bastard officials

[fourhour]

As someone who was lucky enough to be in a crowd where I didn't have to listen to those two boring buffoons, I wasn't able to hear some of the important stuff. Can someone please explain to me what happened regarding Rex's challenge flag after the two minute warning?

 

[Jackson 2]

After every, single successful Pats play on both offense and defense, the very first thing I do even before cheering is look for the penalty flag symbol on the TV screen.

 

[ivanvamp]

Regardless of which team was being flagged, the biggest overall lesson to me was that the pass interference penalty is simply broken. It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. There is no consistency at all to its application -- and no other penalty that can march you half the distance of the field.

I think this game - especially that last PI penalty on Rowe that wasn't at all a penalty - is just a great example of how bad the PI rule is.

Not that that last Rowe penalty impacted the outcome of the game, but still. There's a play where the refs got it wrong, and it was, what, 30 yards' worth of penalty, essentially handing Buffalo a touchdown?

I'll repeat my suggestion from years ago: Make it a judgment call for the refs.

If the pass is under 15 yards:
- Incidental PI: Spot of the foul, automatic 1st down.
- Egregious PI: 15 yards, automatic 1st down.

If the pass is more than 15 yards:
- Incidental PI: 15 yards, automatic 1st down.
- Egregious PI: Spot of the foul, automatic 1st down.

You don't want players mugging guys 30 yards downfield because they know it will only be a 15 yard penalty. But conversely, that penalty on Rowe, not only wasn't PI on Rowe, but even if it was, it was so ticky tack that no way should it have been a 30 yard penalty.

So yes, this involved judgment on the refs' part. Oh well. This is still better than what they have now.

 

[PF_SU]

I think PI needs to be reviewable in any case. The potential impact of the spot foul is just too big. A huge chunk of yardage all based on the impression of a referee.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

These are the two PI calls against Rowe. I wouldn't have called any one of them. The first one, there is a bit of contact, yes, but Rowe's turning his head towards the ball. The second one is just utterly ridiculous. Woods grabs Rowe's wrist and Rowe gets flagged for PI?

I think the first one is legit, he was impeding the WR from using both arms to make the catch, but its right on the edge because the WR looks like he may have just been going for the 1 handed catch and seems to have used his other arm on multiple occasions as a guard/barrier for the defender.. this one didn't upset me really, at least I can some what see the reason of you follow the rule to the letter

The 2nd one is a ****ing joke and should have been offensive PI, but instead they decided to give the Bills a free TD to keep the game competitive

 

[The Gr8est]

I think this game - especially that last PI penalty on Rowe that wasn't at all a penalty - is just a great example of how bad the PI rule is.

Not that that last Rowe penalty impacted the outcome of the game, but still. There's a play where the refs got it wrong, and it was, what, 30 yards' worth of penalty, essentially handing Buffalo a touchdown?

I'll repeat my suggestion from years ago: Make it a judgment call for the refs.

If the pass is under 15 yards:
- Incidental PI: Spot of the foul, automatic 1st down.
- Egregious PI: 15 yards, automatic 1st down.

If the pass is more than 15 yards:
- Incidental PI: 15 yards, automatic 1st down.
- Egregious PI: Spot of the foul, automatic 1st down.

You don't want players mugging guys 30 yards downfield because they know it will only be a 15 yard penalty. But conversely, that penalty on Rowe, not only wasn't PI on Rowe, but even if it was, it was so ticky tack that no way should it have been a 30 yard penalty.

So yes, this involved judgment on the refs' part. Oh well. This is still better than what they have now.

This is a good start, and I'll add my own addendum:

If thete is contact between the receiver and the defender, and it is not clear which player is the more egregious offender, keep the flag in your pocket.

Throwing the flag means one player was clearly the culprit and needs to be punished, while the other player was the aggrieved party.

If the flag us thrown, then which is which should be clearly observable to an independent viewer.

 

[JarOfMayo51]

The referees are ruining the game. The Raiders broke the all time NFL record for penalties yesterday. How they managed to win is a mystery to me. I was watching the OT period and got so frustrated that I changed the channel and missed the win.

Yea, the penalties are what is watering the game down the most for me, well that and park avenues blatantly obvious vendetta against the Pats

Growing up watching football, even into the 2000's, a big play would happen and you'd jump up, cheer, high five people you're with, etc in jubilation

Now, the very first reaction I have whenever an amazing play happens is a nervous reservation waiting to see if there was any flag thrown

Maybe it's always been this way, and I'm not saying that flags weren't thrown back in the day on big plays, obviously that happened but I feel it's like a new culture of the game nowadays because of the frequency with which it happens and makes it very unenjoyable. I don't have any hard stats or evidence, it just feels like the NBA now where there is a penalty constantly and the refs can just decide at any time whether they want to end a drive, keep a drive alive or reverse a good play

Ive been commissioner of a fantasy league for like 10 years now and this is the first year where I haven't given a **** about watching prime time games like SNF, MNF or TNF unless the Pats are playing. I didn't watch any of the Eagles vs Cowboys, I don't intend to watch the Vikings Bears game tonight even tho I have a fantasy game that will be decided by it as well as a football pool at work that I can win tonight


It's interesting that the ratings are dropping so hard, because I notice myself and close friends watching/caring less than ever before but I feel our reasons are different from most other fan bases, so the NFL is royally ****ing this up like they do everything else

A lot of my reasons are felt more because of the team I root for.. I find it exhausting now to be a fan and use the NFL as the outlet/escape from reality that it was for me going on 20+ years because of all the "gates" that are driven by the main stream media and social media.. as well as having to watch live Pats games with announcers that don't even try to pretend to be non-bias and just constantly spin everything that happens to paint the Pats in a negative light some how.. either with BS implications about their "cheating" past, or push a narrative that they just get all the calls to benefit them, etc..

What happened to the days where we could just watch a broadcast and they would throw out some useless albeit sometimes interesting stats and summarize the action on the field without this ridiculousy bias slant where they drive this anti Patriot narrative the entire game

It's just slowly sucked the joy out of this sport that I've loved my entire life and is turning it into a reality TV show driven by social media "trends" that is basically a sports version of TMZ.. 98.5 spent like an hour this morning discussing Josh Brown from the Giants and he's not even an active player.. I didn't catch a single bit of Patriots coverage for my entire commute into work