The blown whistle play might not have been a huge gain

Oswlek · Nov 24, 2015

Zeus said:
No way to tell what would have happened if the whistle hadn't blown. My real-time reaction at the game was that Danny A had a lot of room to run, but as others have pointed out, Darby reacts to the whistle too.

What I disagree with is the narrative that the officials "lied" or that crediting Amendola with the reception and assesing the penalty against the increasing out-of-control Bills coach was a conscious attempt to rectify the original screw up. The replay/audio does show Amedola caught the ball just after the whistle, but it was very close. Remember - there was no reply. The zebras had to decide what happened based on their recollections alone. Only with the benefit of replay can we see that their judgment was wrong, but to assign to malicious intent to that is an opinion, not a fact.

On the drive home, I made the mistake of listening to Bertrand and DeOssie (the latter of whom is an insufferable, certified card-carrying knuckle-dragging moron). DeOssie's inflammatory intrepretation was that the officiatng crew blatantly "lied" (his word) saying the catch occured before the whistle and that the penalty was another "lie" that the crew arrived at in the interminable conference after the play. What a putz.

Agreed, which is why those claiming that Darby would have tackled him are wrong, IMO. The whistle was so close to the catch that his out-of-position-ness is not entirely explained by him giving up on the play. He still had work to do.

DeOssie is the sole reason why I don't listen to the post-game show. Whoever makes those hires is a ****ing moron.

jah · Nov 24, 2015

Amendola really isn't that fast. I'm sure one of those Bills defenders would have been able to Ben Watson him. Still got screwed out of points that could have very well cost us the game.

A Defiant Goose · Nov 24, 2015

Krepoort said:
They were blowing the whistle early all night. Anyone else notice during one of Allen's punt? The ball was still rolling when they blew the whistle and then marked the ball a yard short of where the ball eventually stopped. There was at least another play where in my head I was like "wow that was a really quick whistle".

I didn't study the replays, but I'm in the camp of the defender heard the whistle and let up before the ball got to Amendola. Seems like it would have definitely been a reception, but the defender was close enough where DA would've had to make a James White like shake off to get more yards.

Yes! I remember for some odd reason being particularly peeved by that. The ball is clearly a good foot away from where the ref spotted the ball on that punt

n6249c · Nov 24, 2015

QuantumMechanic said:
I think it was a makeup call.

As the replay showed, the ball was clearly still in the air so it should have been no play. And I'm sure the refs knew it, too. But they also knew that would have been massively unfair to NE so they basically took one for integrity for a change and knowingly lied about when the whistle blew so that NE could have the catch. That's why the conference was so long.

I think part of it may have been because the whistle was caused by Rex Ryan interfering with the official who blew the whistle. IIRC there's a clause in the "palpably unfair act" penalty that allows the officials to determine what would be a fair spot of the ball, so they might have considered that in their deliberations. In any event allowing the completion seemed fair, although it may not have mattered once the play was dead. The penalty would've made it a first down even if it was no play, and the Pats weren't able to do anything to finish the drive anyway.

n6249c · Nov 24, 2015

shmessy said:
Michael McDermott @mikemcdermott76
Watching the NFL Network replay of the Pats-Bills game. Due to "time constraints," they cut out the inadvertent whistle play. Unbelievable.

Retweeted by Mark Daniels

why am I not surprised?

pdangle · Nov 24, 2015

Yeah pretty clearly a catch & defender lets up when he hears the whistle. Of course DA might have broken free, but I'm fine with the spot of catch + 15. Mistakes happen. Usually we see the dreaded inadvertent whistle in hockey where it's not terribly uncommon.

Kontradiction · Nov 24, 2015

shmessy said:
Michael McDermott @mikemcdermott76
Watching the NFL Network replay of the Pats-Bills game. Due to "time constraints," they cut out the inadvertent whistle play. Unbelievable.

Retweeted by Mark Daniels

Of course they did. Like I said in the other thread, this sport is almost getting too tedious to follow. Last night's game was the first primetime Pats game that I've ever made the conscious decision to turn off. Ryan, it looked like to me, pulled a Tomlin. He should have gotten tossed. But yeah, if I want to see borderline and shady calls go against my team and other teams, I can watch the NBA for that.

Wheelman · Nov 24, 2015

Joker said:
https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/3C...p4?versionId=Tur4N7p09e5sVNk_IJqzD5vIVRrh0PNg
Preposterous "whistle"...even more preposterous "Darby would have made the tackle!!!!" gaa gaa goonyism. I was THERE. That was a sure TD or at least three points. You surrender monkey "Pats fans" are ridiculous with your constant agreeing with what is OBVIOUSLY an NFL sham show.

Thank you for boo'ing those scumbag refs.

bobbutts · Nov 24, 2015

Danny said:
That was the loudest booing I've heard at Gillette in years.

Inadvertent whistle cuts Patriots' big play short - NFL Videos

I hated it in the context of half the fans leaving before the game was over. Seems we're more interested in playing the victim vs. making things difficult for the opponent with noise.
If people aren't able to stay awake for the entire game, give your tickets to a real fan please.

shmessy · Nov 24, 2015

....and now it comes out that the REAL BLAME may not be on the refs, but on the league.

Turns out the linesman who blew the inadvertent whistle is Gary Arthur who was in just his second game back after breaking 9 ribs and having a collapsed lung during a Rams game on 9/14.

Report: Ravens-Broncos game official suffers 9 broken ribs, collapsed lung - CBSSports.com

Dude was cringing as the play was approaching him.......

So the league doesn't only rush back concussed players, but refs with PTSD also.

.

1960Pats · Nov 24, 2015

It's amazing how differently people see the same things, even with a clear video to view.

The whistle blew when the somewhat floated pass was 5 yards from Amendola and the nearby defender clearly let up as soon as he heard it. Throw in the fact that the correct call should have been to play the play over and the Pats caught a break.

Ice_Ice_Brady · Nov 24, 2015

1960Pats said:
It's amazing how differently people see the same things, even with a clear video to view.

The whistle blew when the somewhat floated pass was 5 yards from Amendola and the nearby defender clearly let up as soon as he heard it. Throw in the fact that the correct call should have been to play the play over and the Pats caught a break.

Confirmation bias - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1960Pats · Nov 24, 2015

Ice_Ice_Brady said:
Confirmation bias - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks. I knew there was a name for it. It's especially amazing when you consider that there's a video with sound that shows it all.

Fencer · Nov 24, 2015

Joker said:
Amendola had already beat Darby and had the whole sideline with one defender to beat.

Yes, but the ball wasn't perfectly placed, which is excusable considering the circumstances under which Brady threw it.

fourhour · Nov 24, 2015

Ice_Ice_Brady said:
Confirmation bias - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh, like the Wells Report!

Ice_Ice_Brady · Nov 24, 2015

fourhour said:
Oh, like the Wells Report!

I would say the entire Defamegate disaster was a result of Confirmation Bias.

mosi · Nov 24, 2015

I said this and got lambasted for it, but there are no difference between the replacement refs and the real refs. There are just as many missed calls as bogus calls and every game has a stupid ref call that happens.

For the most part, these guys took the time to get the right call made. That was at least a good thing.
Nothing you can do when the ref blows the whistle except do what they did. The whole last drive by the Bills was also nuts. The refs just did a terrible job there.

shmessy · Nov 24, 2015

mosi said:
I said this and got lambasted for it, but there are no difference between the replacement refs and the real refs. There are just as many missed calls as bogus calls and every game has a stupid ref call that happens.

For the most part, these guys took the time to get the right call made. That was at least a good thing.
Nothing you can do when the ref blows the whistle except do what they did. The whole last drive by the Bills was also nuts. The refs just did a terrible job there.

What it all comes down to is this:

The refs are no worse than they have been in the past.

The difference is HDTV and camera technological development.

BB was 100% right when he lambasted the league at the annual meeting last March.

Put the cameras everywhere on that field and use the referees as little as possible, mainly to get the footballs down for the next play and to keep players from fighting.

Bobsyouruncle · Nov 24, 2015

1960Pats said:
It's amazing how differently people see the same things, even with a clear video to view.

The whistle blew when the somewhat floated pass was 5 yards from Amendola and the nearby defender clearly let up as soon as he heard it. Throw in the fact that the correct call should have been to play the play over and the Pats caught a break.

Really, think about how fast a ball is moving. Let's say the ball is going 30mph (which is extremely slow, it was probably faster). That's about 44 feet per second. So the last 5 feet of travel is .11 seconds.

I'm not buying the whole thing that the separation was caused by the whistle. 1/10th of a second caused some big change by the CB? Amendola had him beat, the CB gave up after the catch when he had time to react. Maybe he could have caught him but the separation wasn't changed by the whistle. Big catch and run, whistle or not.

Tony2046 · Nov 24, 2015

shmessy said:
What it all comes down to is this:

The refs are no worse than they have been in the past.

The difference is HDTV and camera technological development.

BB was 100% right when he lambasted the league at the annual meeting last March.

Put the cameras everywhere on that field and use the referees as little as possible, mainly to get the footballs down for the next play and to keep players from fighting.

Including every play is reviewable.

The blown whistle play might not have been a huge gain

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