Add another to the

tally!
Here then is one that will confuse a buckeyeboy.
I am
perfectly content that the Steelers won the Super Bowl. I also happen to be a Bengals fan.
I am also quite certain that calls were blown in that game.
Am I paid to reach that conclusion? Hell no. But, I don't believe everything I read, especially when it contradicts the evidence I saw (again and again) in that game with my own eyes.
By the way - if anyone bothered to read the NFL release they do admit that the last of the popularly listed 4 blown calls was "erroneous," which is a quarter word for WRONG. Which means the call was blown.
Also, 4 calls is not all others have listed - just the most make or break of them.
And it had a huge impact on the game.
One call that clearly appeared erroneous came after that penalty, when Hasselbeck threw an interception to Pittsburgh's
Ike Taylor, then made the tackle but was called for a block below the waist, giving the Steelers an extra 15 yards. They scored soon afterward on a pass from
Antwaan Randle El to
Hines Ward. Replays showed Hasselbeck never made contact with the player he was supposed to have hit illegally, instead going straight to Taylor to make the tackle.
The interesting thing is the wording of the NFL on the 3rd of the 4 calls ...
A holding call on
Sean Locklear in the fourth quarter: Locklear's penalty erased an 18-yard completion from
Matt Hasselbeck to
Jerramy Stevens to the Pittsburgh 1 that would have put the Seahawks in position to go ahead 17-14 with around 12 minutes left.
It was a close call that was difficult to see on replay.
That is definitely CYA language. Holding is easily the most obvious thing to see on replay, especially with the multiple camera angles found at the Super Bowl. If it were there, it would have been seen. How often have you seen a scoring run or passing play and declared "they're holding"? But that holding wasn't called - yet obvious on replay.
Conversely, describing a called hold "difficult to see on replay" is double talk for something that did not happen, in other words - a blown call.
As for the other two calls out of the infamous four, I think I've stated before that in my opinion Ben gets the ball over the plane of the goal-line, so to me that replay and question is moot.
The push-off call was ticky-tack, whether it should be a no-call as Holmgren pleaded is an entirely different matter, but it was not a huge PI push.
What surprises me is that the one disputable call, subject to replay, that went against the Steelers is not included in a group of questionable calls. I am talking of the fumble by Hasselbeck which was overturned, because he was "touched" and hence - despite still being in forward motion beyond the small love tap, and not yet down - the on-the-field call of a fumble was over-turned. That IMO was also a blown call.
But I guess the winners have no public gripe after winning the big prize, so we will hear little or nothing on that score from Da Burg.