NFL Regular Season 2008

[Jesse James]

Yeah there's already some griping over Holmes' catch...  I don't know why though really.  This is like the ball crossing the plain thing...  His toes dragged, both were down (the right ones were even bent from the turf), so that's a catch baby!

It was pretty nuts and I had to get up early so I rushed home from my gf's place to go to bed.  I missed most of the commotion on the news.  Nothing major went on, some small fires set to couches and stuff in Oakland where all the colleges are...  A group of kids there got arrested for attempting to turn a car over, but beyond that nothing really happened.  They shut off streets at strategic points all over the city to control chaos.

It was pretty neat though and orderly as the celebrating went on.  Now they're gonna do something for when the team's back but I'm hearing budget issues may keep any "celebration" to a minimum.

Still, fantastic game, and while it wasn't the margin of victory I hoped for, it made a fantastic game.  The three top plays of the game were Fitz's splitting the field, Harrison's TD, and of course the final drive by the Steelers.  That proved Roethlisberger's greatness IMO...  He gets a lotta **** around the league, but that drive defined him IMO, and Holmes just shined as a star WR at the end.

As a fan, I'm just giddy right now.   And now that I'm home I can actually watch the celebratingfrom last night and watch the news and things.  Yay.

[JediJman]

It may not have made a difference, but I think that was a bad call at the end of the game.  It should've been ruled an incomplete pass.  I doubt the Cardinals could pull anything off with only 5 seconds left, but still.

It was an exciting game and a fun one to watch.

AMEN.  I'm not going to rant over the officiating...well, yes I am.  I think the Cards got a raw deal between the Harrison TD at the end of the first half and the Warner "fumble" at the end of the game.  They sure took their sweet time making sure Harrison's TD was legit, but the angle on the TV looked to me like his knee was down before crossing the line.  It also looked to me like Warner's arm was moving forward on that last play, but no review at all?  For something that close at the end of the biggest game of the year? 

Anyone can say that the Steelers would have gotten another play and scored at the end of the half anyway (despite a number of strong Arizona goal line stands) and likewise, maybe the Cardinals wouldn't have done anything with one more play and 5 seconds on the clock, but who knows?  Maybe I'm biased because I wanted the Cards to win, but a little more even play calling would have been nice.  All in all, at least it was a really close, exciting finish.

Put all that aside though - the real injustice in the game was the call on that classless thug Harrison.  Shoving a guy, holding him down, clearly punching him in the back, shoving him down with a hit to the throat, then shoving him down AGAIN.  Madden was right - he should have been ejected.  Instead the Steelers get penalized what, a yard?  Say what you want about guys like C. Johnson, T. Owens, or R. Moss - I'd rather have a dozen guys like that on my team before I'd take a dirty cheating piece of **** like Harrison. 

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Stealers.

[P-Siddy]

I have a question about some rules that I think are inconsistent with the NFL. I'd like to hear some thoughts as to what you all think and maybe I'll understand it better. The 3 scenarios all have to do with ball/feet in regards to the endzone (yes, one of these will have the example of the Steelers/Ravens game).

1. Two feet need to be inbounds in the endzone for a complete pass for six points (I can agree with that). Yet, does the ball (arms extended) have to be inbounds?
2. The ball must break the plane of the endzone to score six points. Okay, but what if the players feet and 95% of his body are in the endzone, but with arms extended to where the ball doesn't break the plane?
3. During a punt, the kicking team tries to down the ball at the one yardline. While trying to do so, a players body is in the endzone while in contact with the ball, hence a touchback... So if his feet are in the endzone, but the ball hasn't broken the plane, it's still a touchback, yet if it were him trying to score, it isn't a touchdown??

These are a bit confusing to me.

[Jesse James]

Wow, spoken like a bitter Seahawks fan if I didn't know better.

Nothing was stolen...  Holmes' feet were in bounds, Warner's arm hadn't moved forward, and only did so after the ball was knocked loose, blah blah blah...  I'm not going to argue the points because I think bias is in all of them to either side.  Harrison's hits were dumb, without a doubt...  I dunnoa bout ejection-worthy though.  Did you see the scrums throughout the game?  Did you see guys hitting people who came off the field into their sidelines?  I did...  I didn't complain about it.  This was a chippy and ugly game, and that's on BOTH sides.  I think the officials took that into account and didn't want to decide the game by tossing a player out on either side.  I think there were times the refs did let that stuff get out of hand. 

He got a penalty...  We were in such **** field position at that point, it didn't matter, but that's the rule.  A guy ran our holder over without even remotely trying to stop, and even pushed him down as he went over him....  That was pretty blatantly ugly...  He got a penalty for that too, and I considered it a pretty equally dick maneuver.

Did Harrison "cheat"?  I don't think that's fair in the slightest...  Pummeling someone isn't cheating, it's unsportsmanlike, but not "cheating".  It's football in a game where hard-nosed football was taking a spotlight.  Like I said, scrums were getting out of hand all over the place with pushing, punching, and other stuff...  That's football to me though I guess...  I see that every year in the NFL.  At the end of the day Harrison's a leader on his team, an inspiration to the men he takes the field with, and he helps make a winner with his intensity...  I'll change my tune on him when he starts making a spectacle of himself and bad mouthing his coaches, his owners, his teammates, and his city/fans.   Yes, my stance hasn't changed on TO and that argument.

Vlad, to your Q's...

The way I understand it, the ball must break the plane (Not cross it completely, where there's confusion I think) if it's being carried into the endzone...  If it's being passed to a player in the endzone already, he must have control of the ball and both feet must touch inside the endzone.

In your second scenario you're saying like a running back is taking it into the endzone backwards and for whatever reason his arms are extended OUTSIDE the endzone, right?  Like he's going into the endzone ass first...  I'm not sure if they don't consider that a possibility, or if they just would review it and the same rule would apply that the ball would have to break the plane, rather than the player's whole body be inside the endzone with control (IE: It goes to the "receiver" rule). 

Anyway, where I felt the officiating failed in the game was with holding...  The officials were 50/50 with calling it, and that hampers how the game ultimately gets played by the players.  It sends mixed signals when you're calling one little hold here, and missing a big one there.  That was overall too, not just for/against the Steelers or Cards...  It really was bad calls on the "little" stuff that sets the pace of the game.  I would prefer a game be called the way it's meant to be and I don't dig "putting the whistles away".  There was some of that, but when you thought  that was the way it was going to be, you'd see blatant holds on the replays that there's no way the refs missed them all.  Eh, whatever though.

I'm just ecstatic to be a Steeler fan with a championship team again.  I went most of my life never (remembering anyway) a Steeler championship, and now I've seen two pretty close together, and with some really insanely great players too...  I feel blessed considering how bad things were for most of my childhood watching them.  I thought they were going to have an uphill climb this season too, and they did, but they really turned out to be a special group of players, and Tomlin just kicks much ass as a coach.  I love his demeanor on and off the field.  I'm not venturing down to the parade tomorrow, it's gonna be nuts I'm sure, but man I bet it'll be fun!

[GrandMoffNick]

First I want to say I didn't care who won the Super Bowl. I was glad it was a good game.

Second..... THE STEELERS WON THE GAME AND ARE THE CHAMPIONS.

The refs didn't blow it for the Cardinals. The Cardinals didn't get a raw deal. All the touchdowns were touchdowns. People's feet were down, Harrison was in, whether Harrison is cheap or not didn't affect the game, the Warnere fumbles/incomplete passes were too close to say they were wrong either way.

The Steelers have 6 championships and the Cardinals have none and that isn't going to change nor should it.

[Jesse James]

These pics were on Yahoo! today for the big parade downtown.  They estimated 350,000 to 450,000 people went downtown for the parade today too.  For Pittsburgh that's a pretty insane ammount of people to pack into downtown...  Harrison cruised down the parade route with the trophy.  Pollamalu crowd surfed.  Fantastic day, and it snowed in true Pittsburgh football fashion to boot.

I took my terrible towel to work on Saturday and hooked it on my left window while I did the route.  Got a couple honks and cheers, haha.

By the way, I love Casey Hampton...



This guy came to camp all fat and out of shape, and sad...  And he winds up a Super Bowl champ being all fat and stuff, but man he can clog all the running lanes up the middle.  Fantastic!    He's funny too...

They asked the Steelers their favorite Christmas Memory back during the holidays, and Hampton said he remembered how every year he got a new bike, and every year his bike got stolen the next week.  The reporter said, "that seems like a bad memory though", and Hampton said Christmas was great, you got a bike...  It was the week after that sucked. 

Great story.

[JediJman]

First I want to say I didn't care who won the Super Bowl. I was glad it was a good game.

Second..... THE STEELERS WON THE GAME AND ARE THE CHAMPIONS.

Agree.

The refs didn't blow it for the Cardinals. The Cardinals didn't get a raw deal. All the touchdowns were touchdowns. People's feet were down, Harrison was in, whether Harrison is cheap or not didn't affect the game, the Warnere fumbles/incomplete passes were too close to say they were wrong either way.

Don't agree.

Just because it's in the record books doesn't mean it was right.  There's a lot of chatter online that Harrison's cheap shot happened before any Cardinals touched the punt, which means that penalty should have given the Cardinals a first down.  Should this call and the interception return and the incomplete pass all have gone against the Cardinals if they were "too close to say they were wrong either way?"  If that's really what you think, then the refs did blow it for the Cardinals because they could have just as easily called any one of these in Arizona's favor and we'd likely have a different SB champ right now.

I get that it's all said and done and not going to change, but that doesn't mean it's right.  Just like Harrison's behavior wasn't right.  JJ - you can talk all you want about other fights on the field - do a quick search on google or youtube and you'll find Harrison's beat down far outweighs anything else that happened in that game.  Find me anything else comparable to that play on the Cardinals behalf...

[Jesse James]

Like I said...  They ran our snap holder over.  It was an equally dickhole move, plus it could've hurt someone.  The guy even pushed him into the turf on his way over top of him, complete bull****.  Could it not be that, because they focused on Harrison on TV and Madden even added his own comments on the matter though, that that is possibly why google and youtube anti-Steelers fans are focusing on that?  When our snap holder got run down, all it got was, "oh yeah that was bad" remark (general paraphrase) from the commentators, but it was no less intentional and ugly.

It is what it is though...  Like I said, I felt the holding calls were the worse thing all night, and that went both ways.  I saw holding called on both teams, and I saw it ignored on both teams, and holding more directly impacts the game play itself.  But it didn't all get called...  A lot of Steelers fans thought Ben's called back TD was legit and we didn't get it...  I thought it was, then I wasn't sure...  it was close too, and it got called Arizona's way...  Isn't that the way the game goes?  The post-game bitch-fest seems equally to go with the game anymore too, every year.  Oh well.

Anyway though, the celebration in the city continues all week...  Casey Hampton rented out a club and everyone was invited to come party with the Steelers tonight.  If I had the time I think I'd have gone just for the experience of hanging at the club with them being actually somewhat accessible...  I've been out where they go before and talked with some players but generally they're not available.  Now they're wanting to just hang with the crowd and that's cool.  I guess more is going on all week but I doubt I get down to anything.

This is a way cooler win than 40 for some reason, and just feels more like the city is excited on a whole new level.  Maybe it's the bad times we're in economically (though Pitt's largely been spared) and people are just enjoying it that much more?  It's been fun to celebrate though and just have fun enjoying the moment.  It makes ya appreciate the good times.

[Matt_Fury]

I don't think it was an equivalent thing Jesse.  Not saying it should not have been a penalty, but I think forward momentum had a lot to do with him hitting the ball holder.

Same with the ruffing the passer call when that one guy hit Rothlesberger...momentum took him into the QB, it gets called as a penalty, but it's not like the guy can stop his momentum like that.

[GrandMoffNick]

Don't agree.

Just because it's in the record books doesn't mean it was right.  There's a lot of chatter online that Harrison's cheap shot happened before any Cardinals touched the punt, which means that penalty should have given the Cardinals a first down.  Should this call and the interception return and the incomplete pass all have gone against the Cardinals if they were "too close to say they were wrong either way?"  If that's really what you think, then the refs did blow it for the Cardinals because they could have just as easily called any one of these in Arizona's favor and we'd likely have a different SB champ right now.

There is a HUGE difference between the refs blowing it for the team and the calls not going their way. I'm done with this arguement. I don't really care who won and the Steelers did. I get so sick of there never being a sporting event where someone who wanted one team to win blaming it on the refs that they didn't. There is a difference between totally blowing a call and maybe missing it and if you go back and look at that in every game you can maybe change the outcome in a lot of them.

Finally....... GO PATRIOTS VS. VIKINGS SUPER BOWL NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!

[JediJman]

GO PATRIOTS VS. VIKINGS SUPER BOWL NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!

A Patriot and Vikings fan - no wonder you don't want to talk any more about football!   

Like I said before, my real issue with the game was Harrison's behavior.  I don't buy the argument that there was anything similar on anyone else's behalf in that game.  It's a rough sport and people get hurt, but that was an intentional beat down unlike anything else I saw from any team all year.  The excuse that similar things were happening all over and the TV just didn't catch it doesn't fly with me.  As long as Harrison is on that team, the only difference between the Steelers and the Raiders is a few shiny cups in the trophy case.

[Jesse James]

I agree on the Roethlisberger call Matt, and like I said I think the whole Roughing the Passer penalty is wishy washy.  The Steelers got burned all season long on those penalties, and I'd say 75% of them were pure bull**** where a passer got tapped, didn't fall or barely moved, and there was a huge penalty for it.  I think it's a bad rule that needs some looking at and changing.

The roughing the place holder though, the guy didn't make an effort to stop, at all.  Momentum had 0 to do with it when he didn't make any effort and was well away from the ball being kicked.  That, is just unsportsmanlike play...  I went to Youtube to see what all the commotion was about.  THere was lone post of the Harrison bitch slap, and 50% of the people said he was a jerk, and 50% of the people said the guy he was slapping was chop blocking him and lifted his arm up into his crotch at the 1:09 mark (equally dickhole move, I think it was hard to tell that though but his arm did go up some).  Few, if anyone, said he actually deserved to get thrown out.  Even people who felt it was bad, didn't say he needed thrown out.    Hardly a "big stink" was being made...  Harrison got his penalty, it got assessed but thanks to the awesome special teams that Arizona sent down field they negated it basically.  To me, the play was 100% spot-on to what it needed to be, just like the rest of the game.

I still say the roughing the holder call was just as bad, but it didn't deserve anyone being thrown out, not at all.  It deserved the penalty it got though, just like Harrison's.  The roughing the holder call though was made worse not by the fact he made contact, but by the fact he pushed the guy down into the ground as he went over him without making any effort to stop.  That's where it became a blatant foul and pretty classless move.

As far as things happening "all ove rthe field", even Michaels and Madden said, "the game's getting very chippy"...  Listen to your own Youtube example Justin, hah!  They even acknowledged that this was getting out of hand, that's why they said that.  Whatever though dude, I somehow get the sneaking suspicion that you would've made this argument even if the game was called beautifully 100% and there wasn't a gripe on the field, so don't worry, I'm not taking much serious here.

[CHEWIE]

The whole game was decided on the Harrison TD at the end of the first half...  If the Cardinals just manage a FG there, they win. Hell, if Fitzgerald just makes the tackle at the half inch line they'd have won.

Yep, and a damn great game that could have gone either way.  Very entertaining. 

The end result was a letdown for me, but I still really enjoyed it and was happy that Arizona proved they could play with anyone and gave the Steelers as tough of a time as one could. 

[JediJman]

I agree on the Roethlisberger call Matt, and like I said I think the whole Roughing the Passer penalty is wishy washy.  The Steelers got burned all season long on those penalties, and I'd say 75% of them were pure bull**** where a passer got tapped, didn't fall or barely moved, and there was a huge penalty for it.  I think it's a bad rule that needs some looking at and changing.

The roughing the place holder though, the guy didn't make an effort to stop, at all.  Momentum had 0 to do with it when he didn't make any effort and was well away from the ball being kicked.  That, is just unsportsmanlike play...  I went to Youtube to see what all the commotion was about.  THere was lone post of the Harrison bitch slap, and 50% of the people said he was a jerk, and 50% of the people said the guy he was slapping was chop blocking him and lifted his arm up into his crotch at the 1:09 mark (equally dickhole move, I think it was hard to tell that though but his arm did go up some).  Few, if anyone, said he actually deserved to get thrown out.  Even people who felt it was bad, didn't say he needed thrown out.    Hardly a "big stink" was being made...  Harrison got his penalty, it got assessed but thanks to the awesome special teams that Arizona sent down field they negated it basically.  To me, the play was 100% spot-on to what it needed to be, just like the rest of the game.

I still say the roughing the holder call was just as bad, but it didn't deserve anyone being thrown out, not at all.  It deserved the penalty it got though, just like Harrison's.  The roughing the holder call though was made worse not by the fact he made contact, but by the fact he pushed the guy down into the ground as he went over him without making any effort to stop.  That's where it became a blatant foul and pretty classless move.

As far as things happening "all ove rthe field", even Michaels and Madden said, "the game's getting very chippy"...  Listen to your own Youtube example Justin, hah!  They even acknowledged that this was getting out of hand, that's why they said that.  Whatever though dude, I somehow get the sneaking suspicion that you would've made this argument even if the game was called beautifully 100% and there wasn't a gripe on the field, so don't worry, I'm not taking much serious here.

Okay be serious.  Do a search on Youtube for Harrison Super Bowl and tell me what you find.  The #1 response is this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AIF_ucHzbIk

The guys who comment on Youtube videos are mostly idiots, but they also mostly agree that this was a dirty play.  I couldn't find anything on the place holder, but if you have video showing that a cardinal purposely attacked a Steeler in the game similar to this, I would love to see it.  If not, stop bringing up a play that no one recalls or seems to agree with.  M&M saying the game is getting "chippy" is not evidence that Cardinals plays were punching other players in the kidneys.  Get real.  Watch the video of Harrison again and tell me that you don't think he should have been thrown out.  Then go back and read your comments about the importance of behaving morally in team sports and tell me how you wouldn't dare have Owens on your team, but Harrison is okay.

We're not talking about how the refs called any other game than the super bowl, so what's your point about 75% of calls in the regular season?  That has no bearing on the point of the discussion and your 75% estimate is ridiculously subjective anyway.  Just like your 50% YouTube assessment of responses.  Don't throw stats around if you can't back them up because that's just flat out lying. 

And if you've read any of my posts, you'd know that I would have been just fine with the refs calls if they had been more even.  Heck, if Harrison had been thrown out and they actually took the time to review Warner's forward pass, and the Steelers still won, I'd be singing their praises.  Being a Packer fan, I think I'm a little more objective about the results than you might be, but that's just my guess.     On the flip side, I seriously doubt that you would have rolled over and said "Oh well, good game Cardinals. Well played" if the situation was completely reversed. 

[Matt]

Congrats, Jesse!