybody is out to get us" inferiority complex shown by Seahawk fans in the last 24 hours is nothing short of embarassing and I hope Cardinals fan never exhibit such ridiculous behavior.

were you here after the dallas game?!

 

[clif]

How bout Seattle makin a freakin tackle on that last Pittsburg drive that ate up damn near 7 minutes. Look both teams are great and I would kill to have the Cards in the bowl but come on..

 

[MigratingOsprey]

yeah, because after an Int the first thing a QB thinks is who can I take out on the returning team that doesn't have the ball...............

especially when he makes the friggin tackle

what got to me the most was the inconsistency on what would be a call on one end and not the other .. i remember one pass play where ward put his hand on a defenders face mask and shoved him while making his cut .. of course no flag there

once again i'm not calling consipiracy and saying it's the reason seattle lost - all i'm saying is that those calls were bad, the officiating poor and it's a shame that is has to surface in such a big game

 

[Trey]

Outmatched!?

They only got tot the superbowl because the weak NFC they were clearly outmatched.

Seattle won the battle for time of possession, yards gained, turnovers, and they held Big Ben to a 22.6 QB rating, and you think they were outmatched? Without the crappy officiating and two plays by Pit, the score easily could've been 30-7 Seattle.

Pittsburgh won the game, but the fact that there is an 8 page (and growing!) thread on the officiating speaks volumes about the quality of the calls last night. The Rose Bowl was a game for the ages, partly because the refs weren't a factor. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about Super Bowl 40.

 

[PACardsFan]

So you subscribe to the notion that the game was fixed for the Steelers to win since every call went against the Seahawks?

Bad calls questionable calls are nothing new. It doesn't mean the NFL had a fix in.

Who said anything about a fix??? The NFL better find a better way to evaluate their officiating for the SUPER BOWL, otherwise more people will come away disappointed. Seattle had 11 pts taken off the board last night. Do the math. That should NEVER happen in a game of this magnitude.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

or how about the refs thowing the flag for delay of game and making it 3rd and 12 ... an extra 5 yards there and seattle probably gets the ball back..............

 

[clif]

yeah, because after an Int the first thing a QB thinks is who can I take out on the returning team that doesn't have the ball...............

Actually it happens alot.. and that is why there is a rule against it.

Look I do think you per se believe there is a conspiracy, but some on this thread no doubt think so.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

no it doesn't ... that call is rarely (if ever) made on an Int runback .. it is more common on ST

it is general for any type of return and if a guy is going to cut a defensiveman on a return, it isn't going to be a QB going after a bigger guy

and the fact the guy made the tackle shows that obviously wasn't what he was doing

seriously think about it

"you took out a guy without the ball below the knees"

"actually I didn't hit that guy and ended up making a tackle on the ball carrier"

"nope - you clearly didn't make the tackle - the guy magically fell down and you hit a guy without the ball"

 

[clif]

Who said anything about a fix??? The NFL better find a better way to evaluate their officiating for the SUPER BOWL, otherwise more people will come away disappointed. Seattle had 11 pts taken off the board last night. Do the math. That should NEVER happen in a game of this magnitude.

Some people obviously do.. just read the whole thread. That is why I asked you if you believe that. Of course the NFL needs to review their officiating. My point is that this is no different than plenty of games the last few years. Everything just happens to be magnified. I think there were over 100 cameras at the game yesterday. You do think a ref could ever screw up?

 

[MigratingOsprey]

there shouldn't be that many screwups in a game that big

if this is the best of the best, then there is a problem

 

[Russ Smith]

So you subscribe to the notion that the game was fixed for the Steelers to win since every call went against the Seahawks?

Bad calls questionable calls are nothing new. It doesn't mean the NFL had a fix in.

I don't think there's a fix but I do think the notion that most have that everything they watch is free of bias, when controlled by humans, is odd.

For example, today the ACC announced they're suspending the ref crew that worked the recent Duke/Florida State game. They won't announce why, but it's because they reviewed the officiating in the game and decided that if they wanted to quell the notion that Duke gets favorable officiating far too often, they probably ought to take some action. Duke shot 43 freethrows in the game, FSU 11, Duke took 22 3 pointers to only 10 for FSU.

The key controversies in the game were 2 calls. One a FSU player committed a hard foul, Shelden Williams of Duke responded by intentionally bumping the player and then made a fist as if to throw a punch, the FSU player walked away, and the refs called a double technical. Since T's are personal fouls, it was the 5th foul on the FSU player and he fouled out of the game. Again he made no effort to retaliate to Williams clear attempt to escalate the situation, he got a T for walking away.

And the game essentially ended when a driving shot by FSU was "blocked" out of bounds by Williams of Duke. There were 2 possible calls, foul on Williams, or out of bounds on Williams(if the block was clean), but the ref chose the hidden option 3, no foul on Williams, give the ball to Duke. Even Jay Bilas concedes it was FSU's ball.

Apparently the ACC is so fed up with all the accusations of favoritism for Duke, they suspended the crew to make a statement that they're not behind it.

Point being as big as sports is, the reality is people are human and it's not impossible that people may have a bias.

 

[Bobcat]

For all you conspiracy theorists out there... don't you think it would have been a better story to actually have the Seahawks take their first title? I mean a newcomer slaying the 4 time championship organization?

Not in the eyes of the EASTERN controlled NFL. It is always better to have one of their teams win any Super Bowl. Only San Fran would get the Eastern NFL treatment.

The east cost teams stop at St. L., but add Denver and San Fran to the list of teams that get favorable treatment.

Bobcat

 

[clif]

no it doesn't ... that call is rarely (if ever) made on an Int runback .. it is more common on ST

it is general for any type of return and if a guy is going to cut a defensiveman on a return, it isn't going to be a QB going after a bigger guy

and the fact the guy made the tackle shows that obviously wasn't what he was doing

seriously think about it

"you took out a guy without the ball below the knees"

"actually I didn't hit that guy and ended up making a tackle on the ball carrier"

"nope - you clearly didn't make the tackle - the guy magically fell down and you hit a guy without the ball"

I agree with you in what happened, but the Ref made the call off of what he saw or thought he saw. it was a bad call, but that was only made known after looking at the replay.. which the refs can't do for plays like that.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

were you here after the dallas game?!

Ah, I totally forgot about that. But you won't find me blaming the refs on that game. Dallas won because they were adequate and we played absolutely horrible that game much like how Pittsburgh won yesterday.

Not to say Seattle played bad but they just had way too many brain farts to win that game.

 

[ajcardfan]

Not in the eyes of the EASTERN controlled NFL. It is always better to have one of their teams win any Super Bowl. Only San Fran would get the Eastern NFL treatment.

The east cost teams stop at St. L., but add Denver and San Fran to the list of teams that get favorable treatment.

Bobcat

Pittsburgh has a national following and the most mythologized dynasty of any team. I agree with Russ, subconciously, the refs are just like everyone else. They expect the "name" team to win and make plays, so it affects some calls. It happens every game, but in really close games it stands out.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

but common since would indicate that if a guy made the tackle he wasn't cutting a blocker

especially a QB

basic nature would be to not throw that flag

how can you see a penalty in that instance to even throw a flag?!

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Pittsburgh has a national following and the most mythologized dynasty of any team. I agree with Russ, subconciously, the refs are just like everyone else. They expect the "name" team to win and make plays, so it affects some calls. It happens every game, but in really close games it stands out.

But doesn't it all even out in the end? Hell, for all the stuff I read on this board about the refs hate the Cardinals I seem remember the Miami game in 2004 when the refs essentially handed us a win.

 

[ajcardfan]

But doesn't it all even out in the end? Hell, for all the stuff I read on this board about the refs hate the Cardinals I seem remember the Miami game in 2004 when the refs essentially handed us a win.

Every dog has their day, but over time, the "name" teams get more breaks. For even stronger examples, look at the NBA, the worst officiated of all leagues. When you play the top teams, it's like you walk onto the floor before tipoff with three team fouls already. When the Bulls and Lakers were at the top, it was pretty absurd.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

no, no it doesn't all even out ... i used to think it did, but over the past 5 years i just can no longer believe that

too many bizarre circumstances in big games

 

[blindseyed]

Let's just hope the refs don't do us like that in the Super Bowl next year!!!

..........................

 

[Russ Smith]

Pittsburgh has a national following and the most mythologized dynasty of any team. I agree with Russ, subconciously, the refs are just like everyone else. They expect the "name" team to win and make plays, so it affects some calls. It happens every game, but in really close games it stands out.

yep, that's my take on what happens, we expect a certain outcome and make assumptions within the game based on that expectation.

To continue on a tangent I saw a stat today that shows that Duke on average this year is shooting 15 more FT's than their opponent in games decided by 6 points or less. That's pretty hard to fathom, generally as the margin increases, the trailing team starts fouling and you get those wide final disparities that gets everyone mad. "of course we lost by 15 they shot 20 more FT's than we did."

But for some reason with Duke the closer the game, the wider the free throw disparity.
Eventually you come to the conclusion that Duke is so well coached, and has so much talent, that refs just start assuming they are being fouled, or are not fouling. So the expectation of who's going to win, is actually influencing the way the game is being called.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Every dog has their day, but over time, the "name" teams get more breaks. For even stronger examples, look at the NBA, the worst officiated of all leagues. When you play the top teams, it's like you walk onto the floor before tipoff with three team fouls already. When the Bulls and Lakers were at the top, it was pretty absurd.

I don't know. You could just as easily argue that good teams are more prone to getting calls because they're better at working the officials or selling calls or being in the right position to avoid infractions as you could your name recognition theory. As Russ mentioned, in college basketball I think Duke (like other top programs) get a lot of calls but I think that has more to do with Coach K brilliantly working the refs and the influence from the Cameron crowd than it does some complicated conspiracy theory to keep Duke in the Top 5.

 

[Evil Ash]

Oy the topic that just will not go away. Were there a few calls that were incorrectly called? Yes. Did it cost them the game? No

The 2 biggest blown calls were the pass Int on the Seattle WR (and the fact he fully extended his arm in plain sight didn't help his case, IMO if he only partially puts his arm out and pushes off its never called) and the poor intrpretation of Hasselback's tackle. The TD run was questionable but since it was truely borderline and there was no horsecollar tackle (a horsecollar tackle is clearly defined as grabbing by the collar and then whipping to take out their legs, which did not happen)

If you rely on the refs, you already lost the game. Period. The end. Seattle lost this game by blowing chances that they had and clock management issues not the refs and some grand conspiracy theory.