The New England Patriots 2014 Playoffs Thread

Phazael

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Yeah I got the homer neg treatment, too. Good to have a reminder of why I never root for the Cowboys: Their fans are as bad as the Patriots fans.

I am old enough to remember when this same sort of shit went on during the Aikman and Irvin era, because my team used to get fucked by it all the time back then. Jerrah has had the refs in his pocket to a degree. The dude was in charge of the officiating arm of the NFL for a while (might still be), which is like letting the fox run the hen house. The VP stepping off of the party bus likely had nothing to do with this incident (not even JJ is that retarded), but it is symptomatic of the larger issue of him being way too chummy with the refs.

Having said all that, Detroit had their chances beyond this and Stafford pretty much did what he does, which is lose to good teams on the road. The much vaunted #2 defense in the league is a mirage, because they played mostly teams with low scoring offenses or caught certain teams on a downswing (1st game against GB, LoL Bears, ect). Plus when you have Donkey Kong Suh and the hit squad behind him waiting to end people's careers, you tend to pull starters as soon as possible. Their defensive stats were almost as false as Cutler's passing yards; i.e. garbage time bullshit. The fact that the Cowboys chalked up their greatest playoff comeback in team history should tell you all you need to know about the real quality of that defense. They have a couple caged animals who are good at rushing the passer, but if you get past that (and the dirty hits), they roll right over. Any decent QB smoked them this year, in fact. That's why they can't take the division, even when GB has an off year. Its why Caldwell is going to be the next Mooch, i.e. a coach who's career gets ended by the cultural legacy of Matt Millen. They had everything they wanted going their way and just systematically shit the bed the entire second half, despite all their offensive talent. No one deep down thought Detroit was ever going to win that game, even when they were up 14-0.

But, no way do you go for it on 4th and 1 at mid field with that amount of time on the clock. Caldwell would have gotten canned the second he got off of the plane in Detroit if he had pulled that shit. He made the correct call, but the D folded (with some help from some dumb penalties by their still undisciplined defense) and handed the momentum off to Dallas. And the best part is that this will be the last time Suh sees a playoff game in his career, because no one outside of Oakland is going to pay for his baggage.
 

Arch

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I for one am prepared for our glorious Dallas Baltimore Superbowl. With both Romo and Flacco playing in the big game there will be too much elite to handle.
 

moontayle

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Dallas did a good job adjusting the playcalling in the second half. They tried to enforce their normal plan, run on first down, some empty backfield seconds, 12 (1 RB, 2TE) personnel, in the first half and Detroit was destroying them. Second half they spread the field more, 3wr sets, 11 (1 RB, 1 TE) personnel. After the missed field goal they scored on the next three possessions.

The PI call/no-call overshadows what was a really good game overall. That 4th and 6 play is a thing of beauty. Witten jukes the shit out of that LB and make, perhaps, the biggest catch of his career.
 

Hoss

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The penaltywascalled.

How about one example. Flag thrown, penalty called, both teams starting to walk it off, then a ref explaining that it was not a penalty


All of course beside the fact thatthe facemask was not the reason they picked up the flag. The official excuse was that the contact was minimal from another angle. You, and a few other retards, are arguing about something that is empirically irrelevant. I'm not even arguing football or sports with you, I'm just shitting on your horrible argument.
Why don't you listen to the Detroit coach? He said the same thing happened to them earlier in the year.

They picked up the flag because it was not pass interference. The ref admitted he made a mistake in announcing and walking off the penalty without conferring with the other refs. That's the bottom line. But dumbasses like you wanna bring up other shit when your argument fails, so I play along. I could list a few reasons it wasn't pass interference (and I think I have said them all in this thread). The facemask was just one of the reasons. The most obvious reason was that it was a bad pass that the receiver had no shot of catching. I brought up the face mask originally when we were talking about what the "right" call would have been on the play. The right call would have been hands to the face and defensive holding, which is probably offsetting penalties. It wasn't even really close to PI for reasons I have already stated. But don't take my word for it. The head of officiating said it wasn't PI. The officials on the field closer than 30 yards said it wasn't PI. One official 40 yards away and a legion of butthurt cowboy haters are the ones who think it was PI. That one official who thought it might have been PI, it should be noted, was the one should have been watching the line calling holding every 3rd play. I guess his close up vision just sucks and his long distance vision rocks, huh?

Yeah I got the homer neg treatment, too. Good to have a reminder of why I never root for the Cowboys: Their fans are as bad as the Patriots fans.
I guess that same cowboy fan is the one who negged me. Must have been because I said I saw defensive holding.
 

Foggy

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Why don't you listen to the Detroit coach? He said the same thing happened to them earlier in the year.

They picked up the flag because it was not pass interference. The ref admitted he made a mistake in announcing and walking off the penalty without conferring with the other refs. That's the bottom line. But dumbasses like you wanna bring up other shit when your argument fails, so I play along. I could list a few reasons it wasn't pass interference (and I think I have said them all in this thread). The facemask was just one of the reasons. The most obvious reason was that it was a bad pass that the receiver had no shot of catching. I brought up the face mask originally when we were talking about what the "right" call would have been on the play. The right call would have been hands to the face and defensive holding, which is probably offsetting penalties. It wasn't even really close to PI for reasons I have already stated. But don't take my word for it. The head of officiating said it wasn't PI. The officials on the field closer than 30 yards said it wasn't PI. One official 40 yards away and a legion of butthurt cowboy haters are the ones who think it was PI. That one official who thought it might have been PI, it should be noted, was the one should have been watching the line calling holding every 3rd play. I guess his close up vision just sucks and his long distance vision rocks, huh?



I guess that same cowboy fan is the one who negged me. Must have been because I said I saw defensive holding.
It was not a bad pass, it would have hit the TE in the numbers if the LB wasn't in the way. Rule 8, Section 5, Article 3(c) identifies as a permissible act "[c]ontact that would normally be considered pass interference, but the pass is clearly uncatchable by the involved players." You cannot run a WR over, have the ball hit your back, and say "LOL HIT ME CLEARLY UNCATCHABLE." Uncatchable, which is clearly a judgment call with no specific definition in the rule book, is basically a pass that is so far away from the players nobody can catch it even if no contact was made. Or, stated in a more clear manner, every pass Tannehill throws over 15 yards.

It was an iffy call and could have gone either way, the head of NFL officiating admitted as much. The refs missed the clear penalty, defensive holding, as well as the offensive PI. The defensive PI was on the line and they made a judgment call after conferring that it was not PI. No big deal, except the ref stupidly called the penalty and started walking it off. That was the real mistake. If they threw the flag, talked, and then picked it up without announcing anything, this would not continue to be a big deal. As for missing the holding and offensive PI, refs don't have the benefit of multiple angle replay and slow-mo; they miss shit, it happens on almost every play, and is part of the game. Move on.
 

Ambiturner

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I haven't seen anything that made that ball look clearly uncatchable. I just think it's pussy shit to throw this kind of tantrum over 1 call that could have gone either way with 8:30 left in the game.

The Cowboys pulled out an amazing drive in the end and Romo was clutch as fuck when it mattered most. People's cognitive dissonance won't allow that so they have to point at something else. Has there ever been a call with that much time left in a game to ever cause this much outrage?
 

Kaines

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I haven't seen anything that made that ball look clearly uncatchable. I just think it's pussy shit to throw this kind of tantrum over 1 call that could have gone either way with 8:30 left in the game.

The Cowboys pulled out an amazing drive in the end and Romo was clutch as fuck when it mattered most. People's cognitive dissonance won't allow that so they have to point at something else. Has there ever been a call with that much time left in a game to ever cause this much outrage?
A single call? No. An entire game's worth of calls?Yes.
 

Phazael

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I haven't seen anything that made that ball look clearly uncatchable. I just think it's pussy shit to throw this kind of tantrum over 1 call that could have gone either way with 8:30 left in the game.

The Cowboys pulled out an amazing drive in the end and Romo was clutch as fuck when it mattered most. People's cognitive dissonance won't allow that so they have to point at something else. Has there ever been a call with that much time left in a game to ever cause this much outrage?
I am going to call bullshit on this one. No one who is criticizing that call in this thread is saying Detroit would have won the game. In fact, everyone pretty much admits that they were in full implosion mode at that point. There are just a bunch of Cowpoke Homers who are so far up Jerrah's ass that they can't admit how bad that pick up was and that maybe the VP of officiating should not be riding around with Jerrah's hookers on his bus.
 

Foggy

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I am going to call bullshit on this one. No one who is criticizing that call in this thread is saying Detroit would have won the game. In fact, everyone pretty much admits that they were in full implosion mode at that point. There are just a bunch of Cowpoke Homers who are so far up Jerrah's ass that they can't admit how bad that pick up was and that maybe the VP of officiating should not be riding around with Jerrah's hookers on his bus.
The head of NFL officiating said the pick up was okay, so tell me, how bad was the pick up?
 

Phazael

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The guy who used to have his job and no longer gets his paychecks signed by JJ says the exact opposite.
 

Delly

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I am going to call bullshit on this one. No one who is criticizing that call in this thread is saying Detroit would have won the game. In fact, everyone pretty much admits that they were in full implosion mode at that point. There are just a bunch of Cowpoke Homers who are so far up Jerrah's ass that they can't admit how bad that pick up was and that maybe the VP of officiating should not be riding around with Jerrah's hookers on his bus.
This. Most of the people are just arguing the call, Detroit may have still lost either way especially with the shitty 2nd half they were having. Too many morons in this thread arguing about something that literally NO ONE is arguing. That PI call/no call =/= Lions winning the game. Stop being retarded.

The head of NFL officiating said the pick up was okay, so tell me, how bad was the pick up?
Yeah, like the NFL wouldn't protect itself as much as possible. Pretty much every news outlet, non-troll, and a fan of the 31 teams other than the Cowboys think it was a bad call to pick the flag up. Its fine if you Cowboys fans want to be wrong, you may have still won the game, but at the end of the day you're still a mouthbreather if you think that it was okay to pick that flag up.
 

Merrith

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The head of NFL officiating said the pick up was okay, so tell me, how bad was the pick up?
I thought the general consensus by the refs a day later was that a defensive hold should have been called, maybe not PI, but at least a hold. Either way still a first down. That said no one is claiming that a missed call cost them the game. Did it affect the outcome? Maybe, but who knows what would have happened afterwards. Much like the Super Bowl 2 years ago, sure there was obvious holding/PI on 4th and goal, but considering they had 3 shots from inside the 5 the 49ers really could blame themselves for terrible play calls more than any blame would fall on the refs for not calling the hold.
 

Foggy

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The guy who used to have his job and no longer gets his paychecks signed by JJ says the exact opposite.
Oh you mean the guy that has to say controversial shit to stay relevant because he is in entertainment now and also would look really bad if he went back on what he said on live TV. Ya, totally unbiased. Also, the NFL comes out against its refs on a controversial call several times a year.

@ Merrith, they didn't throw the flag for defensive holding so that is completely irrelevant to them picking up the flag. The refs definitely missed the defensive holding though.

@ Delly:
b57ff78210fd5626f23dd81f1037b4eb.jpg
 

Caliel

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You have to remember that some refs do not call games as tight as others and allow more contact. Luckily for the Cowboys, the head linesman is one of those. Most of the time, that flag is not picked up. The main problem is that there is too much discretion in calling PI. Depending on the officials, it can be called very differently every game. This is probably the biggest reason why PI will never be reviewable with replay. You want all calls to at the very least be consistent during a game, and that is the most we can hope for atm.
 

Kaines

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You have to remember that some refs do not call games as tight as others and allow more contact. Luckily for the Cowboys, the head linesman is one of those. Most of the time, that flag is not picked up. The main problem is that there is too much discretion in calling PI. Depending on the officials, it can be called very differently every game. This is probably the biggest reason why PI will never be reviewable with replay. You want all calls to at the very least be consistent during a game, and that is the most we can hope for atm.
This. PI/Illegal Contact in the NFL has become the same type of call as fouling in the NBA. Some refs call ticky-tack fouls in the NBA, some let a lot more contact go on before they blow the whistle. PI used to be more like traveling in the NBA. Unless it was completely obvious, it was never called. I think that is why most NFL playoff threads these days look a lot like NBA playoff threads. More arguing over the officiating than discussion of the actual games.
 

Chukzombi

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so does every questionable call get this much scrutiny in this forum? if everyone agrees that this call made no difference to the game and that the lions were already taking a shit, then why does anyone still care at this point?
 

Foggy

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so does every questionable call get this much scrutiny in this forum? if everyone agrees that this call made no difference to the game and that the lions were already taking a shit, then why does anyone still care at this point?
Because the Cowboys are involved. Everybody cares.
 

Kirun

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A single call? No. An entire game's worth of calls?Yes.
Stahp! You're going to give Gankak night terrors. That fanbase hasn't shut the fuck up about that game for nearly a decade. Thank fucking Tebow they won a Super Bowl, so it has died down a little, but the butt hemorrhaging is still there when you mention it.
 

Louis

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Pretty sure I'm more salty about Hoss finding this thread and also being a Cowboys fan than whether the call should have been reversed.