Oh ok. I still think going for it is a sound decision when the defenses are playing that bad, but yeah, just do what you're going to do. That drawing them offsides shit virtually never works. Anyway, terrible reffing aside that was a hell of game tonight.
Bellicheck was WAY fired up that whole game. I never see him yell and scream the way he did today at the refs, and you can bet he'll be facing some kind of league action for putting his hands on an official. Damn, man. Last week the Pats had a chance for the FG and missed, this week they were beaten by one. The Patriots are 1-2, and I kinda love it.
"Loudest manure chant I've ever heard." Also I want every member of the Pats secondary to be taken out behind the woodshed and put to pasture. Perhaps along with the refs.
Did anyone else find it weird that right after the game ended Collinsworth said congratulations to Torrey Smith when they showed him on screen? Your brother died but you won a football game, congrats.
Did you watch the game? Because context matters. Hint: try subtracting the unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Can we shoot McCourty twice? I've never seen a group of people try so hard to mimic those inflatable noodle people they have outside of car dealerships.
Huh? You're reading too much into my comment. I didn't mean it as some reponse to you directly. I just posted that because that's a ridiculous amount of penalties.
Dammit Belichick, this isn't the first time they let a team come back because they get up a couple of scores and then switch into a soft zone defense. Also, say what you will about the secondary, but Id give my left nut for an edge rusher worth a damn. Good corners or not, you cant cover forever if you cant get pressure on the qb.
Yeah, I think he'll get home tonight, get into bed, his wife will look at him like "What the fuck did you just say on national television?" To be fair to Chris though, Torrey Smith basically did come back and play football instead of you know, mourning and spending time with his family. He could have been congratulating him on making a decision and at least winning the game, therefore making the "winning" decision. It would have been soul crushing to have left your mourning family, play football, not contribute or make any major plays after the entire stadium has a moment of silence for someone they don't even know and your team loses. Don't hold me to that, I'm just tossing it out there. Now I'm not even mad at that loss. Looking at the Patriots schedule, there are no more surprises. No more sneaky good teams, nothing that they should actually be scared of. Manning is not Manning anymore so Denver is a no. Pete Carroll coaches the Seahawks, not sure the Patriots should be scared of the 12th man. They have the Texans and the 49ers later in the year, but by that time, they should have Aaron back, a way to work in Wes Welker since it is obvious he's fucking essential, and the AFC East playoff spot locked up. A funny word being tossed around the league today or phrase was "getting cute". Josh McDaniel's needs to stop getting cute. He's not an HC in Denver anymore, use the weapons you have, and stop with these dickish trick plays on aggressive defenses. Save that shit for Miami, Buffalo, and New York. When they stopped getting cute, they drove the ball and put up points. Oh by the way Joshy, you can make plays for your godly TE. Late release routes work too. Kthxbye. Also, JUST in case the Raven's missed that kick. How fucking boss would Bill Belichick look? That'd be like Scarface if he didn't die level boss. I liked that gamble. I really did, because you're not going to get a hail mary or some crazy last minute drive against Ed Reed and that crew, just wasn't going to happen. I also am surprised the Patriots got stops at all. All pressure, but I don't think they got one official sack.
My bad, thought you were trying to say the refs favored the Pats. The Patriots penalties seemed ticky-tackier by far. I'm going to break into his house while he sleeps and whisper "no reverses" into his ear until his mind breaks. You've got one of the smartest QBs who ever lived, let him run his no-huddle, retard.
I'll just leave this here: http://smokinjaycutler.tumblr.com/ Helps to calm down after watching the refs piss themselves
Bellichick is the most pompous asshole in all of football. He doesnt give 1/8th of a fuck about getting fined by the league. He thinks he's above the rules anyway. In other news: Are the Cardinals for real? Did someone forget to tell them they were supposed to suck?
Christ, this explains a lot: I'll say it again: Pro sports leagues need to get younger officials managing their games and get rid of the crusty old fossils who shouldn't even be managing a Perkins, let alone a professional sports game. I'm pretty much firmly in the belief that at least 70% of officiating errors from regular officials are due to the fact that the seemingly average age of the referees is 60+. More from the same article: The league being in favor of this almost makes putting up with the scabs tolerable, because I'm all in favor of anything that gets the nursing home set off the field and replaced with new blood. Unfortunately the scabs are seemingly getting worse week-by-week, instead of better.
Do you know what the definition of "surprises" and "sneaky good teams" are? Those are teams that you don't see as threats on the schedule. If you looked at the schedule, and said "oh, that's a good team we have to watch out for" - then it's not a surprise, is it? The fact that you don't see the Seahawks as that kind of team proves my point, actually. Back on the officiating topic, I feel bad for these refs. They're so far out of their pay grade, and it's not really their fault. This shit is happening at a million miles an hour, off by small margins, and scrutinized so closely - they don't stand a chance. In the end, though, it doesn't matter, because it's affecting the games significantly.
OK, forget for a minute that I'm a Pats fan. Forget who won or lost last night. As a person who has watched a LOT of football, last night's Pats-Ravens game was the worst officiating I've ever seen. I think there were more defensive holding calls in that game than I've ever seen in all the other games I've watched in my lifetime combined. There were multiple phantom calls, missed calls, fucked up calls and it was so inconsistent, it was just hard to watch. There were 11 or 12 first downs by penalty in that game. I'm honestly surprised there weren't any serious injuries last night, or a brawl with how chippy it was from the get-go. I don't know what the big dispute is with the league and the refs, I honestly haven't paid too much attention to it, but they need to iron that shit out immediately.
No no no. We know who the "sneaky" good teams are now, no one is flying under the radar in the NFL. Every team has 30 blogs and radio stations talking about it. There aren't going to be any more surprises like the Cardinals. The Seahawks at home are no secret, they're good at home. They're also not undefeated at home in the last few years. Their sound is NOT going to rattle the offense/Tom Brady more than any other away stadium sound is going to rattle him. Marshawn Lynch is not going to be juking the Patriots offense out their shoes like Ray Rice just did. Bill Belichick isn't going to get out coached with 3 weeks of game tape going against Pete "Let me get out of USC before my name gets besmirched by all the illegal shit I knew was going on" Carroll. IF the Seahawks win, it won't be a "surprise" it'll be a game where they just played better. 1/8th? Egregious overstatement. Bill Belichick cares about winning rings so he can have you lowly peasants kiss them, then wash your stink off afterwards.
Frankly I'm shocked at how meek and well-behaved the coaches and players have been about this bullshit. I'm amazed that someone hasn't come out verbally swinging at Goodell about the referees. While I don't really doubt that the correct call was made, the fact that whether a field goal pass over or outside the uprights is "non-reviewable" is absolute horseshit. If anything should be reviewable, that would be it.
You realize that Goodell has little if nothing to do with the referee situation, right? There are 3 parties involved, same as with the CBA last year: the players (or in this case the refs), the owners and the NFL. Goodell, as head of the NFL, is a spokesman for the owners. The NFL is not negotiating with the referees, the owners are. And I know everybody says the owners should just cave and give up the $4million in extra salary that the refs are asking for, but do you know what ELSE the refs are asking for? More money, despite making mid 6-figures for a part time job, including full time and fully vested/grandfathered benefits. The owners countered with, if you want FT benefits and more pay, then become FT employees and work year round in training and testing and give up your other jobs. The refs refused as most of them make as much if not more in their private jobs that they do as refs. The refs are also demanding that no matter how poorly one of them performs, they cannot be replaced. The owners want a list of backups that can be used in case they determine a ref's performance is so bad they need to be pulled from doing games. Not fired mind you, just pulled and retrained or whatever they do and still paid! The regular refs flat out refused. I dont like the replacement refs, but Im not nuts about the regular refs trying to hold the game hostage either. This is why the NFL HAS to proceed with the replacement refs because unlike the players during their CBA negotiations, the regular refs have more than adequate alternate sources of income and can hold out forever. The NFL also HAS to back up the refs with significant fines for verbally abuse and physical assault.
The announcers aren't helping the perception of the refs being horrible either. Watching a few games yesterday, any time a referee had to throw a flag or make a call, the announcers just kept going on and on about how slow the game was and how the replacement refs were confused and didn't know what was going on. Some of it is obviously true, but you don't have to point it out every time a ref is on the screen.