Stop Crying Paulus

By GM Be Nasty
Special to Bleeding Sports

Greg Paulus and the rest of those pathetic McDonald's All-Americans from Duke got slapped around again, this time by the Eagles from Boston College. The loss marks Duke's 4th in the highly overrated ACC. This league is not even in the same ballpark as the clearly dominate Big East. Someone should inform Joe Lunardi of this fact who declared this week that the ACC is the best conference in America. Mr. Bracketology who does nothing all day but fill out NCAA brackets quotes RPIs and strength of schedules as the basis of his argument. Too bad everyone knows that those figures are so flawed and basically meaningless. Wake up ESPN, the Big East is head and shoulders above every conference in the country and will prove it come March.

By the way. Paulus stop crying you little girl and learn to move your feet on defense. It was highly comical watching Tyrese Rice break your ankles every other time down the court.

Steel-ing the Super Bowl

It is about time to wrap up Bleeding Sport’s coverage of Super Bowl XLIII. Here are the five themes for this year’s big game:

1. High Drama

The Super Bowl had some lulls, but overall the game turned out to be a classic thanks to an unbelievable fourth quarter. The last fifteen minutes was all you could ask for in a championship game. First, the Cardinals remarkably stormed back to take the lead and then Big Ben made the plays to lead the Steelers to victory.

Ben Roethlisberger deserves a lot of credit for simply carrying the Steelers on his back and winning his second Super Bowl. With that said, Super Bowl XLIII will also be remembered as the Super Bowl with the most mysterious officiating in history. In particular, two pivotal calls or lack there tainted the game.

2. The Difference between Victory and Defeat

Super Bowl XLIII reinforced a common thought in the NFL of how games usually come down to one or two plays. This year, the NFL Championship was essentially determined by one of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl history that completely changed the game. The Cardinals had a first and goal at the Steelers’ 1 yard line with under one minute to play in the first half. If the Cardinals score they go into the half with a 14-10 lead and the ball to the start the second half after trailing 10-0 earlier in the game. All the momentum was with Arizona. That was until Kurt Warner’s pass for Anquan Boldin was thrown right into the gut of Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison. Harrison’s wild length of the field interception return will be one of the most memorable plays in Super Bowl history and also one of the most infamous.

3. Bad Officiating

The officiating in Super Bowl XLII was downright embarrassing – plain and simple. The Harrison interception return completely changed the complexion of the game and the play should have never resulted in a touchdown. First, it is debatable if Harrison even reaches the endzone on the play and while the play was reviewed it can be argued that he was down before the ball broke the goal line. While the Harrison play is debatable, it should have been a moot point. Harrison would have been knocked out of bounds at the Cardinals’ thirty yard by Arizona running back Tim Hightower if it wasn’t for an obvious illegal block in the back by the Steelers’ Lamar Woodley. Well, the foul was obvious to most everybody but the officials who failed throw a flag on the play allowing Harrison to score to change the face of the Super Bowl. Making the play more amazing was the fact that the officials threw a flag on almost every other play the rest of the game.


Not clipping, but you get the idea.


4. Big Players Making Big Plays

Despite the lousy officiating, there were some wonderful individual performances in this game. Kurt Warner dismantled the Steelers’ vaunted defense in the fourth quarter on his way to the second best passing performance in Super Bowl history. Amazingly, Warner has now played in three Super Bowls and has put up the top three passing yard performances in the game. Mr. Warner is on his way to the Hall of Fame. Lock it up. At the same time, Larry Fitzgerald introduced himself to the nation as the top offensive threat in football. Quiet all night, Fitzgerald exploded in the fourth quarter and his second touchdown left the Arizona Cardinals two and half minutes away from becoming World Champions.

The most impressive performance of the game, however, came from Ben Roethlisberger who avoided defenders and constant pressure all night to make the plays when the game was on the line with an assist from Santonio Holmes. Big Ben willed, carried, and dragged the rest of his teammates to victory. The Steelers had no running game and couldn’t convert in the red zone, but Roethlisberger was able to keep plays alive and make just enough of them to win the game.

5. More Bad Officiating

But the game wasn’t over just yet. After the Roethlisberger to Holmes connection gave Pittsburgh the lead, Arizona still had one last shot to steal the game. Only the Cardinals were robbed of that last prayer down field, but more inept officiating. On what became the Cardinals final offensive play of the game, Kurt Warner tried to buy time in the pocket before cocking his arm back for a heave toward the endzone. At that moment, the Steelers’ Lamar Woodley hit Warner’s arm, but the Cards’ QB was still able to bring his arm forward and football traveled five yards forward before it was recovered by a Pittsburgh defender. Looked like an incomplete pass, traveled like an incomplete pass, but ruled a fumble on the field. Surely, the play would be reviewed. Only the review never happened. Inexplicably, the Steelers’ offense was able to kneel on the ball to end the Super Bowl without a pivotal, highly questionable call on the field ever being reviewed!

The chain of events that transpired at the end of Super Bowl XLIII goes beyond explanation. The Warner fumble was clearly a questionable call and quit possibly the wrong call was made. Why did the upstairs official not rule that the play should be reviewed by the referee on the field? The NFL attempted to run some damage control the day after the game saying that the play was indeed reviewed and that the call on the field was correct. The question becomes when and how was the play reviewed? For a play to be under official review the upstairs official calls down to the head referee on the field. It is the responsibility of the referee on the field to then review the play from the replay booth on the sideline. This never happened. The play was never officially reviewed and the fact that this error happened in the biggest game of the year is intolerable. For some strange reason, however, nobody mentioned this after the game. For some reason, the entire incident was swept under the rug immediately. How such a blatant mistake could be made highly suspicious. Even more suspicious is how the five hundred analysts between NBC or ESPN all failed to question the ending of the contest.

One conspiracy theory for the reason the play wasn’t reviewed is due to a fifteen yard penalty called on Pittsburgh linebacker James Farrior. After the fumble recovery, Farrior removed his helmet on the field while celebrating. If the play had been reviewed and overturned, the Cardinals would of have the ball at the Pittsburgh 30 instead of the 45 due to the penalty making a throw in the endzone much easier. Imagine the controversy if Warner was somehow able to find Larry Fitzgerald one last time for the game winning score. Instead, football fans never had the opportunity to see Warner make that final heave and it’s a shame. For that reason, despite all the wonderful plays and moments, Super Bowl XLIII will forever have a black cloud hanging over it.

Super Bowl Pick'em

Welcome to the Bleeding Sports 2009 NFL Playoff Pick'em Finale! Sadly, this is the last Sunday with football until September. It's sickening just thinking about it. The NFL season just flies by way too fast. But don't worry sports fans, 72 weeks of NBA playoff basketball is just around the corner. Sigh. At least, we all have March Madness to look forward to. Before then, however, the Super Bowl needs to be played. So without further ado here are the Bleeding Sports Super Bowl picks from the CEO, G. Francis and The Pickmeister, J. Daniels.

G. Francis - BS CEO

Arizona (+6.5) over Pittsburgh

Super Sunday...Steelers and Cardinals for the World Championship. The fact that the Cardinals are playing in this game is a feat in itself. The bottom line is that Kurt Warner and the Cards are indeed here and I'm taking them to win this game outright. The Steelers have been in the national spotlight all season with seemingly everyone of their home games featured in the national 4pm slot on Sundays. The Steelers defense has been dominant this season, but they haven't faced an offense like the Cardinals. If the Cardinals offensive line can give Warner time, Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin will cause fits in the Pittsburgh secondary. The fact that Arizona head coach Ken Wisenhunt and assistant Russ Grimm were on the Steelers staff just two years ago gives the Cardinals a distinct advantage. Arizona used that advantage to defeat Pittsburgh 21-14 last season.

On offense, the Cardinals know the Steelers defensive tendencies and will take the Steelers out of their base defense with Wisenhunt's three wide receiver offense. Though the one unit that has barely been mentioned at all and could have the biggest impact is the Cardinals defense. The Steelers are average at best on offense and the Cardinals have forced twelve turnovers in three games this postseason. The Cardinals do a great job at pressuring the quarterback and the Steelers' offensive is the weak link. If the Cardinals can stop the run they will tee off on Ben Roethlisberger and force him into turnovers.

I expect it to be a close game especially with the way the Steelers keep teams in the game with their style of play. I'm putting my money on Warner, Fitzgerald, and Boldin to pull this game out for Arizona. Keep an eye on Boldin and Breaston especially with the Steelers paying extra attention to Fitzgerald.

Cardinals 27, Pittsburgh 24


J. Daniels - The Pickmeister

Arizona (+6.5) over Pittsburgh

You hear it all the time (and saw it last year) that defense wins championship. Pittsburgh’s D is damn good, you can’t argue with that, but Arizona’s have been playing out of their mind throughout the whole playoffs and will no doubt carry the momentum into the Super Bowl. To add to that, Big Bum loves helping out the other teams defense and the Cards will thrive off his mistakes. You can’t give Warner and his two beasts of receivers any short field opportunities, but Ben is going to do just that. Look forward to seeing fumbles, interceptions, and of course sacks as the Arizona D rattles Roethlisberger. Take the Cardinals with the points. Actually take the Cardinals to be the Super Bowl XLIII champs with a 24-16 victory.