This "Immaculate Deflection" crap is annoying me

[Heyseed]

What did the 5 fingers say to the ball?...
"SLAP!"

 

[HawkWow]

Salish, I understand your point of view, but you're kind of wrong. Immaculate is defined as "perfectly clean" or "having no flaw or error", it has nothing to do with luck or coincidence. The Immaculate Reception was a lot of luck along with skill, The Immaculate Deflection was pure skill.

Keep those associations separate, IMO. I love the term, personally.

Exactly. The OP's rant was doing my head in. But I do prefer 'The tip', if only because I feel the play deserves it's own identity. It shouldn't be reduced to word play and / or associated with that Steeler freak show thing, imo.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Exactly. The OP's rant was doing my head in. But I do prefer 'The tip', if only because I feel the play deserves it's own identity. It shouldn't be reduced to word play and / or associated with that Steeler freak show thing, imo.

Yeah, but "The Immaculate Deflection" is far more accurate for our play than "The Immaculate Reception" is for theirs. Theirs is a misnomer by comparison. I'd love for people to think primarily of the Seahawks when they hear someone mention "immaculate" in regards to a play 20 years from now, rather than that other one.

 

[Vetamur]

Can I add a bit of blasphemy to the thread? I feel like Malcolm Smith gets ripped off in the discussion of the play. If it was merely a tip then the 49ers had another shot at the end zone. It was also Smith being there to catch the tip that was important. Isn't there a clever wordsmith out there than can find a way to glorify both parts of that incredible play?

 

[HawkWow]

Exactly. The OP's rant was doing my head in. But I do prefer 'The tip', if only because I feel the play deserves it's own identity. It shouldn't be reduced to word play and / or associated with that Steeler freak show thing, imo.

Yeah, but "The Immaculate Deflection" is far more accurate for our play than "The Immaculate Reception" is for theirs. Theirs is a misnomer by comparison. I'd love for people to think primarily of the Seahawks when they hear someone mention "immaculate" in regards to a play 20 years from now, rather than that other one.

Was that thing even a catch?

 

[RolandDeschain]

Isn't there a clever wordsmith out there than can find a way to glorify both parts of that incredible play?

The Immaculate Smithception? Meh, that's terrible. I got nothin'.

 

[HawkWow]

We call it The Tip. 9er fans call it The Shaft.

 

[HawKnPeppa]

Tippaception

 

[MidwestHawker]

Can I add a bit of blasphemy to the thread? I feel like Malcolm Smith gets ripped off in the discussion of the play. If it was merely a tip then the 49ers had another shot at the end zone. It was also Smith being there to catch the tip that was important. Isn't there a clever wordsmith out there than can find a way to glorify both parts of that incredible play?

I don't think there's any question that Smith gets a bit short-changed for his role in the play. His constant nose for the ball came up huge, and it's why I didn't mind him getting Super Bowl MVP honors largely for being in the right place at the right time against Denver even if others may have deserved it more.

That said, "The Tip" is perfect just as is. Smith can have his Super Bowl MVP trophy as a nice bit of compensation for being cut out of the nickname. Everybody (not from San Francisco) wins.

 

[Seanhawk]

I hate it when these analysts incorrectly state that if it was thrown differently it could have been caught.

A few weeks ago they were talking about Kaepernick's extension and Tim Hasselbeck showed that play and said "If he throws that ball to the back of the end zone, it's a touchdown". Nope.

I watched that 'TIP' several times, and Crabby came down just out of the back end, so it WOULD NOT have been a TD. :141847_bnono:
Tim Hasseldumb was just repeating what Simi-Colon Kaepersuck said, and that just proves how stupid a statement it was.
My guess is that neither bothered to review where crabs feet were when he came down.
And as was mentioned already in this thread, that was the second time last Season that Sherman made that exact same play, with the exact same results....And that ain't luck, that's the best Corner in the League making a fantastic play.

This is not a good point if his feet landed "just" out of the end zone like you said. I haven't watched it in awhile, so I don't remember. Crabtree saw the ball tipped, saw he had no reason to try and keep his feet in bounds. If the ball gets past Sherm he would have made an effort to position his feet to land in bounds.

 

[SalishHawkFan]

Exactly. The OP's rant was doing my head in. But I do prefer 'The tip', if only because I feel the play deserves it's own identity. It shouldn't be reduced to word play and / or associated with that Steeler freak show thing, imo.

Yeah, but "The Immaculate Deflection" is far more accurate for our play than "The Immaculate Reception" is for theirs. Theirs is a misnomer by comparison. I'd love for people to think primarily of the Seahawks when they hear someone mention "immaculate" in regards to a play 20 years from now, rather than that other one.

I think you miss that the Immaculate Inception was about a Miraculous Gift From God, which is why they called the Harris catch the Immaculate Reception, not because it was caught cleanly, but because it was a Miraculous Gift From God. No one will argue that skill had next to nothing to do with the Harris catch. Calling this the Immaculate Deflection is not only unoriginal, it infers that an act of God was involved, instead of incredible athleticism, training and skill.

And to Dom, yes, it's silly. I don't know why it annoys me so much, but it does.

 

[onanygivensunday]

It shall always be "the Tip" to me.

Being a former (and older) NBA fan back in the day of the Celtics featuring Bob Cousy, Sam and KC Jones, Bill Russell and John Havlicek, "the tip" so reminds me of how Russell would tip a defensive rebound over to Havlicek or Tommy Heinsohn when he could not secure it for himself.

And at the time, I was not a Celtics fan but I sure appreciated what Russell was doing... as I do know when Sherm is doing it.

 

[Russ Willstrong]

Wasn't the Immaculate Inception starring Leonardo whose character enters a niners dream the day before the NFC title game? He plants an idea for Kaepernut to throw it at Sherm to win the game.

 

[HawkAroundTheClock]

Wasn't the Immaculate Inception starring Leonardo whose character enters a niners dream the day before the NFC title game? He plants an idea for Kaepernut to throw it at Sherm to win the game.

Haha! Yep. And Sidney Rice keeps a football spinning so he knows if it's reality or not.

 

[Seahawkfan80]

How bout the Immaculate Volley? I know it is a Tennis term, but yanno.... :mrgreen:

 

[scutterhawk]

I hate it when these analysts incorrectly state that if it was thrown differently it could have been caught.

A few weeks ago they were talking about Kaepernick's extension and Tim Hasselbeck showed that play and said "If he throws that ball to the back of the end zone, it's a touchdown". Nope.

I watched that 'TIP' several times, and Crabby came down just out of the back end, so it WOULD NOT have been a TD. :141847_bnono:
Tim Hasseldumb was just repeating what Simi-Colon Kaepersuck said, and that just proves how stupid a statement it was.
My guess is that neither bothered to review where crabs feet were when he came down.
And as was mentioned already in this thread, that was the second time last Season that Sherman made that exact same play, with the exact same results....And that ain't luck, that's the best Corner in the League making a fantastic play.

This is not a good point if his feet landed "just" out of the end zone like you said. I haven't watched it in awhile, so I don't remember. Crabtree saw the ball tipped, saw he had no reason to try and keep his feet in bounds. If the ball gets past Sherm he would have made an effort to position his feet to land in bounds.

What I saw, was Sherman going up to bat at the ball, and in the process, he leapt with his back into Crabtree, and barely came down with his own feet in bounds.

 

[253hawk]

Crabtree would have come down inbounds easily if Sherman couldn't make a play on it. He took a small hop initially until he realized it was going to be tipped, then flailed his legs to try and adjust. Even then, he still got both feet in, but if that ball was thrown any deeper to get over the top of Sherman it would have been uncatchable/OOB at best (making Douchebaugh and Douchernick's if/shoulda/woulda/coulda statements all the more eye-roll worthy.)

 

[RolandDeschain]

There was room for the pass to be higher and for Crabtree to catch it in-bounds. The problem with the 49ers defense theory on this is that they are assuming Sherman was "out of position" simply because his hips weren't angled correctly to go up for an easy interception, so he tipped it back in-bounds.

The subsequent problem that 99% of 49ers fans are ignoring is the fact that, very clearly on tape, Richard Sherman is side-by-side with Crabtree as they cross the goal line. Sherman was already gauging it. If the pass was higher/deeper, he'd have taken another step before leaping, and you get the same result no matter what.

Not in a million years with Sherman being so close to Crabtree in the end zone was Crabtree ever going to catch that pass. Kaepernick should never have thrown it, end of story. Sorry 49ers fans, but it's irrefutable.

 

[HawkWow]

^ Not to mention, you just don't go after Sherm with a sorry receiver like Crabtree.

I was actually stoked with what I was witnessing as the play unfolded. I'm not going to use this opportunity to rag (more) on Jim, but it just seems Jim is destined to be one of these guys that outsmart themselves as in "they will never expect us to challenge Sherman, so this is a no brainer of a call". Exactly Jim.

Edit: And in defense of both Kaepernick and Crabtree, to be completed under those circumstances, the pass would have had to have been an absolutely perfectly thrown ball and even that throw likely would have been defended, based on Sherm's positioning and length. Kaep ain't Brady or Manning, so you don't ask him to make that throw (imo).

 

[bigtrain21]

There was room for the pass to be higher and for Crabtree to catch it in-bounds. The problem with the 49ers defense theory on this is that they are assuming Sherman was "out of position" simply because his hips weren't angled correctly to go up for an easy interception, so he tipped it back in-bounds.

The subsequent problem that 99% of 49ers fans are ignoring is the fact that, very clearly on tape, Richard Sherman is side-by-side with Crabtree as they cross the goal line. Sherman was already gauging it. If the pass was higher/deeper, he'd have taken another step before leaping, and you get the same result no matter what.

Not in a million years with Sherman being so close to Crabtree in the end zone was Crabtree ever going to catch that pass. Kaepernick should never have thrown it, end of story. Sorry 49ers fans, but it's irrefutable.

If he wasn't shoved he would have intercepted it for sure.