The only thing that makes me think that it may just be ref incompetence is the fact that if games were rigged and it came out, the ensuing firestorm and multitude of class action lawsuits against the league would bring the whole operation down.

That's an awful lot to risk, especially with gambling involved. I love pro football so I really hope it's just poor officiating. Who knows though. It sucks that it's even something you have to think about.

That's pretty presumptive.

Just because it isn't all-encompassing, doesn't mean it isn't worth anything. The refs clearly influenced the outcome of the Cincy/Chiefs game.

Maybe they helped the Chiefs in other games, but they did hurt the Chiefs against the Bengals.

Two fourth down penalties were legit.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">haven&#39;t seen anyone post these. i&#39;m trying my hardest to not see anything here. <a href="https://t.co/sJAMbHsdfb">pic.twitter.com/sJAMbHsdfb</a></p>&mdash; John Sheeran (@John__Sheeran) <a href="https://twitter.com/John__Sheeran/status/1478450796182265867?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I will say this - I didn't watch the game but have watched snippets on YT. This Chase dude pushes off on every snap - I mean blatently, much like DeAndre Hopkins has his whole career.

Tony Gonzalez made a career out of it. Some dudes are just really good at it.

Admittedly, there was a little something there on the last play, but that amount of contact shouldn't decide a game.

No excuse - he should be put to death Bryan!

I can't come up with anything that blatantly wrong. A lot of other teams' fans would say that our DBs (especially Breeland) basically got away with holding constantly during the Super Bowl run, as a partial example, though.

To be fair, that's how I wish the entire game was called (I get really tired of WRs getting away with everything and DBs getting called for ticky tack stuff), but you can definitely make an argument that the refs just got tired of calling it and let us get away with it.

RIP

Kelce has been mugged every game this year within the 5-yard area without a call. I'm not sold on that call against Ward, especially in that situation, when Kelce can't buy a hold within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. Kelce needs to fall down to get a call, apparently. But I've seen that not be called as well.

On the Sneed penalty in the endzone, sure. That is technically a foul. It didn't impact the play whatsoever as he continued on his route uninterrupted, but sure. It's ticky-tack in that situation given the consequences of the call.

And if you want to argue both of these were fine, the other late penalties (false starts, P.I., unnecessary roughness) aren't really debatable. Those were just bad, bad calls.

Lol bro a good amount of people on here think certain diseases are a hoax. You can't fix stupid.

I was reading the Bengals forum for the 1st half.

They could not stop bitching about the refs and missed holding calls and this and that.

****ing hilarious how that works, eh?

Bills fans would not shut the **** up about all the non-DPI calls in the playoffs last year.

When a team loses every fan base bitches about the refs. With merit or not.

Uh, what non calls. The Chiefs don't commit penalties.

Regardless, it's a penalty.

The ****ing Bengal had to re-adjust his helmet, ffs.

Our scheme demands that the DB's play tight, press coverage. Naturally we're more inclined to get DPI's rather than a teams that play primarily zone.