Well you’re certainly entitled to your opinion Dana. On the pass interference the defenseman was actually holding the recievers arms, which caused him to push away. Thats what the call should have been, defensive holding, not pushing off. The touchdown should have been good.

The reason that it was offensive pass interference was that the push off allowed the receiver to gain separation, which enabled him to catch the pass.

On Rothlisberger’s touchdown, the ball just barely broke the plane of the goal while he was in the air, just as he was getting hit and driven back. That one was very close, it looked to me like it was a touchdown, but having been ruled a touchdown on the field, the replay evidence would have had to have been indisputable to overturn the call.

Remember: the holding call (and I’ll admit that I didn’t see that one, either) was made (meaning: the referee threw the flag) before the catch; the referee isn’t in any position to see the action down the field.

That aside, it was not the officials fault that Hasselback decided to channel Donnavan McNabb in his clock management at the end of both halves.

Please, give at least half of the credit for that to Mike Holmgren. And the clock management at the end of teh second half was worse than it was at the end of the first half.

- On the tochdown, even Rothlesberger knew he was short. Thats why he brought the ball up from below his waist and trust it over the goal line. Another obvious call the line judge was just chicken to call properly.

Thats a 14 point turn around. A hell of a lot to overcome in a championship game. But the effect is even worse in demoralizing the team.

There was yet another call with the Seahawks catch on the 1 yard line where they were threatening to take the lead. Suddenly theres a holding call. Even Madden was embarrassed and said something to the effect he was watching the line carefully and reviewing the play and didn’t see any holding in the line. Everyone whos followed Pro football for a lot of years and attended countless games like I have knows the refs could call holding on every play. When they do it on key plays in a championship game they’re deciding the outcome, not the teams. You can pretty that up anyway you like but everyone in the NFL knows thats true. Its just one of the things thats ruined the game I used to love and enjoy so much.

- As far as the poor clock management, I would bet that by that point they were pretty upset and not concentrating since they already knew they’d been had….

You get a feel for the tempo of the day early in any game if the refs get out of the way and let the teams play. I would “out” this sort of junk if it were reversed and the Steelers were getting “managed” just as loudly. In fact they have on occassion, when they were playing the one time absolute media darlings, Dallas, SF, or the Raiders…..Now that they get everything they want – mainly key advertising time outs – not so much media involvement anymore….now its just the betting line that drives the end result….

The calls that you didn’t like (the offensive pass interference and Rothlesberger’s touchdown) were good calls.

The MVP award should have gone to the Steelers’ defense — the entire defense!

- Bang

Sadly, my ‘Hawks are now falling far behind.

C’mon people…Steelers.