yup

It's funny, I was more riled up yesterday, than I was when we were 3-4.

Then, I was of the mindset, and I think it still applies today:

Still a lot of football left to be played.

Yep, entertainment. The NFL is entertainment and I have been entertained a lot in the last 52 years of dedicated fandom.

For those that say we shouldn't watch if we think the outcome is predetermined, I just watched the finale of Yellowstone and it was predetermined.

Nope.

We can argue about motive all day when it comes to the one-sided officiating. It doesn't really matter to me. It ruins the game all the same. It's way more nefarious if it's in any way rigged of course.

One thing has become plainly obvious. The refs sometimes steer games to keep them close and to set up a dramatic ending. Especially if it's a marquee game. They don't want a 28-0 game in the first half. They want people on the edge of their seat for the entire game. It's all about people seeing those commercials. Sometimes blowouts in big games do happen and there just isn't much the refs can do about it. They're probably instructed to "do what they can when/if they can". I don't know.

The Brady refs in the SB was the angriest I've been over sports in about 20 years.... if a team doesn't play well enough to win, then so be it, but don't yank away their chances or ruin a game with bullshit calls.

So, yesterday was more of a nudge or a reminder heading into the playoffs for me... it was a great game and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first 58 minutes, just for the refs to completely ruin the final two (plus the DPI on the comeback route, which was a seriously bad call). But, by then, you're waiting on a flag to be thrown... I could only laugh at the dual holding calls.

It was a reminder not to get crazy amped and excited for the playoffs like last season (granted, this year has been crazy enough to not do so anyway).... hope they play in a great game or four in the playoffs and the refs let the players decide the outcome and only call what's there.

It was a laughable call because it was so terrible. Normally, no ref would make that call because it clearly was not even close to a penalty. BTW, the ball was also severely under thrown, which makes the call even more ludicrous.

Those calls in the SB completely neutered the Chiefs defense... And you're right about yesterday's game being a reminder, that any game at any time can be manipulated by bad officiating.

why did King Tonga never win the WWF heavyweight belt?

Between the SB DPIs, yesterday's call, and a few others I've seen this season... it feels like I missed a rule change about uncatchable balls and DPI.

I mean, catchable is a LITTLE subjective, unless Brady is the QB and can get a DPI call after throwing it into the stands... but yeah, there was zero chance the Bengals receiver was catching that comeback route (or poor throw) since he wasn't within a yard of the ball.

It would be nice if the refs knew the rules.

How come these threads never show up when we win?

This is how the NFL rigs games
 

Not really seen many (any?) games where we have to thank the refs for giving us a game we would otherwise have lost , have you ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

have you been to Detroit and Cleveland?!?!

Well.. I, for one, sure am glad they didn't call holding on WASP in the Super Bowl.

Yesterday's game was so bad because it covered all 3 bases :

1. TV ratings on 2 levels :
a - Cincy was on the verge of getting blown out when Pringle returned that kick. Had to keep it close for the 70% of the country watching that game.
b - instead of Chiefs having the one seed locked up and resting starters for a week before their bye, which would see PMII on the sidelines for one week and watching at home the next, the league put their most marketable star in play for (possibly) the next 5 games.

They're not stupid. They did THAT on purpose.

2. By not allowing Cincy to score with 2 min left, they basically made sure Mahomes never touched the ball again. Cincy's FG made sure the spread was covered. They couldn't afford to have Mahomes even complete one pass to put KC in line to tie or win. Also...they couldn't allow Cincy to score a TD. It had to be a FG.

Vegas won BIG.