Super Bowl postmortem from Steve Czaban.

ABOVE: For what it’s worth, here’s a screen shot of Ben Rothlisberger’s disputed touchdown in the Super Bowl. From this clip, yeah, it sorta does look like the ball has “grazed the endzone” and should be a touchdown. But it’s hardly conclusive. Had the call on the field been “NO touchdown” would you advocate overturning that on such slim evidence. Not me. (From czabe.com)


Mr. Czaban is my favorite sports-talk radio host. (Nothing personal, Steve, but that's not saying a whole lot.) He's on Fox Sports Radio from 6AM to 9AM Eastern. If your local Fox affiliate has some Morning Zoo morons in that time slot instead of Czabe and the boys, give 'em a call.

Anyway, Czaban wrapped up the Steelers' Super Bowl XL victory better than anyone I know. This is from his blog The Daily Czabe:

Hail to the Steelers! True champions, in every sense of the word. Think about how HARD it is, to go down at home in the AFC Championship game a year ago, and then somehow summon the strength to return all the way and get it done the next year. It’s the hardest thing in sports, and easily the most under-rated. Teams and players of weak character, allow crushing defeats to crush them. They crumble, and are often not heard from for years.

Not the Steelers. I like stories like theirs. It’s what sports should be all about.

I am thrilled for Bill Cowher. Every hater out there now can just shut the hell up. He goes from being a Steeler fan’s muttered lament (nice coachin’ Cowhah!) to a near lock for the Hall of Fame. He’ll coach in Pittsburgh until HE’S tired of doing it, and for no other reason. That might just be 20-plus years, completely unheard of in the “modern” era.

He outcoached Holmgren badly. He did so with his team not playing particularly well. While a Seahawk fan might gripe that the Steelers only really made 3 big plays (Ben’s floater to Ward, Parker’s run, and the Randle El lightning bolt) the fact remains that you still have to coach through all that. Too many times I saw Holmgren with a face that appeared as if he just swallowed a box of tacks. Hardly confidence inspiring.
Here’s what confuses me. Does Mike Holmgren understand the nature of time? No really. I mean that. Even Al Michaels understood that you kick the field goal at the 26 with :38 seconds to go!

I don’t care if you are scared off by Brown’s two misses, the bottom line is that he’s gotta make that one, or the “next” one if you score and make the 2 pointer.

SO F’ING KICK IT, YOU CLOWN!

But you saw what happened next. Total, utter, coaching choke job by the jolly fat man. Wait… I’m not done!

The Seahawks have the ball on 4th and 13 with 6:10 go. They are down 11. That means if they PUNT, they need a STOP and two scores. If they go for it and miss, they need: (try to follow me) a STOP and two scores. So, if allowing a 1st down is 99% lethal, then it doesn’t matter if you stop them at midfield or at their own 20. Then, when Pittsburgh got the 1st down, Seattle let almost 40 seconds run off the clock. Hello! Once time is gone, it’s gone! So why (if you know that you MUST burn all of your timeouts on defense) don’t you use them IMMEDIATELY and not let time burn off? If on the next play the Steelers cough it up, you would then have the benefit of those 40 seconds you just watched slip away. Plus, if they had not waited AGAIN on using their LAST timeout, they would have probably taken over just BEFORE the 2:00 warning, instead of after.


But before I’m done here, let’s give some credit to Seattle. Here’s what did not go their way on Sunday.

- They committed three total defensive breakdowns, two for TDs of 43 and 75 yards, another for a 1st and goal on a 3rd and 28.

- They lost 3 starters on defense: Marquan Manuel, Andre Dyson, and Rocky Bernard.

- They had a touchdown AND a 1st and goal at the one taken away from them on two utterly fictitious calls.

- They endured the WORST clock management since the Bush administration in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

- Their kicker missed two field goals indoors on turf.


And yet, and YET, it was a 14-10 game with Seattle driving in the 4th. That my friends, is a very good team, that simply didn’t have it today. And what makes the Steelers worthy champions, is that they did a few less stupid things than Seattle. That might not be poetic, but that’s how games in the NFL are won. Not just in September. But all the way into February.


MORE NOTES….How karmically obvious was it that Jeramy Stevens would end up looking like a complete DONKEY in this game? Figures that a guy like him running his ‘hole, would drop more balls than Nathan Lane with the fellas at the health club. And maybe I missed him, but where was Joey Porter all night? Uh huh. Three tackles, only two of which legal.

The horrible offensive pass-interference call that took the Darrell Jackson touchdown off the board had to have Seattle fans feeling like David Stern was calling the shots on this one. The very marginal holding call on the big Warrick return didn’t help either. Once again, explain to me why pass interference should NOT be included as a “reviewable” play? And don’t say that it would slow the game to a crawl. It wouldn’t. You still only get two challenges per game. So it doesn’t matter what you look at. And unlike many other calls, P.I. benefits the MOST from a microscopic review of what actually happened.

And then you had the Big Ben NON-touchdown where instant replay again failed miserably. Not only that, but the linesman mysteriously changes his call in mid-stride to the spot. Mighty fishy.

Okay, here’s why I am now starting to reverse my previous disclaimer that I could NO WAY become an adequate NFL play-caller with at least one full immersive year of training. Could the Steelers have used play-action any WORSE than they did in the first half. Example: Jerome Bettis gets a couple yards, but offensive P.I. makes it 2nd and 18. Bettis stays in (why?) and they PLAY ACTION to him on 2nd and freaking 18! Not only that, but it’s a LAZY sell by Big Ben. No shock, Seattle isn’t fooled a bit, and then sack him for 3rd and 28. Then, on the goal line, EVERYBODY KNOWS BETTIS IS GOING TO GET THE BALL!!! So what does every good playcaller do in that spot: do exactly what everyone knows will happen, of course! Why cross people up with some crisp PLAY-ACTION there? Sheesh. Gimme that laminated play-sheet back. I’d do just fine.



There will be talk about the refs, you can bet that much. It’s the way sports works these days. And yeah, it smelled a bit musty. Every time there seemed to be a big call to setback a team, it was against Seattle.

Offensive pass interference takes away TD.

Ben Rothlisberger TD allowed despite replay.

Holding call on big Peter Warrick return.

Terrible holding call on Stevens pass to 1 yard line.

No call of Porter horse-collar. Would have been a huge bailout personal foul 1st down.

Brutal personal foul call against Hasselback who actually made a clean tackle.

Even the Hassebeck non-fumble, it was as if the refs WANTED it to be a fumble.

Big Ben calls time out with play clock at zero, they give him timeout anyway.


Make no mistake. The Steelers deserved to win. But on the whole, it will go down as one of the crappiest officiated Super Bowls that DEFINITELY fell in favor of one team.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Al Michaels is without a doubt, the most over-rated (and overpaid) football play-by-play man ever. What you’ll notice with old “over-under Al” is that he FAILS on so many occasions to lend the right amount of excited inflection to big plays. To wit, when Peter Warrick looks like he’s going to break a punt return for a TD, all Michaels can provide is a flat, monotone “here’s… Warrick.. with… a seam…”. Listen and watch critically, and I think you too will notice this gaping flaw in how Michaels calls games. And don’t get me started on how overhyped John Madden is. One of the first 5 plays of the game, the Hall of Fame analyst incorrectly confuses Mack Strong as a slot receiver. Instead it’s wideout Bobby Engram. About 23 million male football fans immediately knew he was wrong while sitting thousands of miles away from their couch.

On the other hand, the one really fun thing about an Al Michaels game, is figuring out which team he’s got a five-figure wager on. And it ain’t hard. In fact, I would be willing to wager $10,000 of my own money (no lie!) that Al was on the Seahawks +4. Here’s why.

1. As soon as Big Ben appears stopped, Al’s voice starts rising in a near panic. Its almost like he’s worried the booth man won’t replay it, since it’s his call under 2:00. Clue #1.

2. When Holmgren is butchering the end of half timeout usage, once again the tone in Al’s normally tranquil voice starts to simply reek with indignance. Translation: this IDIOT is costing me money!

3. At 14-3, Michaels starts ticking down all the misfortunes that have befallen the Seahawks. All the bad calls, injuries, missed field goals and long passes that almost were complete. A textbook gambler’s lament. Translation: it’s not ME, I made the right play. These idiots are just throwing the game away/are getting screwed.

4. On the touchdown that makes it 14-10, ONLY Al Michaels could dare to bring up (with 7+ minutes left in the 3rd quarter!) a notion that Seattle MIGHT have gone for 2 instead of the XP! Ha! Sounds like a guy who is afraid that the “number” is stuck on four, and not in his favor, and will say or think anything to knock it off that number!


On the commercial front, you knew that the creative agency for Bud Light was going to come strong. And as usual, they kicked off the ad blitz with a solidly funny “hidden Bud Lights” spot. Most of their other spots, were good for a strong chuckle, if not outright laugh. The “fixing the roof” excuse spot was also great. But as soon as I saw the FedEx caveman spot, I said: “Okay, hand ‘em the trophy. Nothing will top that one.” Here’s why. Caveman jokes + office satire + special effects + cool dinosaurs = you win.