"Super" Bowl
The Super Bowl was supposed to be a win-win game for me. Either the Patsies would finally stick a cork in the '72 Dolphins or they'd lose. Sadly, the officiating killed my enjoyment of the game. I wish that the NFL could actually get some good officiating in the post season, but they never do.
This crew officiating crew apparently doesn't believe in encroachment, offensive pass interference, or roughing the passer. One of the most blatant pass interference non-calls I've ever seen occurred early in the game, when Amani Toomer pushed the defender to the ground by the facemask (Ooh! Two missed penalties in one!) and then caught the ball for a 19 yard first down. More disturbing to me was that the hands to the head rule for quarterbaks appeared to be suspended for this game. That rule is black and white (hit the QB in the head, no matter how gently, you get a penalty) for a very good reason - to reduce injuries. I recall one time a D-Lineman jumped in the air to block a pass and then brought both closed fists down on the QB's head. Again, it doesn't get much more blatant than that.
In the end, the Patsies lost because they couldn't stop the Giants' pass rush. If your QB is knocked on his butt on over half of his pass plays, you're not going to win many games. I was genuinely surprised that the Patsies never found a way to really deal with a pretty one dimensional Giants defense, but that's what happened.
Anyway, congratulations to the Giants for winning! They played a better game than the Patsies, and they deserved the win.
As an aside, I've never seen a QB take more delay of game penalties than Eli Manning does. I think he's had at least one in each Giants playoff game I've watched. He either needs to audible sooner or realize that he doesn't have time to get it done.
As another aside, someone on the Giants D-Line should have gotten the MVP. They shut down a historically great offense by mauling Tom Brady and stuffing pretty much every run play.
This crew officiating crew apparently doesn't believe in encroachment, offensive pass interference, or roughing the passer. One of the most blatant pass interference non-calls I've ever seen occurred early in the game, when Amani Toomer pushed the defender to the ground by the facemask (Ooh! Two missed penalties in one!) and then caught the ball for a 19 yard first down. More disturbing to me was that the hands to the head rule for quarterbaks appeared to be suspended for this game. That rule is black and white (hit the QB in the head, no matter how gently, you get a penalty) for a very good reason - to reduce injuries. I recall one time a D-Lineman jumped in the air to block a pass and then brought both closed fists down on the QB's head. Again, it doesn't get much more blatant than that.
In the end, the Patsies lost because they couldn't stop the Giants' pass rush. If your QB is knocked on his butt on over half of his pass plays, you're not going to win many games. I was genuinely surprised that the Patsies never found a way to really deal with a pretty one dimensional Giants defense, but that's what happened.
Anyway, congratulations to the Giants for winning! They played a better game than the Patsies, and they deserved the win.
As an aside, I've never seen a QB take more delay of game penalties than Eli Manning does. I think he's had at least one in each Giants playoff game I've watched. He either needs to audible sooner or realize that he doesn't have time to get it done.
As another aside, someone on the Giants D-Line should have gotten the MVP. They shut down a historically great offense by mauling Tom Brady and stuffing pretty much every run play.