Sunday, February 1, 2009

Well, I Was Wrong

I thought that the underdog Arizona Cardinals would be able to pull this one out. At the end though, the refs helped give the Pittsburgh Steelers their 6th Super Bowl victory, setting a new record for titles.

It wasn't that the Cardinals didn't go all out to try and get it done. They came back from 13 down to take a 3 point lead with less than 3 minutes to play. But Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes helped lead the Steelers downfield to get the go ahead touchdown with under 40 seconds to go. Or did they?

While I don't have the same great technology at home that the officiating crew does in the stadium, I have to honestly say that Holmes did not make that catch inbounds. Did he get one foot down? Yes, but it looks like the second foot was on the bottom of his first foot and never actually touched down inbounds. Could the Steelers still have scored there? Possibly, after all it would have only been third down. But there is a chance that the Cardinals hold them to a field goal also. If that was the only problem in the last 3 minutes it would be one thing. That wasn't the case.

On the ensuing Cardinals drive, Kurt Warner was dancing around, trying to find an open man and in while stepping forward, Warner was hit from behind by a Steeler lineman, as his arm was going forward. The refs rule it a fumble, the second time they had done so this game against Warner, but this time it was during the final 2 minutes of the game and so the review would have to be initiated by the booth. And despite it being the biggest game of the season, they didn't bother to review, at all. I'm not sure why that is, but they decided that it wasn't worth it. I'm not sure how one comes to that conclusion, but they did.

So congrats to the Steelers for winning the Super Bowl, even if you could have easily had lost it if the refs had actually watched the game.

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