Merlot said:
Don't forget the Seahawks were robbed of two touchdowns by atrocious game-killing phantom penalties in your gift 5th Super Bowl victory. You should be celebrating not WHINING about all the times the Patriots ran over your team to win their CHAMPIONSHIPS.
It was despicable, and deserves some sort of punitive action by the league. I have rarely seen anything so far beyond respectable play and so totally unnecessary. Just despicable!
The Harrison run and interception was incredible. But the player who turned it into a touchdown wasn't one of the 22 legitimately in the play. ESPN ran a the film of the touchdown run several times showing some fool Cardinal, not in the game getting in the way of Larry Fitzgerald, one of two eventual tacklers. Instead of being well back from the sideline this Cardinal was right up on it and Fitzgerald ran right into him, giving Harrison about an extra 5 yards to run. Had the fool been back with every other Cardinal not in the play there would have been no touchdown...the key to the Steeler's momentum, and obviously the points needed to win.
THE REAL MVP:
In my view, it was Roethlisberger. How did Santonio Holmes get the ball...Roelisberger got it there. Yeah, that sounds trite. But for most of the game, and nearly every play of the last drive, Roethlisberger had to make fantastic escapes and throws throughout the game against a surprisingly hard charging Cardinals defense. I will never call him one of the greatest quarterbacks.
Merlot
Interesting analysis, but I have watched the 05 Superbowl many times, and the officiating was not great, but not the difference in the game, despite what Holmgren thinks.
Perhaps I am annoyed that the Faketriots won a few Superbowls through the Steelers and Heinz Field, especially when the other coach was filming the signals, the walk throughs, maybe practices of opponents, c'mon now, that is really shady, Its worse than PEDs, stickum, or any on-field cheating, Bellichek stole the answers to all of the tests, thats the key to his success, he was no genius in Cleveland, or NY, in fact he was reviled. Players are coming forward with observations like the Pats DEF was in their huddle and knew every call. What has his weeble wobble coordinating tandem done since they left NE Pats, hmmmm.... Crennel ran the Browns back into the ground, while Weiss has embarassed the once proudest football school in the world, you know, those guys were so used to just having the opponents game plan handed to them before the game, that they spent all their time at the pre-game spread.
Back to defending my current Steelers, I have not noticed the interference with Fitzgerald yet, nor have I seen the "cheapshot" since.... I will examine the game when I get back to Montreal, where it should be safely DVRed. (as i am writing this, saw the replay, no interference, sorry dude)
Perhaps Ben deserved MVP, not sure who decides that, Holmes had a great game, made extremely important catches all night, and had one called back, either guy could have won it, Harrison also a candidate in my opinion. Remember Harrison won the NFL MVP Award, a guy from Kent, cut 3 times by the Steelers, is now the owner of sacks in a season for the steelers at 16, thats huge if you have any clue how many supremely gifted linebackers have been through Pittsburgh. Lambert, Ham, LLoyd, Greene, Porter, Kirkland, Bell... so many I cant remember, and now this guy is immortalized like Franco and Lynn. The best backer in the league made the biggest play at the biggest moment.
OK, now I am serious, Ben is not just among the elite QBs, he is the best QB in the league right now, yeah Brees or Gayton Manning might have more yards, all of which come on the golf course in the post season, whatever, the position is about winning, and that is all this kid has done since 2004, Ben does NOT have a weakness, he is even fast, and is usually around 2nd in the league in rush yrds for QB, he may have the strongest arm in the NFL, he is a modern day John Elway, throws on the run the exact same way, and now owns as many rings (for now). Brady or P manning cant throw on the run. believe it or not, Ben reminds me of Doug Flutie at times, I wish Flutie would have had his shot at starting in the NFL 10-15 consecutive seasons, he probably would have won a ring. Most importantly, he has the respect of his teammates more than most, the combo of Rooney - Tomlin - Lebeau - Ward - Roethlisberger - Polamalu - Harrison - forms the best team in the league, and "maybe" the best in history considering the 08 Steeler schedule was the most difficult in NFL history!, that is a fact.
