Super Bowl XL: NOT One for the Ages

Defying my expectations, the great game I expected from this match-up never materialized. Neither team played well.

For all intents and purposes, the game turned on three big plays for Pittsburgh. The wounded duck Hines Ward caught near the goalline late in the first half. To his credit, Ward fought off Seattle Safety Michael Boulware for the ball. In my opinion, Boulware should have extended and batted it down rather than initially going for the interception.

Pittsburgh's second big play was Parker's long-TD run. It involved a great play call and another boner by Boulware. Pittsburgh caught Seattle in a nickel with the DBs loaded to Pittsburgh's left. They ran right and the blockers all did great work of picking up their assignments. This should then leave Parker one-on-one with the safety for whom their is no blocker. That was Boulware. The replays showed he simply ran himself out of the play. There was no head fake by Parker; just a huge whole where Boulware should have been. Parker does have underappreciated speed and he made Seattle pay.

The third play, of course, was the reverse option to Randle El on which he completed the touchdown pass to Ward. It's a paly that Pittsburgh has run before and Seattle knew it was coming somewhere in the game. The timing of the play call and the execution were excellent.

Seattle, for their part, never broke out of their funk. There were dropped passes, missed field goals, horrible punting and horrendous clock management at the end of both halves.

The Seahawks were also hampered by poor officiating. The calls that were particularly egregious were: (1) the offensive pass interference against Jackson in the end zone that negated a touchdown (if you want to know what offensive pass interference truly looks like, you just needed to see, Hines Ward, on a 3rd and 4, put his left arm & shoulder into a Seahawk defender, gave him a real shove and then turn right to make a first-down catch ... but there was no call there), (2) the holding call on Locks that negated a first-down catch by Stevens at the one or two (the replay showed not only the lack of holding but that the Pittsburgh defender was offsides), and (3) the personal foul on Haselbeck for the great tackle he made after throwing an interception (that's one of the most bizaree calls I've ever seen).

And there was more ... as Kevin Hench at Fox Sports details. The calls probably cost the 'Hawks, at least, 14 points. This may not have changed the game as those points would have necessarily caused Pittsbiurgh to play differently. Yet, they certainly robbed the fans of the exciting game that should have occurred.

Combined with the horrible officiating throughout the playoffs, the bad officiating in the Super Bowl should be a wake up call to the NFL that they really need to clean house and get some competent officials. Can Mike Carey be cloned about 15 times or was Bush against that in the State of the Union?

Finally, I'd also like to see Michaels & Madden put out to pasture. On the Hasselbeck fumble, that was correctly overturned on replay, we had to listen to Michaels bizarre commentary about Hasselbeck being down when his elbow hit the turf. In fact, he was down when his knee hit well before his elbow. It made me wonder what sport Michaels has been watching for the last few decades?

But Madden out did Michaels when, covering for another ref boner, he claimed Roethlisberger had not committed a penalty by calling a TO after the playclock went to "0". Madden bogusly claimed that it is "0" ... then a "beat" ... only then a penalty. Wow. In effect, Madden rewrote the rule book. A new playclock that runs to "-1" now needs to be installed. Bizarre.

UPDATE: More on the Refs hack-job from the Kansas City Star.