Going into Saturday’s game, I would have been really really happy if the White Sox won all of their road games and lost all of their home games this post season. I would have GLADLY sacrificed possible home wins for winning the series this year!
Alas, their lack of starting pitching finally caught up to them.
How heartwarming. I guess if the defense wants to give a receiver a big hug as the QB throws him a pass, that’s not interference that’s just showing love.
Or at least when the Rams do it.
I saw a clip from the Manning Cast or whatever it’s called, where some guest who (I guess) is supposed to pretend not to know about football asks “So if a offensive player runs over the defensive player, that’s defensive pass interference?”
There was at least one instance where that exact situation occurred, and I was called as offensive pass interference. I wish I could remember the details and even who the offending team was; all I remember is that it was late in the game but still during regulation.
A tight end smashed into a defender, knocking him back and down, and since the defender had fully set himself that was correctly called as interference on the TE. I really wish I could remember more than that.
But there are edge cases, such as one where a defender tripped the receiver right outside of the end zone as the ball was coming toward them. It looked inadvertent; it wasn’t an obvious trip, just two guys running around and feet being crossed up, but regardless the end result was ruled defensive PI. And I didn’t have an issue with that. But it wasn’t the offensive player initiating contact, and it was the offensive player who went down (and I mean he fell and rolled) so to me it seemed justified.
That no-call on the Ram who completely wrapped up a Bills player when the ball was thrown looked like a case where the officials just weren’t looking at the time. Here is a Pro Football Talk article about it. (No video, sadly.)
And this comment summed it up:
“I would love #Bills Dalton Kincaid to sell this or beg for this call a bit more… He got hugged… should be a hold every single time,” Hayek opined.
Luckily, there was a link there to a tweet that shows the play in a video:
Looking at the video clip, on the one hand, the defender clearly hugs Kincaid for a second. On the other hand, Kindcaid was also clearly pushing off while making an out cut. And on the gripping hand, the ball was thrown 10 feet over his head and landed 10+ yards downfield, so it was not catchable anyway. I suspect Kincaid may have run the wrong route.
All in all, I can’t get that upset about the non-call. I don’t think the slight hold affected the play in any way given the throw.
That’s a slight hold? I can see an argument that it wasn’t DPI, but he wrapped both arms completely around him. And there was little-to-no push-off from Kincaid. It was a blatant foul that was missed and I’m having trouble seeing how you’d think it was fine. At minimum you could argue for illegal contact, as it was definitely significant contact more than 5 yards past the line of scrimmage, and that throw came out of the pocket. (Allen took the snap, took a few steps directly backward, and tossed the ball.) Here is another article talking about it, with another video:
The only really credible argument I can see is that the Rams were owed one after the refs made a bad call against them in the earlier Broncos game, where they called DPI against them (when it clearly wasn’t on replay) and that helped set up what was ultimately the winning touchdown by the Broncos. And I accept that. Though two bad calls shouldn’t make a right one.
Yes, he did do that and yes, it certainly could have been called for holding or illegal contact. If that had happened, I wouldn’t disagree. He definitely held him for like one second with both hands.
HOWEVER, I also contend that Kindcaid clearly tried to push off, and had the defender not held on for a second, likely would have been pushed several feet away, which would have been offensive pass interference. The only reason he didn’t go flying is because he was holding on 
Does that make it right? I don’t know, but I can understand why the ref might have calculated: hold from one guy + OPI from the other = let them play.
I can’t get super worked up about it, and if you didn’t have divisional hate for the Rams, you probably wouldn’t either.
That’s wrong and backward. You need to watch the video again. The moment the two impact each other, Kincaid is immediately grabbed. You’re painting an inaccurate picture of Kincaid pushing and the defender trying to hold on, and that’s why the grab occurred; that’s not in any way what happened. You do see a bit of a push-off attempt after the grab, sure, but that’s just a normal “get off me” move. The push was a reaction to the grab, not the other way around. It’s not even difficult to determine that.
The difference between me and the many people decrying this and you is that we have better vision, apparently. If I was just speaking from a perspective of “divisional hate” I wouldn’t have been harping on the officials for calling a BS penalty against the Rams in the Broncos game either. I have said that the whole game was robbed from LA. The Broncos only won that game because the officials screwed up. Emotionally, I am happy the Rams lost, but I dislike bad officiating regardless of who is at fault.
I also am not one of the people griping about the call last Sunday saying that Cooper Kupp failed to convert 4th down at the end of the Seahawks game despite what I’ve seen a lot of others saying online. Camera angles were inconclusive, and so you just have to go by what the officials saw on the field, as they have a unique perspective the cameras don’t. If they say he failed, I believe it. I couldn’t tell from my eyes either.
I can be objective, and in the case of that one play in the Bills-Rams game, it’s a pretty blatant call you have an unusual take on. And when I say “unusual”, I’m speaking factually here, because just to play Devil’s advocate I tried searching for anyone else saying he pushed off and I can’t find any. That seems to be a fairly unique perspective.
I haven’t watched the play, but there’s always the situationally-reasonable argument that the ball was uncatchable because of the DPI impeding the receiver’s route and timing.
I’m an iconoclast, baby! 
(Still can’t get worked up about the play, and still think my take is perfectly reasonable. But give me another four paragraphs describing how absolutely, positively, factually wrong I am and maybe you’ll convince me!)
That’s okay, there are plenty of published articles already doing that, so I don’t think I need to add more.
And in all honestly, you being an iconoclast is sort of cool, no snark intended.
Good luck to the Patriots next Sunday, I’m sure they are going to hand the Jets a nasty loss.