Arizona vs Philly, terrific game!

[WayOutWest]

What a great game.  Arizona came out of nowhere to make it to the Superbowl and took down the hottest team in the league right now.  A story of two halves, Arizona owned the 1st and Philly made a furious comeback and scored a TD on three strait possesions in the 2nd half.  Couple of questionable calls there and I'm glad it evened out in the end because the Cardinals deserved the win and it looked like one blown call was going to cost them the game.

Hope the AFC game is just as good and that Pitt doesn't have their own set of refs calling the game like they did when they stold the Superbowl.

[rickortreat]

That really was a good football game, wasn't it?  It is a huge disappointment for Philadelphia. They had the Cardinals.  They had the lead and failed to stop them, then still had a chance for the offense to march down the field and close them out.  They failed, pure and simple.  I agree the Cardinals deserved to win, but I'm afraid this is as far as they get.  The Steelers will take them out in the Super Bowl.

[WayOutWest]

The Steelers will take them out in the Super Bowl.

I hope not Rick.  Last time the Steelers were in the Superbowl I thought they got an unfair advantage from the refs, so did over 60% of the fans.  Worst Superbowl I've ever seen regarding one team clearly getting screwed by the refs/fix.

[rickortreat]

To be honest, I thought there were some very bad calls, or rather non-calls in the NFC game.  Particularly on the Cardinals last drive, I saw a lot of holding and illegal blocks.  But it's very hard to say if here was any conspiracy or not, and there is no evidence.

There's very little reason for the NFL to allow anything like that to happen.  Pittsburgh is not a big city and neither is Baltimore, yet they both got into the AFC championship (Smaller towns = smaller ratings.) Phila. is larger than Phoenix or at least the TV market is, but if there was a bias, it was towards Phoenix, IMO.

Off hand, i would say that our tendency to want one team over another tends to magnify our perception of calls that go against our team and to minimize the calls on the opponents.  It's very hard to keep subjective bias out of how we see things. 

I think all the sport leagues understand the importance of games being called fairly, far too much is at stake for a conspiracy to actually occur.  Any solid evidence of an attempt to manipulate the outcome of any game for any reason has the potential to destroy the league!  No one will pay to watch a crooked or fixed game. It goes against our sense of what is right and just.

Lots of people say that there is a bias in sports and for certain players in some leagues it certainly seems that way, but there is no reason to prefer a Pittsburgh win over Phoenix that could possibly justify the NFL intervening or allowing someone else to intervene to affect the outcome. Even the fans in the winning city don't want their victory to be tainted in that way, no matter how badly they want to win.

[WayOutWest]

I had no dog in that Superbowl fight what so ever but I could not shake the feeling that all the calls were going the Steelers way when they most needed in that Superbowl.  Then I read and heard several polls that indicated the rest of the country had a bad taste in their mouth regarding that Superbowl.

Philly vs Ariz was just a horrible call with a stupid rule that did not allow it to be reviewed in the closing minutes of the 1st half.  That last non-call on the Cardinals for pass interferance was almost like a "make up" call for blowing that one in the 1st half where the Cards would have definately scored.

[Derek Bodner]

I have no doubt that the Eagles were the better team yesterday.  IMO if that was a 5 or 6 quarter game, the Eagles win 9 times out of 10.  But it's not.  You can't spot your opponent 18 first half points and expect to come out on top.  And the Eagles did just that.  It forces you to have EVERYTHING go perfect in the second half.  The first 17 minutes of the second half went perfect, but that 8 minute scoring drive killed it.

[WayOutWest]

I have no doubt that the Eagles were the better team yesterday.

Did you get a chance to see the final score?    If not for the blown call the Eagles should have spoted the Cards an 22 point lead.

[Joe Vancil]

The Steelers will take them out in the Super Bowl.

I hope not Rick.  Last time the Steelers were in the Superbowl I thought they got an unfair advantage from the refs, so did over 60% of the fans.  Worst Superbowl I've ever seen regarding one team clearly getting screwed by the refs/fix.

...and still not even close to 2002 Kings/Lakers.

[Derek Bodner]

I have no doubt that the Eagles were the better team yesterday.

Did you get a chance to see the final score?    If not for the blown call the Eagles should have spoted the Cards an 22 point lead.

The better team doesn't always win.  I thought that was self evident.   There's a reason the Eagles had more yards, and more yards per play.  There's also a reason the Cardinals had more points.  The Eagles made more mistakes, and the Cardinals made more plays.

[WayOutWest]

The Eagles made more mistakes, and the Cardinals made more plays.

So who did you say was the better team?

The Cards were clearly the better team in the 1st half, the Eagles were barely the better team in the 2nd half.

I don't know if I've said it around here before but McNabb is over rated IMO.  Even when he completes a pass he doesn't put it in the right place for his recievers, that's what an average QB does.  It was so evident yesterday, he just put it into the ground and didn't give his guys the chance to even make a play.

[Derek Bodner]

The Cards were clearly the better team in the 1st half, the Eagles were barely the better team in the 2nd half.

um...huh?

Besides winning the second half score 21-7, take a look at the yardage discrepancy.

[rickortreat]

The Eagles made more mistakes, and the Cardinals made more plays.

So who did you say was the better team?

The Cards were clearly the better team in the 1st half, the Eagles were barely the better team in the 2nd half.

I don't know if I've said it around here before but McNabb is over rated IMO.  Even when he completes a pass he doesn't put it in the right place for his recievers, that's what an average QB does.  It was so evident yesterday, he just put it into the ground and didn't give his guys the chance to even make a play.

That really is the problem with McNabb, one minute he looks like he can't make a throw, the next, he looks like the best QB the NFL has ever seen, threading the ball through a sea of defenders right on target.  It's his inconsistency that kills the Eagles, you never know from down to down which guy is going to show up.  Donovan's exterior reflects a calm demeanor, but on the inside he must be something of  head case. At his best he is waaay above average as a passer, and on the whole he puts up spectacular numbers and makes great plays.  But when he's not on, the Eagles fall apart on offense.

IMO, the Cards are better since they got it done when they had to to win the game. No-one bumped Fitzgerald at the line all day, and that was a mistake.  The EWagles had their opportunity and blew it, end of story.

I also thought the Eagles got ripped off on a defensive play in the end zone, called for pass interference, when the defender is allowed to hit the receiver within 5 yards of the scrimmage line.  Also, on that punt return in the first half that was ruled out of bounds, the Eagle receiver did NOT TOUCH the ball until his foot was out-of-bounds, so it was a dead-ball anyway.  Even from the replay it wasn't clear if he touched the ball at all, but he was definitely out when he did. The pass interference on the final possession looked quite marginal to me on the replay, but there was contact and it was a catchable ball. A very unfortunate non-call for the Eagles, but you don't look to the officials to bail you out on a desperation play to make a first down.  

[JoMal]

Eagles lost this game because they single covered Fitzgerald in the first half. Three touchdowns later and down by 18, it finally dawned on them that this was a very bad game plan.