The refs may or may not have robbed the Seahawks of a Super Bowl victory, but they surely robbed football fans of what could have been a very exciting, competitive game with several lead changes and ending in a tie. If just two critical calls, among several which almost everyone agrees were egregiously bad, if these calls were never made, the game would likely have ended in a 21-21 tie and continued into overtime.
The first was the ticky-tack call that nullified Darryl Jackson’s touchdown catch in the first half; the second was the holding call against Sean Locklear in the second half that nullified a Jerramy Stevens’ catch on the two-yard line. There’s a third bad call we’ll concede to Pittsburgh–the Rothlisberger bootleg touchdown, which even he didn’t believe was a touchdown. But let’s assume that the call stands or that the Steelers punch it in on fourth down– the two teams would have finished the half tied 7-7.
In the second half the Steelers come out roaring with Parker’s 75 yard run and go up 14-7. Seattle comes back with the touchdown pass to Jerramy Stevens that did count and which would now tie the game at 14. And then if we assume that the refs don’t make the call on the non-existent hold by Sean Locklear, Stevens’ catch on the two-yard line stands, Alexander, the record holder for most TDs in a season, almost certainly runs it in for a touchdown, and the Hawks go up 21-14.
Then the Steelers come back with their gadget reverse pass play to Hines Ward to tie the game. Think how much more that would have meant in that situation. It would have been a great moment for all football fans, not just Steeler fans. In the game as it was played, that play was just the nail in the coffin for the Seahawks. The game just petered out after that. But if that play were the one that tied the game for the Steelers, the momentum may have carried the Steelers on to an OT win–or not–but either way it would have been a far more compelling game.
Two bad calls made the difference between our watching a forgetable game that was sloppy and full of mistakes on both sides rather than a game that could have been riveting and exciting to the end–we’d never remember the mistakes. It also makes the difference between our remembering Jerramy Stevens as a hero or a goat. He dropped some passes, but the two he caught would have been remembered as keys to the game. We’re not talking today about the balls that Hines Ward dropped in the first half for one reason: the Steelers won. If the Hawks won, Stevens might have been the MVP and Rothlisberger or Ward the goats. That’s how thin the line is here.
Bottom line: The refs didn’t steal the game from the Seahawks; they stole it from everybody.
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