So Was it a Steelers Conspiracy or Not?

The Steelers sure have been involved with some interesting finishes this year. Going back to their regular season game with the Chargers, a last-second play to end the game that would have resulted in the Steelers winning 17-10 and covering the spread wound up being overturned. I’m guessing it’s no coincidence that the Steelers also happened to be favored by 5.5 points in that game. And back in Super Bowl 40, before this glorious site was up and running, it seemed to me (and many others) that the Steelers got away with lots of calls while the Seahawks got screwed. In Super Bowl 43, the story wasn’t much different. The end total shows Arizona’s penalty yards almost doubling Pittsburgh’s — 7 for 56 by the Steelers, 11 for 106 by the Cardinals. I agree that Arizona committed more penalties than Pittsburgh, but I’d really like to have some answers to a few questions.

Let’s start with the Santonio Holmes touchdown celebration. As I showed in the post, Holmes used the ball as a prop in his LeBron-like celebration. Jeff pointed out in the comments that such a celebration deserves a 15-yard penalty. Why wasn’t it called? And how about the Karlos Dansby roughing the passer penalty for 15 yards? Didn’t that seem questionable considering it was borderline part of the game rather than a blatantly late hit? Putting those two aside, the most egregious error by the officials came at the end of the game. How was the “fumble” by Kurt Warner not reviewed in the final seconds of the game? The probability that they would have scored in the final play is unlikely, but hey, isn’t that where we got the name “Hail Mary” from? That just didn’t seem like the right way for things to end.

The refs have a lot of pressure on them and record-breaking television audiences watching every moment of the game, so it’s hard for them to work flawlessly without some criticism. In large part I’m guessing they did a good job. I’m not going to blame refs for the Steelers winning, but I’m really wondering how the Holmes penalty wasn’t called and why the fumble wasn’t reviewed. Someone has to ‘splain me that one.