I've long since resolved myself to the fact that the officiating in the Super Bowl "was what it was", and no amount of whining and moaning about it will affect the official outcome. That being said, I cannot stop thinking about the big game, because the Seahawks played well enough to win, but still came up short.
Now the purpose of this post is NOT to start another diatribe on the inept officiating. As a matter of fact, I don't want anyone to mention calls that were made, or those that weren't, in this little adventure.
Instead, I'd like to play a little "what if" game.
If you could change ONE play of the Super Bowl, and hope that it would affect the final outcome, which would it be?
Would it be stopping "Fast" Willie Parker for a short gain, instead of giving up a 75 yard TD to open the second half? Would it be D.J. Hackett catching the ball on the rebound, to make up for the Offensive Pass Interference called on DJack a few plays earlier? Would it be DJack dragging his second foot instead of stepping out of bounds after hitting the pylong? How about Josh Brown hitting one of his field goal attempts?
I'll put my "wish" in the Comments to start the ball rolling.
Maybe this will generate a little activity on The Street while we're all waiting for the first shoe to drop in free agency.
For my money, if we could have ONE play back, it would be the interception that Matt threw deep in the Pittsburgh end, after the holding call on Sean Locklear.
ReplyDeleteAt that point, the score was 14-10, so even a Josh Brown chip shot would have tighten the score.
Add to that the fact that if Matt doesn't throw that pick, then he doesn't pick up the 15 yard chop block penatly either, which doesn't put Pittsburgh in between the 40s, where they love to pull their trick play bullshit, meaning no MVP for Hines Ward.
Also, even if we still lost the game, getting points on the board from that drive would have silenced the critics that "the Seahawks couldn't play through the adversity."
In the realm of literature, that interception was the climax of the plot, and everything that happened afterwards was just the ending of the story.
Runner up wishes would be for Michael Boulware to bat away that completion on 3rd-and-28, or for Manuel and Tubbs not to pull up lame, so we could have had some run defense in the second half.
Remember, not a word about officiating, or your comment will be removed!
Jerramy Stevens catch. I would have had Locklear play it differently, so that it was inscrutiable. If that play goes forward, the momentum is all on our side and the Hawks can cruise into the endzone for the lead. That would pump up our defense as well. Could have turned the game around. As it was, it seemed to deflate the Hawks completely.
ReplyDeletePosted by PaulieP
As you can see from my post, I agree with you Paulie. We needed to put points on the board from that drive. I forgot to mention that it was started from DEEP in our own end too, which made coming up empty even that much more frustrating. (for fear of having this comment removed, I cannot mention WHY we had to start deep in our own end!)
ReplyDeleteAlso, on our last drive of the game, I would have liked to see them kick the field goal, to make it 21-13, and then try an on-side kick and hail mary, with a two-point chaser, to try to tie the score up. It would have been better than the flaccid way we ended the game.
Posted by alba
I agree strongly with that. We definitely should have kicked the FG. Truth be told, that's one of the biggest problems I had with the game, Holmgren's uncharacteristic loss of composure. He has yelled and screamed before, but very rarely has he let something that's out of his control affect his play calling and his clock management. Very disappointing.
ReplyDeletePosted by PaulieP
same goes for the end of the first half too.
ReplyDeletePosted by alba
Jeremy catching his first ball which would have led to him having the confindence to tear up the defense that day.
ReplyDeletePosted by jeffjohn
If I were Josh Brown, I'd send my game check to Joey Porter. Thanks to Porter picking a fight with Stevens before the game, nobody is focusing on Brown missing 2 FGs, and everyone is pointing at Stevens' drops, even though he DID catch the only TD in the game, and DID make a VERY DIFFICULT catch at the end of the game, albiet nullified by the (no comment) holding call on Locklear.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to tell if just making that first catch would be enough for him to hold onto the other two balls, as he was BLASTED by Steeler defenders on each of them.
Posted by alba
Ugh, under the rules of this, I cannot comment what i want to say
ReplyDeleteOne play back...hmm there are several, including the opening kickoff considering i waste my time thinking Seattle had a fair chance...erm, not that im insinuating anything
ok seriously...whichever play Manual was injured...Pittsburgh did absolutely nothing until he went down, and then somewhat took advantage (really still did nothing)...thats the #1 play for me, that im ALLOWED TO SAY...
hard to say, but honestly, Pittsburgh didnt do enough (and by that, i mean they did absolutely NOTHING) to make me want a play back...it was played the way i wanted it played (with exception to drop passes)...but ummm...hey, the NFL got to show its 'stripes', huh?
I have to agree with ADP. We played well enough to win that game. I don't want a play back. What I want is for our franchise to start getting enough respect so that I don't have to hear from the morons "The NFL won't question the officials because it was just Seattle" or "No one cares about the Seahawks."
ReplyDeleteWarning: regionalized vent coming up
Listen Jack, outside of Chicago, no one gives two cents about the Bears. Outside of St. Louis, no one cares about the Rams. It doesn't matter whose in the game, if its the playoffs, it shouldn't matter if the teams involved have national appeal, the quality of the game should stilll matter. And I care about this past game not just because my team was involved, but also because I care about the league.
In summary: I wish for respect. Even the Super Bowl hasn't gained us acceptence on the national scene.
Posted by Alan
First i wanna say thanks alba for posting a new topic i knew i could count on u being the attention whore you are. This is a good topic by the way.
ReplyDeleteThe play that i would change is for Jeremy Stevens to catch any of those balls that he dropped that would have been first downs. Any of them i won't care which one just catch one of those first downs and we would have momentum.That night it felt that Stevens dropped a million passes.
After the superbowl i'm with Joey Porter Stevens is soft.
#2 is the 3 & 28 play somebody should have broken that up.
#3 is the trick play they ran, we should have been prepared done something to stop it.
P.S u called D.J Hacket, D.J Parker in the original post.
Posted by meezy
Hey Allen I agree with u completely. Never had respect, went to the superbowl still didn't get respect. Media hates us, nation hates us. Oh welll I got used to it.
ReplyDeleteBet money when preseason picks come around some stupid analyst will say u know of the superbowl curse Seattle will not make the playoffs.
Posted by meezy
I'm with Meezy, it was Stevens' drops, all three were drive stoppers.
ReplyDeletePosted by Vin
That's a perfect example of Stevens getting murdered just because Joey Porter put an idea in everyone's heads. Nobody mentions the amazingly tough catch he made at the end of the game, in traffic while getting popped, because it was nullified by the Locklear ..ahem...holding call.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the catch in the opening post, Meeze, I'll correct that straight away.
Posted by alba
I don't think that it's a sign of disrespect that the "experts" would pin Seattle for the "Superbowl Curse". They've pinned everyone for it, and I would be willing to be that had New England made it to the big game, they'd even question the beloved Patriots in that respect. I think the disrespect card, while still valid, is much less valid than it used to be.
ReplyDeletePosted by PaulieP
We overplay the disrespect card too, and I'll bet it changes somewhat now that we've made it into the "been to a Super Bowl" club.
ReplyDeleteI'm already seeing more Seahawks clips on national commercials, like the Reebok Apparel one they play over and over again on NFL Network.
Granted, we don't get the exposure of Manning, Chad or Tiki, but we've got the proverbial "foot in the door".
Once we break the curse of the Superbowl Loser, by making the playoffs in 2006 and returning to the big dance, we'll garner even more respect.
(I said garner...mmmm...Jennifer Garner!)
Posted by alba
Tie:
ReplyDelete-Manuel getting injured. If he's healthy, Etric Freaking Pruitt isn't on the field for the Parker TD or the Ward TD. Not that Manuel is an All-Pro (see 3rd and 28), but he can at least play.
-3rd and 28. What a backbreaker. That's when we lost the lead despite dominating the first half.
I'm not going to say Hass's INT, because I think it never happens if either of those earlier events never happen.
Posted by Uff
3rd-and-28...man that was hard to take.
ReplyDeleteOn replay, Boulware is SOOOO CLOSE to batting that ball away, or even picking it off. If he had just gone through the receiver, rather than trying to do either, he may have jarred it loose, but we'll never know.
I'm sure the words "same old seahawks" started echoing in some of the guys heads after that play. It was SOOOO 2004.
Posted by alba