Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
If you are saying they screwed up you have to give more reasons than, "I just did not like that call." Or "They should have called this a foul." Peace
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Here ya go. These are facts:
AZ had to use 2 challenges to correct mistakes on the field. The first ruled fumble by Warner was obviously not. Not ruling it an incomplete pass was an error that had to be corrected by challenge. The other with the spot was tougher, but the first one ruled a fumble was a kicked call.
The final play, no matter if the end result was right or wrong, should have been reviewed. How they allowed Pitt to line up and take a knee without review is inexcusable. The impact was too great to let stand without review. Since it was less than 2 mins, it was up to the officials to decide to review. They blew it.
The no call on the celebration was a kicked call no matter what. That's 15 yards and a huge no call based on the resulting field position and the time remaining in the game.
The rest were judgement. The roughing on Ben was weak. Based on his scrambling, how could that be roughing. Still, was likely within the rules and a defendable call. The holding on Warner on the return was more than someone has said. The Pitt player grabbed Warner's jersey on the shoulder and pulled to take him out of the play. No other contact, just the reach out, grab, and jerk. To me that's holding but easy to miss in a play of that type. Not sure Kurt would have made a play anyway, so yes, either a missed call or another judgement call that went the other way. The PF on Harrison resulted in zero penalty. The punted ball was downed on the one without any penalty. Because they always start on a yardline, this resulted in zero penalty assessed to Pitt. I have no idea of when he hit the person he was blocking in relation to if the ball was kicked or not so whether it should have been an automatic first down or not is not clear. Don't think it was flagrant and defintiely should not have resulted in an ejection.
More than the officiating, what stood out to me most yesterday was that Pitt is not longer the team I remember or used to admire. I used to like Pitt. I met Lynn Swann at the Superstars competition in Florida back in the 70's as a kid and always rooted them as "my" afc team, until now that is. I always looked at them as "old school" type, expecially with Cowher as coach. After yesterday, they are just another bunch of it's "all about me" players. The celebrating (I thought it was shaking salt into the wound at the time, still don't know what the LeBron tribute is?), the cheap shot by Harrison hitting the guy on the ground, them not acknowledging the other team for putting up a great fight (nope not one of the 3 I saw, Tomlin, Ben, or Holmes) in their post game interviews. I guess I'm just getting to old and not a targeted audience anymore. Everyone else but me must like the celebrating. Why else would Chad OCHO Johnson be talked about on Sundays? Me, I miss the Barry Sanders who whenever he scored, he would celebrate by handing the ball to the umpire.
Too Old to Change,
Roger