See Red

I think that at their best, the Panthers are better than the Seahawks, but you never know what you're going to get out of them, which has been the case all year, so though I picked them, I was hesitant to. Seahawks are a great team, but I have to, whether fairly or not, discount them some because of their conference. Should be an amazing game, though. I hope Steve Smith tears them apart like he did Chicago. But if Seattle wins, I'll be happy for Element and the rest of the Seahawks fans.

I believe it was illegal then, even. That game, in the eyes of many, just impacted how strictly they enforce it. Either way, I was only using that in a joking way, not so much to say that the way that game was called makes the way Saturday's game was called any better or worse or that they weren't worthy of the Super Bowl. If the refs give you slack, the team that takes it is going to be better off. Either way, the Pass Interference call can't possibly be justified -- it was a s***** call none-the-less.

It's not an everyday occurence, and certainly not something that happens when there is no clear-cut answer (see: never). I just found it odd that they brought that play up because they almost always A. Take the side of the referee or B. Don't comment at all, particularly when there's not definitive conclusion that one can draw. Pardon me for finding it odd when the NFL, usually tight-lipped about these things, comes out and says something like that. I'm not saying there was a fix in for NE to win the game, just that it's odd -- it's odd no matter who the teams involved are. Not to mention, the fact that no Patriots fan, SchillingouttheKs excluded, is capable of admitting that the better team won and having to incessantly defend my team is going to make me a little edgy when it comes to this subject. We won the majority of our games this year in a similar fashion to our win over New England Patriots, eventually you have to look at what we've accomplished and admit that it's not a fluke.

NFL Football Spread For Conference Championships NFL Playoffs Date - 1/22, 2006 Date & Time........... Favorite...........Spread...........Underdog 1/22 3:00 ET............ At Denver.............-3.5............. Pittsburgh 1/22 6:30 ET............ At Seattle............ -3.5............. Carolina

True, but I can't think of any reason why they would bring up that call. There is no clear cut answer. Only one guy had a good angle on the play, and he made a call that went the way of the Denver. One of the commentators drew a line from where the ball was, to where it went, and projected that it went out of bounds without going through the endzone. That's not definitive, obviously, but neither is any shot of the play from any of those camera angles. As for the Pass Inteference, perhaps it's karma for the AFC Championship against the Colts two years ago. :dunno: edit: Colts/Patriots would've been a highly anticipated game.

A guess isn't exactly enough to overturn a call, so there's no need to appologize. The NFL almost never comes out and says a call is incorrect. In fact, the last time they've done it was 3 years ago. It's obvious why they said it about the Polamalu interception -- but why for the Champ Bailey fumble? Because it contributed towards a Pats loss?

Mike Tice was a Tight Ends coach for one year, and the Offensive Line coach for five(?) others with the Vikings before taking over as Head Coach. He only added the assistant coach title for the year preceeding him becoming Head Coach.

Your mistakes were forced, except for the Troy Brown fumble. On the fumble forced by Sauerbrun, he got his body on the ball when making the tackle. The interception by Champ Bailey was an extremely nice play by him. More often than not, if you play mistake free football, and you force mistakes by the other team, and you're playing at home... you will win a LOT more often than you lose. That's football. Denver was 4th best in the league in scoring against. 4th worst in the league in passing defense. You act like just because you were able to move the ball, pretty much only through the air, I might add, that we got lucky that you didn't score more. No, it's not a coincidence that the game, from a defensive standpoint, went like practically every other game Denver has played this year. When you're playing against one of the best teams in the league at taking advantage of turnovers, and a team that doesn't turn the ball over, it's a good idea not to turn the ball over. If the Broncos don't make two bad decisions, one to go for it on 4th and 1 rather than kick the FG, and Jake's poor decision to throw the ball off his back foot, halting the Broncos momentum, and putting an end to the second straight drive where they moved the ball with relative ease, New England is going into the half, at best, tied to begin with.

Here's an article from the AP on ESPN.com

It wasn't. Manning's back foot wasn't in the endzone or on the goal line when he got tackled. Sure, he got tackled into the endzone, but it's about where he first was when he was tackled.

This is what happens when you give up 14 catches for 150+ yards to one guy and say that you 'contain him' because you kept him out of the endzone. Particularly when he's the best in the league.

That play should've been stopped when the TE jumped back on the offsides, shouldn't it have?

Touchdown, Bears! Huge TD, too!

Wow... thought he got in at first. Replay shows otherwise, though. Good eye by the official, good tackle by Minter(?).

Bears are inside the 20!

If he had originally been ruled down, I wouldn't be able to overturn it either. It's just one of those things where the camera angle was going to show green under his knee either way. That, to me, makes it inconclusive evidence.

Suprised there was no call on the collar tackle out of bounds. Not nessecarily for him being out, but for the collar tackle itself. Urlacher INT. Beautiful catch!

When he caught the ball, yes, but it looked like the knee was up from the ground before contact was made. Where his knee was over, it was darker because of it's shadow, and there was a little lighter green between his knee and the darker ground. Certainly not conclusive.

I thought there was space between the knee and the ground. That's really the first thing I looked for, actually. I certainly couldn't say that there was conclusive evidence to overturn it.

Seriously... worst officiated playoff weekend ever.

Should be a catch, but that whole "football move" thing is going to screw things up again.

Hey, as long as the backups were on the field, it all counts the same to me in terms of the effect it had on the team. Besides, only beating the Cardinals by 7 is a defeat in my eyes.

No way they do. Certainly not 18, which, I think, would be the minimum they'd need to cover the spread.

Can this game start any worse for Chicago? Bad punt puts Carolina at the 36 yard line.

Bears better hope they don't go down by more than one score or it's over.