vrabel trip

[Joker]

well...that's not true...now if you said Patriots fans aren't allowed to use a site, say, like the Star...then you WOULD be right ...since all of you crybaby Indy fans can't stand ONE negative opinion of your goo gee gaa gaa pablum puking Peytie shrinefest that runs 24/7.

 

[Joker]

not you again....jeezus

 

[Pujo]

Here's TMQ's take on all of this:

"Once again, not only did the weather (stiff winds died down just before kickoff) seem to be under Belichick's control, but so did the officials. Disciplined teams commit fewer penalties, and Belichick teams are disciplined -- but there's a difference between discipline and seeming to get a free pass from the officials. A few years ago, New England won an AFC championship when repeated obvious pass-interference penalties by the Patriots against the Colts went uncalled in the fourth quarter; that year, New England won the Super Bowl without ever being called for pass interference or offensive holding in the postseason. On Sunday, the Pats were flagged just twice, for 19 yards. With 11 minutes remaining and San Diego driving, Richard Seymour, after the whistle, shoved Philip Rivers to the ground directly in front of referee Jeff Triplette -- no flag. During a play, linebacker Mike Vrabel spun around his blocker, then leg-whipped Rivers, causing him to fall and throw an interception -- no flag. Reader Jacob Robertson of Rock Hill, S.C., writes, "Tripping is a penalty in the NFL, yet not only was this not called, the announcers praise New England linebackers when they cheat." Robertson haikuized:

Stick leg out to trip
and cause an interception:
get praised on TV!

-- Jacob Robertson, Rock Hill, S.C.

Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, the CBS announcers, said nothing about the leg whip. Nor did they note that Vrabel's move came against rookie tackle Jeromey Clary, who was filling in for yet another injured San Diego starter. Although CBS was oblivious to the Patriots' uncalled penalties, both "SportsCenter" and the NFL Network's Rich Eisen highlighted the tripping flag that wasn't thrown. So even the league's in-house network was bothered by New England's getting away with this play!"

This shouldn't surprise anyone--the Pats have been getting away with this for years. The homers here are the only ones who can't see that. As I've invited them all repeatedly, go check out other teams' boards and you'll see that the rest of the League views officiating in your games a good bit differently than you all do.....

That's great and all, but no one in the larger world cares what someone's perception is on a messageboard - that goes for you, me, or any other teams' fans. I'll say the same thing to you I say to Pats fans who think the league is trying to hand games to the Colts: go watch every NFL game for every team for a few years and try to objectively chart the good calls & blown calls. Only when you do that will you get any kind of statistical picture. Otherwise I'd venture it's just a function of you homing in on certain teams and missing equally bad calls when they involve other teams. Bad calls just happen.

 

[RayClay]

I think you have it a little wrong in my opinion. I agree that they miss many infractions in the course of a game and I like a game to be flag free than flag riddled but when it comes to such an important play like this was then it's ok to question the refs. I'm not blaming Vrabel, I'm saying it was a crappy call. I don't think we would have won by any means. IF we were to play again then we would HAVE to be at full force in order to make it a game and this game we were beaten up pretty bad. That's what happens when you have such a successful year, you get a buy week to recuperate. It's just a part of football. But it's the people on here that simply deny that it was a leg whip that makes me smile.

I only saw an overhead shot. Perception is imperfect. There are no refs in the blimp, the play was very visible, obviously it didn't look like a penalty from field level.

Even from the blimp it was very uncertain if any contact was made.

We didn't see the field level shot. The refs had a wide open view. They didn't call anything, therefore there was no infraction.

Discussion over, go to the beach. I like Mission Beach, myself.

 

[jcdavey]

Here's TMQ's take on all of this:

"Once again, not only did the weather (stiff winds died down just before kickoff) seem to be under Belichick's control, but so did the officials. Disciplined teams commit fewer penalties, and Belichick teams are disciplined -- but there's a difference between discipline and seeming to get a free pass from the officials. A few years ago, New England won an AFC championship when repeated obvious pass-interference penalties by the Patriots against the Colts went uncalled in the fourth quarter; that year, New England won the Super Bowl without ever being called for pass interference or offensive holding in the postseason. On Sunday, the Pats were flagged just twice, for 19 yards. With 11 minutes remaining and San Diego driving, Richard Seymour, after the whistle, shoved Philip Rivers to the ground directly in front of referee Jeff Triplette -- no flag. During a play, linebacker Mike Vrabel spun around his blocker, then leg-whipped Rivers, causing him to fall and throw an interception -- no flag. Reader Jacob Robertson of Rock Hill, S.C., writes, "Tripping is a penalty in the NFL, yet not only was this not called, the announcers praise New England linebackers when they cheat." Robertson haikuized:

Stick leg out to trip
and cause an interception:
get praised on TV!

-- Jacob Robertson, Rock Hill, S.C.

Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, the CBS announcers, said nothing about the leg whip. Nor did they note that Vrabel's move came against rookie tackle Jeromey Clary, who was filling in for yet another injured San Diego starter. Although CBS was oblivious to the Patriots' uncalled penalties, both "SportsCenter" and the NFL Network's Rich Eisen highlighted the tripping flag that wasn't thrown. So even the league's in-house network was bothered by New England's getting away with this play!"

This shouldn't surprise anyone--the Pats have been getting away with this for years. The homers here are the only ones who can't see that. As I've invited them all repeatedly, go check out other teams' boards and you'll see that the rest of the League views officiating in your games a good bit differently than you all do.....

charger fan here, and i can tell you why this tmq take is ******ed

clary isn't a rookie, and he's not filling in for an injured charger

he took shane olivea's job away from him, and he's played better than shane at the RT position.

as a charger fan, i can testify that was one of the best ref called games i've seen all season.

a million times better than the screwjob they tried to pull on us in indy a week before the afccg.

 

[JakeLaMotta]

I'm sorry, my fellow Pats fans can be so lame sometimes with the "our players do no wrong".

I bet they'd all be arguing it wasn't tripping if Merriman did the same thing to Brady, just like they'd have been OK with Strahan or someone else poking his finger through Brady's facemask.

Vrabel tripped Rivers, and got away with it. Life goes on, penalties are missed on almost every play and are a part of the game. BFD. The Chargers had some bad calls against them in the Indy game and overcame them, like good teams should be able to do. Against the Pats, they just weren't good enough. But Vrabel's trip was a trip, and I congratulate him for getting away with it.

See, now here's an HONEST fan with perspective. Unlike Andy Johnson, who suffers from the "want to have it all" syndrome.

See, it's not enough his team won, no Andy has to have it PERFECT -- his team's victory has to be spotless, and it drives him crazy that people are talking about one of his guys getting away with murder. That's why Andy STILL refuses to respond to my point about what Vrabel did AFTER he slid by Rivers that proves his leg kick was intentional. Andy's just a little afraid of the truth. Good to see, though, that his fellow Pats fans are the ones giving him the lion's share of grief for his homer vision.

 

[Grogan's neck roll]

See, now here's an HONEST fan with perspective. Unlike Andy Johnson, who suffers from the "want to have it all" syndrome.

See, it's not enough his team won, no Andy has to have it PERFECT -- his team's victory has to be spotless, and it drives him crazy that people are talking about one of his guys getting away with murder. That's why Andy STILL refuses to respond to my point about what Vrabel did AFTER he slid by Rivers that proves his leg kick was intentional. Andy's just a little afraid of the truth. Good to see, though, that his fellow Pats fans are the ones giving him the lion's share of grief for his homer vision.

I see you're still doing that capitalizing for emphasis thing, and it's still annoying.

Check out jcdavey's post for perspective. YOU'RE more pissed about this than HE is.

 

[Deus Irae]

How witty. Are we watching the same play? I offered my step by step explanation of what exactly happened in that play. If you disagree I would love to hear what you think Vrabel or Clary did. While reading it I will replay the play and see what you're talking about. If you continue you're "Clary pushed him" or "it was an accident" then I'll believe what I see instead of short answers.

Even other Chargers fans here conceded my point about why Vrabel went to the ground. The fact that you refuse to concede the obvious just shows you're unwilling to be honest about the play.

 

[godef]

Did I flat-out miss something? Did Vrabel leg-whip Rivers on one of the picks? Which one? I'll watch the replay tonight.

Well, he came flying towards the QB and got knocked over such that his body went flying by with the legs end nearest the QB. Okay, it definitely did look like he tried to "reposition" his legs to get the Qb as he went flying by, but it's not like he was just sitting there on the ground and whipped out a leg to trip him. Definitely some grey area there.

 

[jcdavey]

some of us can move on (rivers) and some of us can't (hardwick)

it's just that simple