Super Bowl XLIII Running Thread

Good one.

We'll see.

 

All that says is that 85 percent of this board is wrong.

 

Oh, that was part of his argument. That there was no way MLB or US TV could put up with a Canadian team in the WS THREE years in a row.

 

I have no idea why the NFL would want the Steelers to win, but this is pretty damning:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28971640/

 

How exactly is that damning? Because the Cardinals decided to whine about it?

 

It's damning because the Cardinals had averaged 42 yards of penalties a game all season and then suddenly were rung up for 106 yards Sunday.

 

Lego your ego, huh?

 

Come one Gola, how's that really damning, if, you know, the penalties are legit? Which, they pretty much seemed to be. I wouldn't have flagged Danby for roughing, but there's been a lot of times I wouldn't have flagged someone for roughing where they damn well get flagged anyway. The two other PFs were legit. And it's not the refs fault that the Cardinals LT had to tackle his man on every other play.
There were times for both teams I went "man, don't call that a penalty!" I didn't really have a dog in the fight. Really just rooting for a good game. Though the game was called tight but fair.
(Oh, and that Roethlisberger non-TD wasn't really as obvious as people seem to be making it out to be in hindsight. At full speed, all I was yelling was that the guard shouldn't be allowed to drag him into the end zone (something that never gets called for any team ever), not that it wasn't a TD.)
Anyway, moral of the story: tight but fair.

 

Ooooooooooooooooook.
Wouldn't that be part of the novelty? A team who'd never been there?

 

Amazing how quickly holding penalties can pile up when you're trying to stop Harrison and Woodley on the edges. Three alone were on Gandy -- two when he tried to slow down Harrison.

 

That's it? Sometimes against tougher competition, teams take more penalties. Sometimes they make more mistakes because they are on the bigger stage. Also, if I remember correctly, these particular officials are known for calling a tight game.

The Steelers made uncharacteristic mistakes Sunday as well, but more of them showed up in missed tackles and defenders out of position. Credit the Cardinals for that and credit the Steelers for forcing them into taking penalties they might not normally take.

Three of those penalties for 30 yards were a direct result of the Cardinals' inability to block James Harrison. The chop block, good for another 15 yards, was caused by a blitz that led to two linebackers coming free up the middle at the snap.

There were a couple of shaky calls. The defensive holding wasn't wrong, but they probably should have let it go. The roughing the passer call for hitting Roethlisberger in the back was kind of weak, too, but they have been calling that too closely all season. Good luck ever finding a perfectly officiated football game.

If you want to argue specific calls, that's one thing. But to just look at the yardage total? Not nearly enough to be "damning."

Sorry, Angola. I just don't think you would even be raising an eyebrow at this if it wasn't for your feelings regarding Super Bowl XL.

edit: Please also see amreader's post.

 

Yeah, but that's a bit skewed by the fact they were penalized for just 2 yards against Phi.
Seven times they were penalized for at least 60 yards in a game.
Five times they had 10 or more penalties.
Once they topped 100 penalty yards.
(All these numbers are regular season.)
@NYJ -- 11-71
DAL -- 12-70
@CAR -- 7-60
Minn -- 5-60
@SLR -- 10-69
SF -- 10-71
@SEA -- 8-52 (notable because SEA was only penalized once).
SEA -- 10-100
So, it's really not THAT far out of the ordinary for them.
And, it's theoretically possible for a team in its first Super Bowl will be nervous and more likely to commit more penalties than usual AND/OR they're playing against better competition than they usually do, so they're more likely to commit penalties, but I don't have any evidence to back that up.