I am going with the Steelers in a nail biter. I'll go 24-17

Seahawks over Steelers by 28-24.

 

 

I'm going with my heart instead of my head, though, since one of my ex-teammates from HS is a punt returner for the Seahawks.

Steelers in what will probably be a really flipping great game.

 

I'm predicting 31-28.

Steelers for me. 28-24 sounds about right.

Pittsburgh's pretty much a ghost town, everyone who had the means to is in Detroit it seems.

 

Seattle is probably going to have a hard time against the 3-4 since they rarely see it, and when they have it caused them problems.

 

It's going to come down to who makes the fewest mistakes. If Ben keeps playing like he's been, and the D keeps playing like they've been, the Steelers will win. If they jump out to an early lead, you might as well print up your Super Bowl T-shirts since the Steelers with an early lead are like a Rottweiler with a soup bone.

 

I know everyone not in Pittsburgh is probably sick of hearing about it, but you can't overlook how much this team wants to send Bettis off with a championship. Seeing Hines Ward in tears after last year's AFC championship loss because he failed to get Bettis to the Super Bowl speaks more about the character of the team than anything else. Ben made a promise to him, give me one more year and I will get you home for the Super Bowl. Both sides lived up to their end of the deal so far.

 

My prediction is Steelers 28-20.

Overlooking the #1 team in the NFC shall bite everyone in the ass.

Overlooking the #1 team in the NFC shall bite everyone in the ass.

The Seahawks have not impressed me all season -- I don't think they'll start today.

Seahawks 31-17 in a game that doesn't prove to be as close as everybody thinks.

This matchup reminds me of the 1995 NBA playoffs. On one side, you had the #6 seed (the Rockets) who had to go through the top 3 teams in the West. On the other side, you had the #1 seed of the East who had a a relatively easy path to take to reach the Finals (Orlando Magic). The Rockets won.

 

History repeats itself. The Steelers win.

Steelers 27-24

Steelers 31-24

 

There's going to be so many Steeler fans in Detroit it isn't even funny. Seattle impressed me a bit against Carolina, but you have to remember they were down to using the waterboy for RB and Delhomme kept thinking he could throw to Steve Smith despite being covered by 20 guys.

 

Steelers jump to a 21-7 lead, Seattle makes a brief comeback in the 3rd, but Pittsburgh puts them away for good.

I'd say that I want those four hours of my life back, but I really can't think of anything better I could have done tonight. What a piss poor performance by Seattle. You move the ball well to start, don't allow Pittsburgh a 1st down until halfway through the 2nd....and you STILL trail at halftime 7-3. Top that with one of the worst 4th quarter performances I've ever seen in Matt Hasselbeck (some of those throws were horrid), the fucking Rolling Stones at halftime (I watched Yes Dear on TBS instead) and a whole slew of mediocre commercials (Pizza Hut spent $2 mil AND whatever they paid Jessica Simpson for THAT?)

 

Ugh, hopefully the Pats get back in next year if only for the fact that they play entertaining Bowls.

Holmgren has got to stop calling plays, what the hell was that shit during their last possession? Any moron could have made better play calling and clock management.

Hasselbeck was also making a ton of piss poor decisions on that last drive as well. Why go to Stevens on the outside for 4-5 yards and hope he makes it out of bounds?

I don't really watch football, but I'm not wrong in thinking that Seattle had entirely too many questionable calls go against them in big situations, am I?

I don't really watch football, but I'm not wrong in thinking that Seattle had entirely too many questionable calls go against them in big situations, am I?

Well, the first TD that was called back for offensive PI was very ticky-tacky.. it really could have gone either way. I've heard good arguements from both sides to be honest. The BenRo diving TD was complete crap and I WANTED the Steelers to win. It's nothing new, though -- the officiating has been SHIT this entire NFL season to be honest.

This is probably the only time in the 26 Superbowls (I missed 1989 SF vs. Cin II) that I felt sorry for the losing team. Seattle had a great season and will probably be back next year. Pittsburgh wasn't supposed to be there, beat three teams which it wasn't supposed to beat and Jerome Bettis had a chance to end his career with a Superbowl ring. It's not surprising that the Steelers received most of the coverage.

Not to mention that the Steelers already had 4 championships.. of course, people wanted the Steelers to win and the media was for the Steelers. Does it justify the refs making horrible calls? Not in the least, but I also don't think the game was 'fixed' or anything like that.

I don't really watch football, but I'm not wrong in thinking that Seattle had entirely too many questionable calls go against them in big situations, am I?

Well, the first TD that was called back for offensive PI was very ticky-tacky.. it really could have gone either way. I've heard good arguements from both sides to be honest. The BenRo diving TD was complete crap and I WANTED the Steelers to win. It's nothing new, though -- the officiating has been SHIT this entire NFL season to be honest.

It was a touchdown. We TIVo'd the shit out of that call.

 

If you look, when Big Ben was in the air, the ball clearly crosssed the white line. When he got hit in mid air, he tucked the ball as he was coming down but the ball had already crossed the plane.

 

And if you can agree with the argument for the Pass Interference then it is pass interference.

 

The bad calls include the Hasselback (sic?) tackle after the INT and the TD that they called the ball was incomplete. It is true that he doid not have his 2nd foot down before he went out of bounds but he had already crossed the goal. Sucks for him.

 

Fuck it! Go Steelers!

 

Now, am I wrong or did Holmgren snub Cowher at mid-field?

I would have been more surprised if there was no bad calls since the playoffs have had horrible officiating in every game. Lest we forget the refs did everything but throw blocks to try to help the Colts win against the Steelers. Honestly, I thought the pass interference call was techinically correct but not shit you call in the Super Bowl. I also think that Ben's TD did break the plane of the goal line by the nose, and at the very least there wasn't enough replay evidence to overturn the call.

 

Man, it's almost surreal watching the Steelers celebrate a Super Bowl win. I was born the summer between the third and fourth Bowl wins, and I have no memory of the 70s Steelers in their prime. I remember watching a broke down Terry Bradshaw running for his life and Jack Lambert limping off the field in his last game, but the 70s Steelers have become almost mythical figures in this town. Stories are passed down from father to son about the greatest team ever to play the game of football, and the tales have become cherished parts of family lore. Everyone who saw it remembers fondly the sight of Art Rooney Sr, probably the most beloved man in Pittsburgh history, finally handed his first Super Bowl trophy at age 74. There wasn't a dry eye in the city that day.

 

I never really understood that, since the last time the Steelers won a championship I was about one and a half years old wearing a Steeler helmet in my crib (and my mom still has the photo evidence). Today, I watched as Art's son Dan Rooney was handed his first Super Bowl trophy at the age of 74, and I finally understood. Seeing the joy on the faces of Bill Cowher, the team, the people celebrating on the South Side of Pittsburgh in the middle of a mini snowstorm is something I'll never forget. I remember the Pens winning their Stanley Cups, and we all had a good time, but this is the Super Bowl. This is the Steelers. This is Pittsburgh.

 

I guess a lot of people will cry foul about the officiating, or about the Jesus Push the Steelers got from the media leading up to the game, but there's more important things I'll be remembering: Hines Ward in tears after last year's AFC title loss. The people doubting the Steelers would even make the playoffs when they were 7-5. The Tackle. Beating the top three seeds in the AFC on the road. The Bus coming home. What I'll really remember is driving home from my fiancee's house and seeing people lined on almost every street in the snow waving their Terrible Towels for passing cars to honk their horns at.

 

Today I let my first passion become influenced by my second, as I lay my Towel on the floor and drop to my knees since the Boyhood Dream Has Been Achived.

I don't know if that picture of Cowher and Holmgren was taken before or after the game. If it was before, I am almost positive that Holmgren snubbed Bill because he was out at mid-field forever waiting to shake the loser's hand.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl

I would've snubbed him. Then again, I'm a bitter, sore loser.

It's a shame that an event I've been waiting for my entire life is probably doomed to be overshadowed by people whining over bad officiating.

 

I mean, yeah it sucks, but I'm getting tired of hearing how the refs cost Seattle the game when the announcers spent the end of the first half and the beginning of the second trying to figure out what the fuck Holmgren was doing. I guess the refs must of hid Seattle's playbook too. Let's not forget his Martz-ian clock management at the end of the game too.

 

If you watch enough football, you realize that for every bad call that goes against your team, they'll probably be one in favor. The football gods tend to balance things out over the course of the season. I know that might make me sound like a hypocrite in light of my complaint about the game vs the Colts, but considering the NFL had to make a rare admission of fault I feel that's justified.

 

It's funny after hearing how well mannered and civilized Seattle fans are to see what poor losers a lot of them ended up being. It's one thing to be upset over losing, whining that the refs cost you the game is just sour grapes.

I don't really watch football, but I'm not wrong in thinking that Seattle had entirely too many questionable calls go against them in big situations, am I?

If you are referring to the Big Ben TD, I think that was the right call. It appeared that the ball had crossed the plane, and then on his way to the ground, a Seahawk pushed his arm with the ball back a good half yard. Plus, on replay there was no definitive evidence that the ball never crossed the plane, so good call. And Hasselback's fumble was overturned, IIRC, so I don't see where all these questionable calls are coming from. I heard some other people talking about this elsewhere. The problem was that Holmgren was so caught up in the Ben TD, that he let that weigh too much on his mind during the end of the second half. You hear him in that interview? After his team blew it with two minutes left in half, all he had to say was that he still thought Ben didn't have a TD. Get over it and play fucking football.

Instant replay is becoming such a crutch for the refs these days. You know they were depending on a Seattle challenge when Hasselbeck was completely on the ground and the ball popped out. Not that I'm surprised. A poorly officiated Super Bowl to cap off an absolutely disgraceful playoffs.

 

Though I've about had it with Super Bowls. This game clocked in at 4 hours and 5 minutes. The halftime shows are getting longer every year and it won't be long until those are an hour. Plus stop with the 2 weeks already. It messes with the teams and they don't play as well.