Someone grabbed Sony's facemask at the end of a run that was totally missed. Announcers didn't even comment on it even though you could see it live and in the replay. Haven't seen anyone mention it. I'm not overly upset about it but just put it in the "Chiefs got a break" tally.
Who cares. After 18 years of this run, I've come to believe the following is true:
1. Non Patriots fans will always say the Pats get all the calls. This started with the Tuck Rule, which was correctly interpreted and went against us earlier in the season against the Jets.
2. Non Patriots fans will always say that Brady overly benefits from roughing the passer calls. We know this isn't true and Bill Barnwell had a good article last week that quantified and dispelled it.
3. Non Patriots fans will say that Brady whines for calls all the time. I have definitely seen him complain to the refs, maybe more than some other QBs, but that's likely because the camera is going to show him more frequently than they will Sam Bradford or someone since it's Brady. There's no way to quantify it. Also he never whined as much as Rivers did two weeks ago, that was embarrassing. Also I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with complaining; he only does it because he wants the benefit of a 15 yard penalty. Wide receivers obviously complain about PI on any play where they don't catch the ball and nobody ever skewers them; it's the same thing.
4. The losing team will complain about the refs more than the winning team. This is universal. We do it here all the time (not as bad as Steelers fans though).
5. When people point to calls that affected the losing team, they rarely say "but the winning team had some calls go against them too so we shouldn't complain about it". That's because people are generally bad at forming rational arguments, although they are sometimes better when it comes to sports.
6. Very rarely do refs cost a team the game; there are almost always self-inflicted mistakes that had more of a negative effect than the refereeing. The Saints Rams game may be an exception but even then there were some bad decisions, play calls, and failure to execute by the Saints that should be kept in mind.
7. There has never been a time when the front office told the refs to call penalties against a team because they didn't want that team to advance. If that were ever found out, it would be the biggest scandal in American sports history. If you believe that, you should stop watching football; why bother if you really think it's rigged? This is also a lazy argument and annoying when people bring it up, and makes me discount their credibility in other arguments (example: Chris Stevenson).
