XL Rundown

Let’s see, the Seahawks had more first downs (20 to 14), yards (396 to 339) time of possession (33 to 27), and less turnovers (1 to 2). Sounds like they took care of business.

So how they end up 11 points short? Penalties, failed 3rd down conversions, missed field goals, poor clock management. And the one turnover they made was too many. The penalties and 3rd downs led to taking 2 50+ yard field goals, and they didn’t make either. And they gave up 3 big plays on defense. Seattle played Pittsburgh pretty evenly overall, but the handful of plays that were one-sided, all went the Steelers way.

Key Plays:
Dubious interference call against the Seahawks, settle for 3 points instead of 7.
Big Ben straddles the line to convert 3rd and 28.
Big Ben gets to the 1-inch line and gets 7 points.
2nd and 10 from the Pitt 40, 48 seconds left in the first half: Seattle has a timeout and needs at least 10 yards for field goal range. Remember 48 seconds left. They run the ball for 4 yards and line up…they wait until the Steelers call a timeout with 13 seconds left. An incompletion later they miss a 54-yard field goal and leave a timeout unused. They had 2 downs to try and throw a 10-15 yard pass and call a timeout.
Parker runs for 75 yard TD. 14-3.
Big Ben’s pick sets up Seattle scoring. 14-10.
11 minutes left, Seattle passes to the 1, another penalty wipes it away. Now it’s 1st and 20, 2 plays later Hasslebeck throws a pick which leads to…
Gadget play touchdown, El to Ward. 21-10.
4th and 13 from midfield…only 6 minutes left and Seattle is down 11. So of course they punt. Game over.

So there were 9 big moments. One was positive for Seattle.



Ad Review:
Here are the favorites according to research conducted by USA Today:



Clearly Anheuser-Busch has reason to celebrate. They ran 7 ads, and all 7 were in the top 11. Gillette’s agency should be fired. Last year they had the terrible 60-second spot that was too dramatic, so this year they decided to compare cold fusion to adding a blade to a razor. And the Mastercard MacGuyver spot was a great idea, but was poorly directed and didn’t have any of the tone of MacGuyver. Also, kudos to FedEx for using subtitles – easy to get the point even in a loud party.

Here were my favorites:
FedEx - caveman
Budweiser – stadium signs
Bud Light – falling through roof

That’s it. All in all, not very good. A lot of movies, a lot of commercials that had been aired before, a lot that didn’t seem special, and brown and bubbly? No thanks.

Even though they weren’t my personal favorites, I admire Dove and Burger King for being different.