Tripping calls were bad, but definitely a cop out.

What jones is mad about Is he was expecting Boger to ref the game

Keyser Söze said:

What are you smoking. Slowed down, sped up or normal speed those tripping calls were abhorrent.

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I was not "smoking" a damn thing... I watched the game and all of the replays that were generated by this ordeal.

SammyBlueCat said:

I was not "smoking" a damn thing... I watched the game and all of the replays that were generated by this ordeal.

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Cats don’t smoke? Can I have your share?

Did the NFL also acknowledge their error in never calling the Cowboys OL for holding?

Soliel said:

Cats don’t smoke? Can I have your share?

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There was a 100% chance that if the Patriots beat the Cowboys the national media would concoct a conspiracy theory about the refs or Pats cheating. I don't pay attention to it anymore. When Troy Aikman, former QB of the Dallas Cowboys, has first crack at the media narrative, followed early the next morning by Skip Bayless, long time beat writer for the Dallas Cowboys, this is what you get. It's as predictable as the tides.

Gronk said:

I'd be pissed if those calls were against the Pats, so I get it if Cowboy fans are frustrated. There are so many missed calls, wrong calls, non-calls, makeup calls, there is almost no point in trying to understand it as a fan, you just have to hope your team can play through. I think Bill's perspective on this is pretty great, and it might NOT be unique but it certainly seems so - coach your players in techniques and strategies that make them not commit penalties! But accept that some will be called anyway. Fans can be annoyed and espouse conspiracy theories and whatnot, but when players/coaches/owners ***** about it, it just looks pathetic. **I will grant a caveat here for clock-related occurrences like TB's "game ending" throw away ball, that was just strange and I don't get it**

Also as was pointed out the league just needs to stop commenting re: refereeing. They are just making it harder on themselves, and it ends up more and more confusing for the refs every year - PI revisions, what is a catch, what can be reviewed, was he down, let's make sure every broadcast has a former ref to criticize the field refs in real-time on national tv, etc. The least they could do is support them.

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I agree with the bolded sentence and think that can also be applied to every fanbase. To me, the problem is you don't see this sort of outcry from the media when the Patriots are the victim of poor officiating. If you do, it's in the form of "Well, the refs favor New England 99% of the time, so they deserve their 1% of bad calls."

I saw tweets and articles mentioning the frequency of tripping calls and how rare it is to have 2 called in one game. That's nice, but none of these folks seemed to think Brady accounting for a quarter of all the intentional grounding penalties earlier this season was worth mentioning. Or when there was a disparity in OPI calls on Gronkowski compared to the rest of the league. Heck, a holding call on a defensive lineman during a running play isn't made that frequently, but I remember that being called on the Patriots twice in one drive against the Jets a couple years ago. Going back further, there was that "pushing" penalty on a FG attempt that cost the Patriots a game against the Jets. That was the only time that penalty was called in league history, but the only place you'll hear about that is in forums like this one.

Win or lose, bad calls happen every week.

We go on forums to complain and eventually move onto the next week.

It's the circle of life as a sports fan.

I got penalized for tripping at a Phish concert once.

JarOfMayo51 said:

Anyone who complains about calls in favor of the Pats just needs to go rewatch the 2006 AFCCG and stfu

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To be fair just because over time bad calls go both ways doesn't mean fans shouldn't complain about them when they happen.

I realize that most people believe the refs favor the pats most of the time but they must not be watching the games. I’ve been under the impression that the refs hate the pats

Soliel said:

I realize that most people believe the refs favor the pats most of the time but they must not be watching the games. I’ve been under the impression that the refs hate the pats

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From what I can tell, most fanbases think the refs hate their team and favor whatever team they hate. I get a kick out of it personally.

LightSkinSmurf said:

From what I can tell, most fanbases think the refs hate their team and favor whatever team they hate. I get a kick out of it personally.

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It’s possible that I’m doing the same thing. Have you ever watched a pats game with Boger reffing? Throws 20 flags on us and none on whoever we play?

FCB02062 said:

These calls were reminiscent of the phantom roughing the passer call on KC vs Brady in afc title game last year...

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And the non DPI against Edelman (the receiver Brady was throwing to) on the same exact play. So if the refs truly did their job on that play, should have been offsetting penalties.

VrabelJr said:

Did the NFL also acknowledge their error in never calling the Cowboys OL for holding?

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Or the dpi’s they committed most of the game.

LightSkinSmurf said:

From what I can tell, most fanbases think the refs hate their team and favor whatever team they hate. I get a kick out of it personally.

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That's true. We're all guilty of bias. When it comes to the Patriots, there are 31 fan bases, former players, executives, and sports personalities that hate them and flip out whenever the Pats get a break.

One of them looked like the guy stuck his leg out to trip Hightower. The other one was phantom, but yeah, apparently the Cowboys would have scored two extra TDs if we didn't get those bogus calls...

Soliel said:

Cats don’t smoke? Can I have your share?

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Weishuhn said:

Tripping on the O-line is not a common call. Felt as though the refs may have been alerted to it as a pattern in the Cowboys' pass blocking schemes. Makes it easier to not get beat inside on zonal blocking when you can push the defender sideways over the legs of your neighboring lineman. I did not find the penalties called as egregious, which made me think they were looking for it.

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Thought this too after the second call. Thought they were maybe alerted. The refs might have been getting complaints about tripping and looked for it.

What about the missed DPI on Dallas where the DB clearly arrived early and contacted the WR before the pass had been touched?

Seems it all came out in the wash to me.