Three drives inside the 9er 10… and they score all of 3 points?
Two drives… 33 plays for 160 yards… 0 points. Unreal.
2.
Comrade Jake
You could always watch PajamasTV instead. After all, who could pass up the opportunity to watch Malkin and Reynolds discuss whether or not Obama is a third Bush term. I’m sure it’s compelling stuff.
3.
bkesku
Really do not like the Steelers. Like Balloon Juice – love the Patriots. Go Pats!
4.
Tymannosourus
Why, oh why did I think Ben Rothlesomethin would be a better play than Rodgers?
That’s what happens when you become a Democrat, you start hating Patriots generally, it’s perfectly natural.
7.
Bucky
In general, I despise all Boston teams. I know of no fanbase that went from lovable losers to completely unlikable faster than that one did.
You’d think their experience with heartbreak would have given them more humility. I guess not
8.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
At least you’re not living the pain of Buffalo fans.
That kicker, will he be cut as soon as he’s showered and dressed? Or will the coaching staff wait until tomorrow?
9.
Bubblegum Tate
I really don’t like the fact that I can’t see the Steelers game out here in Oakland.
I really don’t like the Ravens. But what can one do, as a Bengals fan? Good gawd we’re awful.
A year ago, when I was still in possession of my fancy hotel job, the Steelers came to stay. I couldn’t help but laugh at the shirts they were all wearing… "We Dey."
11.
robertdsc
You’d think their experience with heartbreak would have given them more humility. I guess not
This Pats fan has gone out of his way to be civil and polite in public company. Of course, that doesn’t stop the drunk who thinks his QB is better from coming up to me and taking shots at me in my Tom Brady jersey.
But what can one do, as a Bengals fan? Good gawd we’re awful.
Um, does that mean that Bengals fans are awful or that you’re a member of the team who wants to be traded? You’ve have an interesting handle if it’s the later.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the shirts they were all wearing… "We Dey."
WHO DAT? Why would they wear those anywhere other than to New Orleans?
And you have to understand that, when it comes to the Pats, you are talking about a lot of suffering. Has a Steelers fan ever had to endure a string of four seasons where their team went 5-11/1-15/6-10/2-14? After being a laughing stock for so many years, I think it is understandable that some of the fans went overboard with their success.
Like Robertdsc, I always try to be polite. But when some Raiders fan wants to live off the successes of the 70s and talk smack? Then yes, I get a little rude.
14.
Johnny Pez
As for the Red Sox fans, keep in mind that we have to put up with a constant flow of trash talk from Yankees fans. I assure you, it’s purely a matter of self-defense.
15.
Eric U.
why, oh why couldn’t the pats have won the Super Bowl last year? It was a twofer. First, whenever a team is unbeaten late in the season, I wouldn’t have to watch the pathetic drunk old Dolphins talking about how great they were. Second, I’d get to watch the 2007 Patriots get old, drunk and pathetic.
16.
Bucky
I do understand that it’s difficult to be a laughing stock. I am a vikings fan, so I know very well what suffering feels like.
Frankly the behavior of the Pats organization and their fans last season was disgraceful. After the Pats got caught cheating, they made a point to run the score up on almost every opponent. Reading Bill Simmons’s columns on Espn.com every week made me want to throw up. I hate the Giants, but it was very satisfying to see the Patriots lose in the Super Bowl.
I have not heard a Raiders fan talk smack in quite some time. Who do you know that is doing this?
After the Pats got caught cheating, they made a point to run the score up on almost every opponent.
Hardly. I distinctly recall them going for it on 4th and 3 in the fourth quarter with their second-string QB, when they were up by 30+. The fact that they were successful (a few times, IIRC) is not running up the score. What were they supposed to do there, kick a field goal? You’re giving the other side a shot at a stop, and one that should be relatively easy.
Someone reined in Martz. It was mostly Gore, Gore, a dinky pass. Repeat.
And I hope that that Buffalo placekicker Lindell rents and doesn’t own.
Really, the Niners have been so bad and unlucky for so long that it’s nice to actually steal one.
22.
Ed in NJ
All this talk about which teams get the opportunity to lose to the Giants in the playoffs and Super Bowl.
I was hoping the Jets would make it to the Super Bowl because there is nothing better than seeing Favre get his ass kicked again, but I’ll settle for breaking John’s heart by beating the Steelers.
I have not heard a Raiders fan talk smack in quite some time.
tuck rule.
27.
Bucky
Tuck Rule was totally a fumble, as someone who had no stake in the game (in fact I was rooting for the Patriots, as they were still underdogs at this point)
This couldn’t have been posted at a more perfect time
PersonallyI I can’t stand American Football, I prefer Rugby, now theres some real men, in teeny shorts, which occasionally get torn off and all that sort of stuff and where was I?
As a Pats fan since the day they drafted Jim Plunkett I’ve seen more downs than ups, that’s for sure. Last year’s team reminded me of the quote, "It’s harder to win with class than lose with class." I wish Cassell played all year like he played today; this year is a Mulligan, and a high draft pick for the D would have been nice. Looks like middle of the pack.
Oh I know it was a complete bullshit call, however I cannot stand the raiders and watching my Raiders friends after that call with the dejected looks on their faces was pure, sweet schadenfreude for me.
Of course I’ll never admit that to my Raiders friends. Every time they get uppity, I simply say Tuck Rule.
Same with Red Sox fans and Buckner, although that one doesn’t work as well anymore. Although you still hear his name in the corridors of every home A’s Sox game.
Texas got jobbed out of a spot in the Big 12 championship game because of the BCS.
I was adamantly opposed to a playoff before this season and now I may be coming around to a four team playoff. Will not happen though for at least 7 years or so…
I’m a UT fan, my gf’s an OU fan (yeah, it’s what you’d think). Anyway, I think the decision could have gone either way. Which means that UT did get jobbed, and I’d probably have thought OU got jobbed if UT got the higher rating. It’s time to have an eight-team playoff. Just take the top eight BCS teams, no automatic conference berths (Cincinnati? Are you kidding me?), and have them start playing in January after the other bowls have finished. You could even have the big four bowls host the first round games.
41.
Bucky
Every other college football division (I-AA, II, III) do a playoff. There are no excuses not to have one.
Steelers, baby! Nice to see that the Steelers are on their way to their sixth! Super Bowl. And also nice to see the Cheaters, er, Patriots are not going to make the playoffs.
43.
gopher2b
But, not as much as I hate the Jets.
And, wait….I thought this year…NO SERIOUSLY…this was the YEAR….the Bills were going to do it.
Pats still make the playoffs and beat the (choke, choke) Steelers at home. It’s like a terrible rerun. Only, it’s awesome.
44.
Geeno
No one who hasn’t rooted for a Buffalo sports team knows suffering. Wide-right in SB XXV (it’s widely forgotten that they led at halftime in 3 out of 4 SB losses), the Stars’ illegal winning goal in game six of the Stanley Cup Final, the Music City "Miracle"*. Buffalo sports teams have made the final 7 times in my sports following life, 0-7 – usually by the closest, most maddening circumstances.
*I use scare quotes there,because that team that year had dropped 3 of the 6 games they lost on a kick off return for touchdown on the last play of the game. I don’t know a single Bills fans who thought that game was done with 16 seconds left, or thought that return was anything approaching miraculous.
Also, forensic film examiners determined that it WAS a forward lateral, by about half the length of the ball (it was an exam assignment for the students at RIT).
45.
Geeno
The above comment on the lateral is not a slam on the refs at the scene. If you need forensic examiners to get the final call, a ref isn’t going to do it in a few seconds under the hood.
46.
Tymannosourus
My Vikes have made me one happy dude.
47.
Common Sense
Life could be worse for the Horns. In about a month, it very well could be.
If OU beats Missouri and squeaks by the SEC Champ in the NC game, and UT goes on to pummel their opponent in whatever BCS bowl wants 40,000 drunken idiots wearing cow horns on their heads (personally I am hoping for a Rose Bowl rematch vs USC in a game that could get better ratings than the NC), then UT could very well end up the #2 team in the nation.
With the same record as #1.
Who they beat head to head.
Why the hell is it only when UT beats the Sooners that we decide that game is irrelevant?
48.
Joel
That cheap shot against Welker will yield karmic payback later this season.
49.
mikethedealer
The tuck rule controversy is something I deal with all the time out in Vegas, but the simple fact of the matter is Charles Woodson caused the ball to be dropped by Brady by hitting him with a head slap, the refs screwed up the call on that play, it should have been a 15 yard personal foul on Oakland, and the pass/fumble issue would have been mute.
There was Baryshnikov’s famous quote about the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders upon seeing them dancing on the sidelines whilst attending his very American football game:
"These women… are they wayward?"
:)
51.
John from Concord
And I really don’t like the Steelers. Yet I read your blog anyway.
(That’s not actually true, I’ve always liked the Steelers. When I was a kid in the ’70s and the Pats utterly sucked, me and every other kid in New England who was into football picked a second team to root for. Mine was the Steelers, unless they lost in which case it was the Vikings. Never the Cowboys, though. Never ever.)
Yesterday I went out to dinner at halftime thinking it was a close game but the Pats might have the upper hand. Oops.
52.
Chinn Romney
Raider fans are extremely easy to dismiss for this life long Pats fan when they start whining about the tuck rule. First there was that phantom ‘roughing the passer’ call on Sugar Bear Hamilton against Kenny Stabler. You lose have the Raider crowd right then and there since they are so young. And then fast forward a couple of years, Jack Tatum paralyzing Darryl Stingley – in a PRESEASON game.
Yes sir, I love watching how pathetic the Oakland Raiders have become. The only other team I truly hate are the NY Jets.
Always loved the Steelers and the Giants though. Never understood why you had to root for just one team. Both are far superior to the Pats this year. Toss in Tennessee and from that pool you have this years SB Champ.
Texas got jobbed out of a spot in the Big 12 championship game because of the BCS.
It went to the 5th tiebreaker. At that point, there are no good solutions. One of three tied teams gets to go to the Big 12 championship game, and there is no rational way to choose between them. None. Deal with it.
A four team national playoff doesn’t get you anywhere, and neither does an eight team playoff. In those scenarios, they’re only going to take conference champions, so you’re still choosing the Big 12 South representative to the conference title based upon the 5th tiebreaker. Unless, of course, you think that a playoff system somehow becomes less controversial if you leave out Utah, Boise State and Ball State.
54.
pharniel
pats fans, OSU fans (seriously. who shoots someone because they’re wearing ‘the wrong jersy’ and ‘shouldn’t have been on that side of town’), Yankie’s fans and Farve Fanatics are on my List.
But the only one’s I really can’t stand are the OSU guys. THe pats can’t help it, they’re massholes. It’s in thier blood.
and yes, Lion’s fan here. I realize that someone needs to loose every week, and it’s my team’s job to be that someone, but dear lord could it have at least been close?
furthermore (to avoid queering the also line) i wish i’d gotten to watch the steeler’s grossly violate the pats instead of watching cleaveland let the colts win.
55.
Chinn Romney
Pharniel, don’t hate us because we win alot, and can spell and construct proper sentences. Hate us because we’re beautiful.
I used to root for the Raiders as my second team. Niners first, Raiders second.
But Raiders fans are such a-holes, always revelling in others’ debasement, that it’s hard to root for the team. Plus, Al Davis is such an awful combination of evil, incompetent and decrepit that it’s hard to support them.
Best case scenario is that Davis is declared incompetent, the team is sold to a Brent Jones-Steve Young headed group, and they build a huge stadium somewhere in the Bay Area for both the Niners and the Raiders. And both teams flourish once again.
Meanwhile, looks like Cal is going to the Emerald Bowl. Hooray!
57.
jrosen
Al Davis: the Denny Crane of the NFL. Stingley + Hamilton roughing = Tuck Rule? Not quite. BTW, Ben Drieth, the ref who called that bs play, never officiated at Foxboro again…they couldn’t guarantee his safety.
Patriots came apart in 2nd half yesterday — very rare. But playoff possibility still, without Brady, Maroney, Warren, Harrison, Jarvis Green, Jordan.
We who suffered through the 30+ Sullivan years in NE might have some right to celebrate in the last 7 years — but I for one am never rude…I guess that makes me a wimp, and if so, f*** you too.
(Just broke my rule, but it’s nothing personal, just business).
Spygate? The rule prohibits filming from the field but allows it from the stands. A difference of 40 feet or so, maybe worth a 15 yard penalty and loss of down…but BB paid a quarter mil and never complained. Gregg Easterbrook made it sound like the Valerie Plame affair…he should be committed. Worst part: Mangini was the Pats defensive co-ordinator, where he must have known whay was going on, sop he gets the head job with the Jets and immediately rats on his former boss. Very small, very small and mean. He was techniacally right of course, but still…
As far as running up the score…isn’t point differential a tie-breaker? If some situation developed it was needed, would you want to look back and kick yourself because you didn’t take care of it when you could? And later in the season things settled down.
BTW, I was a Steelers fan in the 70’s too, even though I lived in Cleveland and Detroit and Boston. They were one of the greatest of all time.
58.
Church-lady
After that game it’s pretty safe to say a lot of Patriot fans don’t like the Patriots.
59.
Joel
When the Patriots are thoroughly dead as a dynasty, people will look back and say, "Gee, they weren’t so bad after all, but I really hate the *insert successful team here*". Give it a little longer and you’ll start hearing about how *insert dynasty of the current times here* wasn’t as good as that Patriot run in the early parts of this decade (much as Patriot fans heard that in comparison to the Cowboys and Niners).
So it goes, so it goes. I’ve enjoyed this run, and the Patriots probably have one more in them (but not this year). Brady going down covers up for the seriously declining state of the defense. Any secondary featuring Deltha O’Neal is a bad one.
60.
cia
I’ve been watching the Steelers for many years. Am I beginning to see a downward slope in the sportsman like conduct?
It’s nice to see the Steelers finally win one against the Patriots. I still haven’t recovered from the pain of seeing hometown boy Curtis Martin roll all over us in the 90’s. And until this happens next year (or later this year), I’ll still believe Belichick has our numebr.
As for the Pats fans, it depends on the particulars. I like it when people can talk intelligently, no matter what jersey they have on. Maybe that’s why I like being a Steeler fan (have to be, born in the ‘burgh in the early 70’s), after a narrow win last year, everyone at the Steelers bar said, “They’re going to get crushed by the Pats.” Steelers fans (on average) seem smarter on the game than most—I think it comes from seeing things from the defensive standpoint, or watching complicated run-blocking and zone-blitzing.
That honesty sure beats all the: “West Coast Offense” chants I hear in the Bay Area. Many of these people don’t even know what that means (timing-based patterns concentrating on yards after reception). You’d think that if they coached we’d see a revival of the Run & Shoot. *sigh*
And yes, I did see the drubbing the Pats gave the Steelers last year with my friend who happens to be one of those fair-weathered Pats fan (his excuse? He went to college in Boston) at a Steelers bar. Why? Apparently he had the hots for some Pittsburgh fan.
Which brings me to the single weirdest observation I’ve noticed: are the Steelers the only football team where there are more female fans than males?
62.
2liberal
I really don’t like the Patriots.
this is why you will rot in hell with the other pagans. the patriots are as likeable as Barack Obama.
I still remember how the Steelers and their fans were so sure they were going to win the league championship in 2002 they went out and bought tickets to New Orleans. and hten had to sell them.
It is memories like that which make yesterday easier to live with.
Comments are closed.
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!
D-Chance.
How did Buffalo lose that game to San Francisco?
Three drives inside the 9er 10… and they score all of 3 points?
Two drives… 33 plays for 160 yards… 0 points. Unreal.
Comrade Jake
You could always watch PajamasTV instead. After all, who could pass up the opportunity to watch Malkin and Reynolds discuss whether or not Obama is a third Bush term. I’m sure it’s compelling stuff.
bkesku
Really do not like the Steelers. Like Balloon Juice – love the Patriots. Go Pats!
Tymannosourus
Why, oh why did I think Ben Rothlesomethin would be a better play than Rodgers?
Dave
They don’t like you either, John.
Will
That’s what happens when you become a Democrat, you start hating Patriots generally, it’s perfectly natural.
Bucky
In general, I despise all Boston teams. I know of no fanbase that went from lovable losers to completely unlikable faster than that one did.
You’d think their experience with heartbreak would have given them more humility. I guess not
Gold Star for Robot Boy
At least you’re not living the pain of Buffalo fans.
That kicker, will he be cut as soon as he’s showered and dressed? Or will the coaching staff wait until tomorrow?
Bubblegum Tate
I really don’t like the fact that I can’t see the Steelers game out here in Oakland.
JenJen
I really don’t like the Ravens. But what can one do, as a Bengals fan? Good gawd we’re awful.
A year ago, when I was still in possession of my fancy hotel job, the Steelers came to stay. I couldn’t help but laugh at the shirts they were all wearing… "We Dey."
robertdsc
This Pats fan has gone out of his way to be civil and polite in public company. Of course, that doesn’t stop the drunk who thinks his QB is better from coming up to me and taking shots at me in my Tom Brady jersey.
smiley
@JenJen:
Um, does that mean that Bengals fans are awful or that you’re a member of the team who wants to be traded? You’ve have an interesting handle if it’s the later.
WHO DAT? Why would they wear those anywhere other than to New Orleans?
Dave
And you have to understand that, when it comes to the Pats, you are talking about a lot of suffering. Has a Steelers fan ever had to endure a string of four seasons where their team went 5-11/1-15/6-10/2-14? After being a laughing stock for so many years, I think it is understandable that some of the fans went overboard with their success.
Like Robertdsc, I always try to be polite. But when some Raiders fan wants to live off the successes of the 70s and talk smack? Then yes, I get a little rude.
Johnny Pez
As for the Red Sox fans, keep in mind that we have to put up with a constant flow of trash talk from Yankees fans. I assure you, it’s purely a matter of self-defense.
Eric U.
why, oh why couldn’t the pats have won the Super Bowl last year? It was a twofer. First, whenever a team is unbeaten late in the season, I wouldn’t have to watch the pathetic drunk old Dolphins talking about how great they were. Second, I’d get to watch the 2007 Patriots get old, drunk and pathetic.
Bucky
I do understand that it’s difficult to be a laughing stock. I am a vikings fan, so I know very well what suffering feels like.
Frankly the behavior of the Pats organization and their fans last season was disgraceful. After the Pats got caught cheating, they made a point to run the score up on almost every opponent. Reading Bill Simmons’s columns on Espn.com every week made me want to throw up. I hate the Giants, but it was very satisfying to see the Patriots lose in the Super Bowl.
I have not heard a Raiders fan talk smack in quite some time. Who do you know that is doing this?
The Grand Panjandrum
I think you mean 11-1 Reigning Super Bowl Champ Giants, no?
smiley
OT: Sorry.
Obama’s mocha mafia.
Via Ta-Nehisi.
Comrade Jake
@Bucky:
Hardly. I distinctly recall them going for it on 4th and 3 in the fourth quarter with their second-string QB, when they were up by 30+. The fact that they were successful (a few times, IIRC) is not running up the score. What were they supposed to do there, kick a field goal? You’re giving the other side a shot at a stop, and one that should be relatively easy.
Tim F.
Jesus Harrison Christ. What a beating.
Bob In Pacifica
Ah, the Niners!
Someone reined in Martz. It was mostly Gore, Gore, a dinky pass. Repeat.
And I hope that that Buffalo placekicker Lindell rents and doesn’t own.
Really, the Niners have been so bad and unlucky for so long that it’s nice to actually steal one.
Ed in NJ
All this talk about which teams get the opportunity to lose to the Giants in the playoffs and Super Bowl.
I was hoping the Jets would make it to the Super Bowl because there is nothing better than seeing Favre get his ass kicked again, but I’ll settle for breaking John’s heart by beating the Steelers.
eighteenandone
@Eric U.:
18-1.
ninerdave
@D-Chance.:
WOO HOOO! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!1!1111!!!
Comrade Jake
@Ed in NJ:
Right, since a sure-thing to win the Super Bowl is something we’ve never seen before.
ninerdave
@Bucky:
tuck rule.
Bucky
Tuck Rule was totally a fumble, as someone who had no stake in the game (in fact I was rooting for the Patriots, as they were still underdogs at this point)
This couldn’t have been posted at a more perfect time
http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/11/hate-hate-hate-hate-hate.html
Litlebritdifrnt
PersonallyI I can’t stand American Football, I prefer Rugby, now theres some real men, in teeny shorts, which occasionally get torn off and all that sort of stuff and where was I?
Cassidy
Our cheerleaders pwn your rugby players.
Svensker
Y’all don’t know nuthin’ about suffering.
Jets fan here.
Crikes.
Bill H
For real suffering, live in San Diego, play professional football, and wear number 21.
Notorious P.A.T.
John C, I don’t know if you’ve seen this but here goes:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0811/turkey.of.the.year/content.1.html
Mentis Fugit
The best of both worlds, Cassidy.
p.a.
As a Pats fan since the day they drafted Jim Plunkett I’ve seen more downs than ups, that’s for sure. Last year’s team reminded me of the quote, "It’s harder to win with class than lose with class." I wish Cassell played all year like he played today; this year is a Mulligan, and a high draft pick for the D would have been nice. Looks like middle of the pack.
Josh Hueco
@D-Chance.:
Two words. Mike Singletary.
ninerdave
@Bucky:
Oh I know it was a complete bullshit call, however I cannot stand the raiders and watching my Raiders friends after that call with the dejected looks on their faces was pure, sweet schadenfreude for me.
Of course I’ll never admit that to my Raiders friends. Every time they get uppity, I simply say Tuck Rule.
Same with Red Sox fans and Buckner, although that one doesn’t work as well anymore. Although you still hear his name in the corridors of every home A’s Sox game.
4tehlulz
OT: Tanta from Calculated Risk RIP
Will Hunting
Texas got jobbed out of a spot in the Big 12 championship game because of the BCS.
I was adamantly opposed to a playoff before this season and now I may be coming around to a four team playoff. Will not happen though for at least 7 years or so…
NonWonderDog
@Svensker:
Lions "fan" and Michigan alum here.
Fuck all of you.
Josh Hueco
@Will Hunting:
I’m a UT fan, my gf’s an OU fan (yeah, it’s what you’d think). Anyway, I think the decision could have gone either way. Which means that UT did get jobbed, and I’d probably have thought OU got jobbed if UT got the higher rating. It’s time to have an eight-team playoff. Just take the top eight BCS teams, no automatic conference berths (Cincinnati? Are you kidding me?), and have them start playing in January after the other bowls have finished. You could even have the big four bowls host the first round games.
Bucky
Every other college football division (I-AA, II, III) do a playoff. There are no excuses not to have one.
Galen West
Steelers, baby! Nice to see that the Steelers are on their way to their sixth! Super Bowl. And also nice to see the Cheaters, er, Patriots are not going to make the playoffs.
gopher2b
But, not as much as I hate the Jets.
And, wait….I thought this year…NO SERIOUSLY…this was the YEAR….the Bills were going to do it.
Pats still make the playoffs and beat the (choke, choke) Steelers at home. It’s like a terrible rerun. Only, it’s awesome.
Geeno
No one who hasn’t rooted for a Buffalo sports team knows suffering. Wide-right in SB XXV (it’s widely forgotten that they led at halftime in 3 out of 4 SB losses), the Stars’ illegal winning goal in game six of the Stanley Cup Final, the Music City "Miracle"*. Buffalo sports teams have made the final 7 times in my sports following life, 0-7 – usually by the closest, most maddening circumstances.
*I use scare quotes there,because that team that year had dropped 3 of the 6 games they lost on a kick off return for touchdown on the last play of the game. I don’t know a single Bills fans who thought that game was done with 16 seconds left, or thought that return was anything approaching miraculous.
Also, forensic film examiners determined that it WAS a forward lateral, by about half the length of the ball (it was an exam assignment for the students at RIT).
Geeno
The above comment on the lateral is not a slam on the refs at the scene. If you need forensic examiners to get the final call, a ref isn’t going to do it in a few seconds under the hood.
Tymannosourus
My Vikes have made me one happy dude.
Common Sense
Life could be worse for the Horns. In about a month, it very well could be.
If OU beats Missouri and squeaks by the SEC Champ in the NC game, and UT goes on to pummel their opponent in whatever BCS bowl wants 40,000 drunken idiots wearing cow horns on their heads (personally I am hoping for a Rose Bowl rematch vs USC in a game that could get better ratings than the NC), then UT could very well end up the #2 team in the nation.
With the same record as #1.
Who they beat head to head.
Why the hell is it only when UT beats the Sooners that we decide that game is irrelevant?
Joel
That cheap shot against Welker will yield karmic payback later this season.
mikethedealer
The tuck rule controversy is something I deal with all the time out in Vegas, but the simple fact of the matter is Charles Woodson caused the ball to be dropped by Brady by hitting him with a head slap, the refs screwed up the call on that play, it should have been a 15 yard personal foul on Oakland, and the pass/fumble issue would have been mute.
D-Chance.
@Mentis Fugit:
There was Baryshnikov’s famous quote about the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders upon seeing them dancing on the sidelines whilst attending his very American football game:
"These women… are they wayward?"
:)
John from Concord
And I really don’t like the Steelers. Yet I read your blog anyway.
(That’s not actually true, I’ve always liked the Steelers. When I was a kid in the ’70s and the Pats utterly sucked, me and every other kid in New England who was into football picked a second team to root for. Mine was the Steelers, unless they lost in which case it was the Vikings. Never the Cowboys, though. Never ever.)
Yesterday I went out to dinner at halftime thinking it was a close game but the Pats might have the upper hand. Oops.
Chinn Romney
Raider fans are extremely easy to dismiss for this life long Pats fan when they start whining about the tuck rule. First there was that phantom ‘roughing the passer’ call on Sugar Bear Hamilton against Kenny Stabler. You lose have the Raider crowd right then and there since they are so young. And then fast forward a couple of years, Jack Tatum paralyzing Darryl Stingley – in a PRESEASON game.
Yes sir, I love watching how pathetic the Oakland Raiders have become. The only other team I truly hate are the NY Jets.
Always loved the Steelers and the Giants though. Never understood why you had to root for just one team. Both are far superior to the Pats this year. Toss in Tennessee and from that pool you have this years SB Champ.
J. Michael Neal
It went to the 5th tiebreaker. At that point, there are no good solutions. One of three tied teams gets to go to the Big 12 championship game, and there is no rational way to choose between them. None. Deal with it.
A four team national playoff doesn’t get you anywhere, and neither does an eight team playoff. In those scenarios, they’re only going to take conference champions, so you’re still choosing the Big 12 South representative to the conference title based upon the 5th tiebreaker. Unless, of course, you think that a playoff system somehow becomes less controversial if you leave out Utah, Boise State and Ball State.
pharniel
pats fans, OSU fans (seriously. who shoots someone because they’re wearing ‘the wrong jersy’ and ‘shouldn’t have been on that side of town’), Yankie’s fans and Farve Fanatics are on my List.
But the only one’s I really can’t stand are the OSU guys. THe pats can’t help it, they’re massholes. It’s in thier blood.
and yes, Lion’s fan here. I realize that someone needs to loose every week, and it’s my team’s job to be that someone, but dear lord could it have at least been close?
furthermore (to avoid queering the also line) i wish i’d gotten to watch the steeler’s grossly violate the pats instead of watching cleaveland let the colts win.
Chinn Romney
Pharniel, don’t hate us because we win alot, and can spell and construct proper sentences. Hate us because we’re beautiful.
Bob In Pacifica
I used to root for the Raiders as my second team. Niners first, Raiders second.
But Raiders fans are such a-holes, always revelling in others’ debasement, that it’s hard to root for the team. Plus, Al Davis is such an awful combination of evil, incompetent and decrepit that it’s hard to support them.
Best case scenario is that Davis is declared incompetent, the team is sold to a Brent Jones-Steve Young headed group, and they build a huge stadium somewhere in the Bay Area for both the Niners and the Raiders. And both teams flourish once again.
Meanwhile, looks like Cal is going to the Emerald Bowl. Hooray!
jrosen
Al Davis: the Denny Crane of the NFL. Stingley + Hamilton roughing = Tuck Rule? Not quite. BTW, Ben Drieth, the ref who called that bs play, never officiated at Foxboro again…they couldn’t guarantee his safety.
Patriots came apart in 2nd half yesterday — very rare. But playoff possibility still, without Brady, Maroney, Warren, Harrison, Jarvis Green, Jordan.
We who suffered through the 30+ Sullivan years in NE might have some right to celebrate in the last 7 years — but I for one am never rude…I guess that makes me a wimp, and if so, f*** you too.
(Just broke my rule, but it’s nothing personal, just business).
Spygate? The rule prohibits filming from the field but allows it from the stands. A difference of 40 feet or so, maybe worth a 15 yard penalty and loss of down…but BB paid a quarter mil and never complained. Gregg Easterbrook made it sound like the Valerie Plame affair…he should be committed. Worst part: Mangini was the Pats defensive co-ordinator, where he must have known whay was going on, sop he gets the head job with the Jets and immediately rats on his former boss. Very small, very small and mean. He was techniacally right of course, but still…
As far as running up the score…isn’t point differential a tie-breaker? If some situation developed it was needed, would you want to look back and kick yourself because you didn’t take care of it when you could? And later in the season things settled down.
BTW, I was a Steelers fan in the 70’s too, even though I lived in Cleveland and Detroit and Boston. They were one of the greatest of all time.
Church-lady
After that game it’s pretty safe to say a lot of Patriot fans don’t like the Patriots.
Joel
When the Patriots are thoroughly dead as a dynasty, people will look back and say, "Gee, they weren’t so bad after all, but I really hate the *insert successful team here*". Give it a little longer and you’ll start hearing about how *insert dynasty of the current times here* wasn’t as good as that Patriot run in the early parts of this decade (much as Patriot fans heard that in comparison to the Cowboys and Niners).
So it goes, so it goes. I’ve enjoyed this run, and the Patriots probably have one more in them (but not this year). Brady going down covers up for the seriously declining state of the defense. Any secondary featuring Deltha O’Neal is a bad one.
cia
I’ve been watching the Steelers for many years. Am I beginning to see a downward slope in the sportsman like conduct?
terry chay
It’s nice to see the Steelers finally win one against the Patriots. I still haven’t recovered from the pain of seeing hometown boy Curtis Martin roll all over us in the 90’s. And until this happens next year (or later this year), I’ll still believe Belichick has our numebr.
As for the Pats fans, it depends on the particulars. I like it when people can talk intelligently, no matter what jersey they have on. Maybe that’s why I like being a Steeler fan (have to be, born in the ‘burgh in the early 70’s), after a narrow win last year, everyone at the Steelers bar said, “They’re going to get crushed by the Pats.” Steelers fans (on average) seem smarter on the game than most—I think it comes from seeing things from the defensive standpoint, or watching complicated run-blocking and zone-blitzing.
That honesty sure beats all the: “West Coast Offense” chants I hear in the Bay Area. Many of these people don’t even know what that means (timing-based patterns concentrating on yards after reception). You’d think that if they coached we’d see a revival of the Run & Shoot. *sigh*
And yes, I did see the drubbing the Pats gave the Steelers last year with my friend who happens to be one of those fair-weathered Pats fan (his excuse? He went to college in Boston) at a Steelers bar. Why? Apparently he had the hots for some Pittsburgh fan.
Which brings me to the single weirdest observation I’ve noticed: are the Steelers the only football team where there are more female fans than males?
2liberal
this is why you will rot in hell with the other pagans. the patriots are as likeable as Barack Obama.
I still remember how the Steelers and their fans were so sure they were going to win the league championship in 2002 they went out and bought tickets to New Orleans. and hten had to sell them.
It is memories like that which make yesterday easier to live with.