Seahawk fans should not take away any false notions about their team from this stolen "win"

Brushing aside the arrogance and ignorance of the critics can “buzz-off” comment of Mike Salk on the local  ESPN affiliate, the Seahawks 14-12 "win" over the Packers last night  and the NFL’s subsequent “explanation” for it shows just the level of embarrassment and humiliation that the league is willing to tolerate. I frankly found it interesting that the black official, Derrick Rhone-Dunn, was initially signaling the correct call on the last play of the game, but when the white official, Lance Easley, came running in to make the incorrect call, Rhone-Dunn decided to defer to Easley's “superior” judgment instead if discussing what he saw with him. Also of  interest was that this was the same crew that was so bad in the Redskins-Rams game that many were calling for the whole crew to be fired.  The incompetency of the replacement officials cannot have been more exposed than on that final play, the kind of nightmare call before a national audience that the NFL should be concerned about—but apparently is not, or at least the owners who don’t care as long as they are still making money hand-over-fist.

There were many “judgment” calls made against both teams leading-up to the final play. If you want to complain about the interference call against Kam Chancellor—which was, according to the letter of the law, pass interference—then the call against the Packers on first and 26 was legitimately egregious. If you want to complain about where the “imaginary” yellow line should have been placed when Aaron Rodgers stretched out for a first down, and thought that the Packers should have been held to just a go-ahead field goal, then you should man-up to the bungled roughing-the-passer call that nullified Russell Wilson’s interception on the Seahawks’26--anyone who remembers the 2009 NFC championship game knows what I'm talking about--and the way the Packers were moving the ball on the Seahawks’ defense virtually at will in the second half, they could have easily scored a touchdown to take what would likely have been an insurmountable 16-7 lead. 

Granting that the Seahawks manhandled the Packers at the line in the first half, in the second half the Packers at one point out-gained the Seahawks 185 to -1 in total offense. The reality was that the Seahawks’ offense once again exposed itself as decidedly mediocre. The only reason why Wilson is six yards ahead of Kevin Kolb from dead last in the NFL in passing yards after three weeks is that Kolb only played one series in the opener. Wilson is, however, dead last in yards-per-attempt. After the game, John Tournour (“JT the Brick”) of Fox Radio said that Wilson was “awful,” and that Seahawk fans who thought this guy was going to take them to the Super Bowl anytime soon are on drugs. 

Outside of Seattle, all commentators derided the NFL’s subsequent criticism of the non-call of Golden Tate’s blatant shoving of Sam Shields while the ball was in the air, but still upholding the touchdown call without actually addressing whether Tate actually had “simultaneous” possession of the ball. The rule states that it is NOT a simultaneous catch “if a player gains control first and an opponent subsequently gains joint control”—and M.D. Jennings clearly had control first; it was near a physical impossibility for Tate to have had possession at any point, since he had his arms around Jennings’ body, with only one hand on the ball when they hit the ground. Kevin Siefert of ESPN wrote “Instead of fully owning up to an inexcusable series of events, the league admitted one mistake and took an end-around to avoid the other. Its response comes nowhere close to suggesting the league has been chastened, humbled or deeply concerned by a game decided on two bad calls by substandard officials…I guess there's no turning back when your strategy is to fool people into accepting that a charade is somehow legitimate.” But of course the NFL is not going to reverse the final result—it never has. It would be too great an indictment of the integrity of the game if they did.

Whether or not this is the “straw” that breaks the camel’s back in regard to the lockout of union officials is a matter of opinion, but one suspects that behind the scenes, the way the Seahawks were literally allowed to steal this game may have consequences that fans might not care for. The replacement officials will be conscious of another repeat performance of this scenario, especially if it would benefit the Seahawks. And one other thing Seahawk fans should be aware of: A stolen win like this gives the team, fans and local commentators a false idea of where this team stands. Are they this “good?” The evidence suggests not, and they may have to find this out at a most inopportune time.