I just wanted to throw this in (1 Viewer)

[Bill]

I know that most of you will say that what I'm about to say is just sour grapes, but I've read a lot about how poorly our defense played and how the rest of the teams we play this year will now have a better gameplan against our "exposed" defense.
But I just had to go back and watch my game tape to see where we broke down, and I was AMAZED by how many of Pittsburgh's big plays was the direct result of obvious holding penalties that were not called.

Case in point:
Look back at the 72 yard run by Willie Parker that went off left tackle. (The one that MacKenzie had to trip him up) In a bold move to open that hole for Parker, Alan Faneca had to LITERALLY tackle the defender who was flowing to that gap to make the tackle on Parker!
I was shocked that the tackle was so blatant and yet went unflagged. Naturally if that was the ONLY incident I would just chalk it up to a missed call by the officials. But I saw more stretched jerseys and arms wrapping around defensive guys trying to make plays than I've ever seen before in ANY game previously. It was waaaaaay beyond the typical 'home field advantage' type calls.

Yes, the Steelers NEEDED that win, and it's obvious that they got more than a little help from their 'friends'.

 

[mvtrucking]

After watching the same plays again Bil, I agree 100%.You almost get the feeling that the refs felt sorry for the champs and just didn't make calls on several big plays yesterday.

 

[Saint Droopy]

This is true... I was yelling at my TV... it was obvious to us, but the refs had on the blindfolds...

 

[Pa.Saint]

Even Steelers fans at my house noticed that.

 

[K-SWIB]

i agree with you. parker did run great against us, but there were some non-calls. were there any holding penalties? hines ward blocked one of our players in the back on one touchdown...but even without the penalties, our defense has to perform better.

 

[gumbeau]

There was holding on several parker plays to the edge.

Saints need to try it next time we get that officiating crew.

It would be great to see Bush get the outside like Parker got it.

 

[CHEF]

I think the Saints defense definately missed Fred Thomas in run support yesterday. With him in there, no way that Parker breaks at least one of those runs, perhaps both.

 

[Jacob]

There may have been some holding, but the Saints got the benefit on a few calls as well. Please lets not travel this road. It's very Falcon Fan-esque.

 

[saintfan]

There may have been some holding, but the Saints got the benefit on a few calls as well. Please lets not travel this road. It's very Falcon Fan-esque.

Most notanly the Roughing the Passer call against Pittsburgh that gave us an additional 15 yards. I'm glad for the call, but it really was bogus.

 

[SpinnerSaint]

We got hooked up on a BS roughing the passer call when #91 was touching Drew Brees' shoe to hard.

 

[Jake]

come on guys, yall think it's silly that the refs feel sorry for NO but not when it's the steelers? I think our offense played the best game of the year yesterday. We were playing the superbowl champs and they were playing like the superbowl champs

 

[SaintsDrunkard]

Most notanly the Roughing the Passer call against Pittsburgh that gave us an additional 15 yards. I'm glad for the call, but it really was bogus.

Actually as the rule is written the officials got that call right. Doesn't mean the rule is a good one, but he grabbed the QB on purpose (there's no debating that) below the knee.

I'm not saying there was a conspiracy to give the game to the steelers, I didn't even see the holding on the parker runs.

I didn't even see (Cooking for the wife) an official knock down a wide open saints player on a critical 3rd down play.

I will say the steelers got some home cookin when they picked up the flag in the endzone.

After that however, I'll tell you that the Saints turned the ball over 3 times and still should have won that game. Sad to see an opportunity wasted like that.

PS....I hate the steelers with a passion....When the Piece of Garbage who likes to runs his mouth is forced to retire (Joey Porter) I think the legue will be a better place. JMHO

 

[mortenmo]

IMHO, the only thing that killed us yesterday was the turnovers, and they were not the refs fault (Although the first one I wish we'd challenge). Without them this would be an easy W with or without Parkers long runs.

 

[MamaRoux]

Two cents added here, just 'cause I've GOT to tell SOMEOME how I feel about yesterday's loss!

I was astounded at the number of "Holding Non-Calls" yesterday especially on the Pitt side of things(I'm sure they missed some SAINTS holding calls since there was such a lack of holding calls in general) HOWEVER----the CB's and Safeties we had in there were so focused on keeping thier pass coverages solid(fair enough) that they held their pass coverage positions and didn't release to contain the outside runs like our veterans (especially Freddie Thomas) would have done. Overall, having guys in our Defensive Backfield even I had to go look up (Groce???) just to see the background and how we even came to have them on our team!!!! That didn't help our cause much at all playing the SuperBowl Champs in thier own Stadium for heaven's sake! I know they have been on the schnide this season but still, you've got some really strong and confident players with a good Coaching staff helping them get there!!!!

I was also longing for our running game to get on track with a more solid gameplan featuring DEUCE and finally figuring out how to get Reggie in space to use that amazing speed and agility of his. He is an awesome athelete and conbined with DEUCE, we've got a rushing game that will break games open once figured out how to use them effectively and this need to be done really quickly here, IMHO!

So, with a piece-meal Secondary , some bad luck turnovers, a missed FG which has been a rarity along with the shorter Kick Offs(?) what was that? The winds there? The temp.? The air in the ball??

Allowing pretty good field position starts for the Steelers?Just don't know about all of that except we know a few things:
They were able to keep their composure after going down by 10 or 14 (can't remember exactely now) early, fighting back hard, turning the ball over three times at tough times and field positions and still continuing to fight tooth and nail with the SuperBowl Champs! AND giving them a game that traded blows , hit for hit with a very good team, Coaching staff and in their house and with them bringing the confidence of being the Champs who had been on an out of control spiral downward with basically the same roster as whent hey won it all last season,

I'm proud of our guys! Amazed at Drew Brees and Marques Colston, still scratching my head about why Dervry Henderson wasn't in the game more (anyone?) PLEASE, someone address this on this forum as to WHY Devry was not helping out more when that news becomes available!!!DEUCE is a BEAST who plays with such heart and determination Coach Payton MUST find the combination or blockiing scheme or whatever it is to make DEUCE and Reggie the Thunder and Lightening combination that can and will score from anywhere on the field! I KNOW that can be done and once that's figured out, let's DO IT!

Then, please, give our Defense it's credit! Use it more effectively, for example when blitzed, Big Ben could have been sacked more and forced into some really bad decisions (IMHO) so I'm jusat saying our Defense is almost a miracle turnaround when we have all of our first stringers ( we were exposed at just how thin we are at our Corner and Safety positions yesterday).

So I still love out team, I know we can't win 'em all and I'm so glad we're still #1 in our Division and THAT is one terrific turnaround.

While I hated the loss yesterday I was so proud of the way Drew and the rest of our guys played !!!!!! The enthusiasm and the comraderie and the fight they dispaly is something so refreshing and different for us lately that we can look forward to a great rest of the season and (dare I say it? Dare I mention it so soon? YES!!!) well, into our POST SEASON!!!!!! I still have my roundtrip tickets for the family to Miami! In fact, if anyone knows for sure of some great places to stay in Miami near the stadium yet still where you can enjoy the beach and whatever else there is interesting around Miami, please let me know!!


!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GEAUX SAINTS GEAUX !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[O MAN]

But I just had to go back and watch my game tape to see where we broke down, and I was AMAZED by how many of Pittsburgh's big plays was the direct result of obvious holding penalties that were not called.

cussing:

For what it is worth, I saw the same thing. The holding at the end of the line was obvious. Also, Colston was blocked by an official during a timing route. The official didn't even try to move. The end runs by Parker were MM biting inside, but I feel that they would have been less w/o the holding.