A question, please.
I've been ... somewhat mobile in the last couple of weeks, so I couldn't watch more than a few plays from the Cincinnati-Buffalo game.
I've generally taken the view that I don't hate the Bills that much, although I really dislike their coach, who is clearly a piece of asswipe, screaming at referees even when calls against him are obviously justified. But in the last couple of weeks, I've come to extend that. First, someone kindly posted a video of Josh Allen pantomiming and swan-diving whenever a defender so much as breathed hard close by. And then I've always been struck by how often the Bills defense lines up offsides and/or jumps the snap. The first Pats-Bills game seemed to me to be pretty well refereed, but I wasn't surprised to hear the Bills and their fans whining about calls against them that aren't usually given (especially not at their stadium).
Last Sunday, from the few plays I saw, there was something similar: a completely undeserved DPI against the Bengals where all the defender was doing was fending off contact initiated by the Buffalo player (Greg Olsen said: "Those are always going to go against the defender" -- not so, surely). Then there was a pass breakup against Kincaid over the middle where he started throwing phantom flags, although the breakup was completely legitimate: the safety went for the ball, got to it, and in doing so disrupted Mr Kincaid sitting down waiting for it. That is the way football is supposed to be -- or so I thought! Finally, I noticed that a Bengals cornerback was being held by a Bills receiver on the long scramble for a touchdown by Allen, but there was no flag.
So here's my question? Is it just me, or have the Bills and their fans become infected by Sean-McDermott-disease? And is that affecting the refereeing?