Patriots 2005 Season Discussion

I don't know if I'd call it an "unimpressive win". I thought that the defensive effort by both teams, with the obvious exception of Seattle towards the end of the game, made it a battle. Both teams came up with a huge INT to keep the game close and neither team allowed a 1st down in the entire first half! As for the officiating... you're never going to get a perfect game there either. The keeper that Rothlesberger tried to push into the endzone didn't look like it crossed the line but since there wasn't a good view to overturn the call on the field it had to be called a TD. The game was in Seattle's hands but like the WR's did all night the team dropped the ball. 2 Missed FG's and bad clock management were also part of the downfall that brought Seattle back down to Earth.

Either way congrats to Pittsburgh! Even though it was the Steelers that won I'm the kinda guy that roots for the team with that veteran player that just wants to get a ring before he goes. So for that reason I'm glad (in secret of course ) that the Steelers won so a guy like Bettis can finally call it a career and do so going out as a champ .

IMO the game was absolutely brutal. The official capped off a horendous playoffs by turning in without question the WORST called game in SB history. Just brutal. Now I'm not saying that Seattle should have won, they didn't deserve to. But for the officials to at least influence who was going to win the game is not acceptable. The NFL really needs to examine the who process in the offseason.

That game could very well go down as one of the most dreadfully boring SB games ever. Pittsburgh did barely enough to win the game. Roethlisberger did nothing last night. He had a rating of around 22.9 has to be a record low for a SB winning QB. Bettis did less than nothing and after shooting his mouth off for a week, Joey Porter did a fantastic impersonation of a guy not showing up for the big game. Mr Polamalu was another no-show on the Steelers defense as well.

Seattle was even worse. They had to have known early on that they needed to play a near perfect game due to the developing pattern of calls by the officials. Even knowing this they still played horribly in every aspect. Alexander had over 90 yards rushing but seemed invisible. Hasslebeck was the victim of some poor decisions as well as a fleet of receivers who couldn't hold onto the ball if their life depended on it. The punter failed to grasp the whole "corner kick" concept of his position by putting 4 punts into the end zone. Add to that Holmgren getting rattled by Little Ben's BS touchdown run and failing his team miserably, and you get a giant wasted opportunity by Seattle.

It was a pretty sad display when the best QB on the field last night was the one flipping the coin at the begining.

As for Tom Rouen, the Seattle punter, the reason for him putting 4 balls in the end zone, as Boomer Esiason (a man whose opinions on all things football I greatly respect) said on the radio broadcast, was to keep it away from Antwaan Randle El, a very dangerous return man; the Seahawks I'm sure would've rather had the Steelers start on their 20 than have Randle El break a big one (which he did anyway on a punt that started deeper in the Seahawks' own territory).

Possibly, but corner kicks would have eliminated the possibility of a return. Either he catches it heading in the wrong direction or it goes out of bounds without him even catching it.

Final aside...the NFC won the Pro Bowl in Hawaii last night in one of the lowest-scoring Pro Bowls that I can remember (23-17). Peyton Manning threw 3 picks, and another pick thrown by Trent Green was returned by Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks 59 yards for a score. Of course, it should be said that we didn't care about this game, b/c the two Patriots that were supposed to be in it, Tom Brady and Richard Seymour, withdrew from the game with various injuries (though it would be hard to tell Brady had an injury, as he was crushing 250+ yard drives at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament).