Unfortunately, several really questionable calls have impacted the playoffs so far. Dallas had one in their favor against Detroit and one that killed em' yesterday against GB. Honestly, I didn't watch the Dallas/Detroit game so I have no clue where in the game the PI/Woops Not PI call came. I imagine it was at a critical time because they showed it 3,856 times per hour. I'm a Dallas fan but no question it was, at a very minimum, holding when the defender tried to undress the receiver. Should have been called.
I thought calling no catch on the Dez Bryant play was a huge hose job. Definitely at a critical time in the game. Jason Garrett handled it well in the interview I saw with Chris Meyers. He basically said it's a 60 minute game and one call doesn't determine the outcome.
Last night, Denver could get nothing going offensively. For some reason, everything Manning threw was a 3-7 yard pass. The Colts played press all night and stifled the Broncos offense. But down one score, the Broncos punted. The receiver dropped the ball when one of his guys was blocked into him and cleaned his clock. Broncos recovered. While reviewing, they brought one of the former officials on to analyze the call, as they often do now. The official said it was clearly Broncos ball (Deep in Colts territory) After further review, the receiver was down by contact. Colts ball. Horse hockey. The guy never had it. He was out on his feet and never had it.
Anyway, now that the Falcons are out, I have very little interest.
Both calls yesterday were bad.
People can reference the Article 3 Calvin Johnson rule until they are blue in the face but the ruling was about subjectivity. The refs deemed the "catch it, tuck it, take possession, take 3 steps, and head for the endzone lunge" all one big fall to the ground and part of the catch, thus they could reference the Article 3 rule to deem it incomplete. If you consider all of that one big step, then yes, the rule called for it being incomplete.
Common sense will tell you that what Dez did was not one big catch and fall to the ground. He took posession, and then was advancing it with 3 steps. Only when he goes to the ground at the end of the lunge does he bobble the ball. My big burn with it is that it is supposed to take an Act of Congress to overturn an on field ruling, and this was a subjective judgement at best. To say that "the steps dont count as possession" is such a slippery slope and dangerous statement to make.
In the end, the NFL and its refs look like a bunch of buffoons - not just for that play but for all of their snafus the last couple of weeks. Yes, including picking up the PI last week. Just don't throw it in the first place if it wasn't. But if you are going to throw the flag, picking it up looks bad.
The Clay Matthews late hit on Romo not being called bewildered me. It was a TD on the play, but a penalty could have sent a message. Instead, Matthews and the rest of the GB DL teed off on his knees the whole game. The GB OL holds more than any OL not named Alabama.
Just bad officiating all around in general.
And I hope Russell Wilson pisses all over the Brady/Rodgers/Luck love fest. Seattle is truly the only team that really deserved to win this weekend. Patriots = Cheaters.
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