Chargers I can never figure out. Doesn’t seem to matter what players they have, they just don’t win.
Thus far this season they are 5-8. Five of those losses were by 2 or 3 points. I think that coaching is a major factor in their lack of success.
Thank God the Packers are playing a not-great team. Love’s 2 turnovers/multiple missed open receivers and the penalties are killing them, but they’re still tied. Ugly football.
Not worth staying up past my bedtime IMHO.
Brian
That was a rollercoaster. Now I haz a sad. Was an exciting 4th quarter, at least.
These are a couple of crazy games tonight. Wild, wild endings. Miami gave up a 2 TD lead in about 3 minutes, but now they have time to drive for a game winning FG.
ETA: But the clock runs out as they’re at midfield. Titans with a huge upset.
I know I’m a day late to the discussion and I probably ought to just let it die…but fuck it, I need to procrastinate.
I won’t make excuses for Toney, Mahomes, Reid or any of the Chiefs for that mistake and the subsequent reaction, but I’m quite sympathetic. The Chiefs have been absolutely jobbed in a handful of big games already this year, so I’m sure they are quite raw right now.
But more to the point, the Refs are completely inconsistent about neutral zone infractions. You can watch games and on any given play there’s like a 50-50 chance that a player will be in the neutral zone or otherwise lined up improperly. It might be a DL hanging over the ball, especially in short yardage. It might be a WR doing just what Toney did (though usually closer to the boundary). It might be an OT lining up way too far back on passing downs (remember Week 1). Probably the most repeated issue is WRs who seem to be simultaneously on and off the line. You’ll have 2 guys split and they are basically at the same depth even though one is supposed to be on the line and one off. This stuff usually doesn’t impact a given play one way or another, but they definitely don’t enforce it consistently.
The above doesn’t even cover things like OTs starting their drop a half a beat early. Teams with two players in motion and the second one starting before the first is truly set. Shifts that don’t fully reset before the snap. And WRs who have a habit of bending their motion upfield before the snap.
With that combined with the fact that just last week everyone was telling the Chiefs how the officials “let them decide it on the field” to justify the no-call on the MVS PI and the Kelce Hail Mary shove. You can understand where they are coming from. The Refs, in a game deciding play late in the 4th, throw a procedural flag. What happened to “let them decide it on the field”, huh? Of course, Toney was in the neutral zone, but do you want to bet that we can find a half a dozen in this game where another WR or DL was in the neutral zone and no flag was thrown?
I think we should all be upset that that incredible Kelce lateral will likely be forgotten.
PS: I suspect the play was in fact designed and planned. I think Toney’s mistake was partly caused by him being anxious about his role in the coming play. That’s my theory anyways.
I’m still salty that in a tight game with the Jags in week 8, the Steelers had a 50+ yard field goal taken off the board because the guard’s helmet was in the neutral zone (???) , then after backing up 5 yards Boswell missed the second attempt.
https://steelersnow.com/steelers-bewildered-by-unusual-costly-penalty/
In that article there is a screenshot of the offside guard. Even though he is slightly behind the center, you can see that technically his helmet is covering part of the ball. I don’t recall ever seeing this called as a penalty before, and calling it in this instance feels like the literal definition of Ticky-Tack.
OK, I was willing to let it die until I saw this.
Look at the pictures in this article and see if you can find a difference. I can’t. Except, of course, that one occurred in the first quarter and the other occurred on the final drive of the game.
Hell, go through every play in a single game. I’m confident you’d find other unflagged examples every week
The inconsistency is absolutely galling
I don’t even like the Chiefs but I despise the current state of NFL officiating even more
On another topic, consider the Titan’s comeback win over the Fins last night:
NFL teams had lost 642 straight games when trailing by 14 points in the final three minutes.
Teams are now 4-2,074 when trailing by 14 or more points in the final 3 minutes over the past 20 seasons. That’s four wins compared to 2,074 losses (The last team to pull off a similar comeback was the Saints in 2017).
The Titans are the first team in NFL history to make a comeback by 14 point or more in the final three minutes and WIN IN REGULATION.
It’s still fucking cheating. It’s a penalty. It got called correctly. The Chiefs weren’t jobbed, they got caught.
Chargers QB Justin Herbert is, indeed, out for the rest of the season; the team placed him on injured reserve today, and he’s scheduled for surgery on his broken finger today, as well. With the team at 5-8, and unlikely to make the playoffs, there’s little urgency to hurry Herbert back onto the field this season.
Worth pointing out that the defensive end in that plays is also very clearly in the neutral zone.
I’ve been on the "Kadarius Toney is bad"wagon since he entered the NFL. And he proved, once again, that he’s a fucking idiot who drops too many passes and is rarely healthy. And you’re absolutely right that his fuckup, once again, cost the Chiefs a win.
That said, I never, ever would have thrown that flag in that position. The last thing anyone wants, including the refs, is for the refs to determine the outcome of the game. Considering you could literally throw a flag on almost every play (be it holding, pass interference, etc), that the penalty had no impact on the play whatsoever, and the timing in the game, just either indicate to him he’s over or keep the flag in your fucking pocket.
So cheating is OK. Gotcha.
I suppose we should nitpick the 49ers in every game going forward. I’m sure they are always lined up perfectly.
You’re bringing a weird energy here. I don’t think anyone is pretending it wasn’t a foul. I don’t know why pointing out the wild inconsistency of the refs and the unfortunate timing (from an entertainment perspective) for when they chose to be sticklers is getting your hackles up.
The Vikings are turning to Nick Mullens as their starting QB this week, demoting Joshua Dobbs (who had started the previous four games, but had been ineffective recently). Mullens had entered the season as the Vikings’ #2 QB behind now-injured Kirk Cousins, but Mullens, too, had wound up on IR (with a back injury).
This’ll give the Vikings four different starting QBs for the season (rookie Jaren Hall also started a game).
Off the top of my head, the Browns have had 4 starters. Watson, Walker, DTR and Flacco and amazingly all 4 have at least one win.
The Jets have had 3, Rodgers, Wilson and Boyle. Rypien or Siemian still might get a start before the seasons out.
The Giants are at 3 with Jones, Tyrod and Tommy Cutlets. Seems unlikely that DeVito loses the gig barring injury at this point.
The Raiders are at 3 with Jimmy G, Hoyer and O’Connell. After they stinker in Minny we might see someone else before the season is out.
The Titans have had 3 with Tannehill, Willis and Levis. I think this job belongs to Levis for the rest of the season and the start of next season.
Will be interesting if any team gets to 5 starters by week 18.
When Dee Ford lined up offside in the AFC Championship Game following the 2018 session that negated an INT that would have sent the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, were people saying it shouldn’t have been called?