Posted By:
Tim Newcomb--My hopes died with Carolina's--
but I was amazed at how one-sided the officiating seemed. I'm glad others saw it too. I'm no conspiracy theorist either-- it just seemed like the refs were itching to call anything they could against Seattle, and they did it at all the worst times.
Sure, one (ridiculous) flag was picked up in the first half, and the Hasselbeck "fumble" was reversed in the booth, but the initial calls on the field were ALL going Pitt's way. The two most damaging--Jackson's "pushoff" and the 2nd half holding call--were both awful. And what was that Personal Foul call against Hasselbeck when he made the tackle?? Meanwhile, the flagrant horse collar of Alexander goes unnoticed??
However, I can't bleed too much for Seattle because they were unbelievably bad late in each half-- (was Hasselbeck audibling ineptly or were those really Mike Holmgren's playcalls??). Playing that badly at crunch time, they didn't deserve to win. I just wish they had been given a fair chance by the refs.
Congrats to all the Steeler rooters-- that's a really great franchise!
Tim