# NFL Playoffs Division Weekend **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 9, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426 "2015-01-09T19:21:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/81 "2015-01-12T00:23:25Z")
There is some pretty stellar cornerback play in this Broncos/Colts game. It’s fun to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/82 "2015-01-12T00:49:56Z")
With apologies to my Denver friends, I love seeing the Bronco’s season end early. Good job Indy! Take it all the way! ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/83 "2015-01-12T00:51:35Z")
Oh yuck, my least favorites are winning (NE, Indy). At least I don’t have to see the Steelers for another year. I’ll have to root hard for Green Bay from here on but the way Aaron was limping I’m not optimistic. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/84 "2015-01-12T00:57:27Z")
I hate seasons where I end up reduced to only having teams to root against. Based on that default, I guess I’m pulling for Indy and the Pack. To the fans of the teams left, congrats! This has been a hard hitting year for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/85 "2015-01-12T01:03:15Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Well, I watched the video again, and I guess I don’t see this the same as everybody else. Don’t go by the camera from behind Shields. Go by the camera from behind Bryant. Sure looks to me like he has his hand underneath the ball. You can see in the multiple views they kept replaying in slow motion that the ball clearly hit the ground causing one end of it to bounce up. That one was an easy call once they showed the replay. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/86 "2015-01-12T01:30:02Z")
Listening to the Broncos post-game news conference, it sure sounds like Peyton Manning just played his last game. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/87 "2015-01-12T01:41:25Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Listening to the Broncos post-game news conference, it sure sounds like Peyton Manning just played his last game. I won’t be surprised at all. He seriously faded in the second half of the season, and it was apparent today that while he knew what he needed to do, he just couldn’t any more. Well, he got the Broncos to a Super Bowl, only the third QB to do so, and he was worth signing. And now I guess I’m just a spectator. I don’t especially like any of the four teams left, and I don’t especially dislike any of them. All I have left to hope for is good Super Bowl commercials. Oh, I guess I can hope for a nice snow in Massachusetts next Sunday afternoon. I haven’t caught a good snow game this year. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/88 "2015-01-12T01:44:48Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Listening to the Broncos post-game news conference, it sure sounds like Peyton Manning just played his last game. That was depressing to watch. He seemed to be only able to complete 3-yard dump-off passes. Anything over 10 yards was hideously loopy, wobbly, and way off the mark. A shell of himself. That being said, shame on the Denver fans in the stadium for booing him. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/89 "2015-01-12T02:08:40Z")
I’m a Packers fan and can agree that was a close call. Still not as bad as the hail Mary “catch” that Seattle got against the Pack. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/90 "2015-01-12T02:41:19Z")
So what was up with the Patriots kneeling down on the ball at the end of the game? As we saw, it wasn’t the very end of the game - the Patriots ended up turning the ball back over to the Ravens with fourteen seconds on the clock. It ended up not being a factor because the Patriots were able to knock the ball down in the endzone. But if could easily have gone the other way and the Ravens would have won the game. So why did Belichick and Brady give them the opportunity for a last-second win? Why didn’t they run some running plays that would have burn up the clock and prevented a turnover? ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/91 "2015-01-12T02:42:49Z")
I used to think that one of my issues with the NFL was that everything is so ambiguous. Do you cheer after your team makes a great catch or induces a fumble? Well, yeah, but the play so often doesn’t stand: you just never know when a flag is going to be thrown, when a challenge is going to be upheld. That doesn’t add to the fun. Then I thought, no, it’s not the ambiguity is the problem, it’s that everything is so legalistic. The judgments so often seem to be based on obscure rules that no one has ever heard of. Throw in rules about ineligible receivers and the like and it sometimes seems that what’s happening is less a physical contest than a massive game of Who Knows the Rules Better. But now I’ve changed my mind again. It’s not just legalistic-ness, it’s that so many of the rules seem so completely counterintuitive. Today I watched a guy catch a pass, only it was not _actually_ a catch, because…because something about “football moves” and I don’t know what all else, and even though I am told by several very knowledgeable people that this was indeed the correct call _according to the rules_ and…it just seems insane to me. (And I say this as someone who was rooting for the Packers.) It reminds me of the game in the snow in New England when the quarterback was sacked and fumbled the ball, but no! It wasn’t a fumble! Because he was actually in the act of making a forward pass! Now, it wasn’t a forward pass by any reasonable definition of a forward pass; the ball was pointing straight down, so if he was passing the ball he was passing to a mole, but the rules said it was a forward pass, and I have been assured again that this is the correct call, and again I have to say this is insane. Oh well. End of rant. I do wonder, if I knew the rules better would I find it easier to accept that the NFL seems tom have its very own definitions for common words like “catch” and “pass”? A puzzlement. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/92 "2015-01-12T02:57:45Z")
Seriously go look at the Calvin Johnson not-a-catch from 2010. This is all very old news. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/93 "2015-01-12T03:05:12Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Oh well. End of rant. I do wonder, if I knew the rules better would I find it easier to accept that the NFL seems tom have its very own definitions for common words like “catch” and “pass”? A puzzlement. Every sport has incredibly legalistic rules, developed over decades, and in the case of baseball, centuries. There are no common words in these rules; every one of them is defined precisely to within an inch of its life. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/94 "2015-01-12T03:44:30Z")
The alternative is to just say “it’s a catch if a ref says it is, no reviews”. Is that what you want? ---
**Author:** ![Babini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@Babini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babini)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/95 "2015-01-12T03:55:24Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > It’s a crappy rule, but the receiver should know in that situation that he needs to keep full control of the thing until after he’s down by contact. Instead he took his other hand off of the ball and risked exactly what happened. The receiver probably knew that by transferring the ball to one hand and stretching it out, he was performing a “football move” (“maintaining control long enough to pitch it, pass it, advance with it…”). After he caught the ball and secured it, he attempted to stretch it over the goal line. This means that if he lost control of the ball after this stretch attempt, it would be a fumble, not an incomplete catch. Fortunately for the receiver, the ground can’t cause a fumble so in this case it would not have been ruled a fumble. Because he took his other hand off and attempted to stretch, the ruling should have been a completed catch. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/96 "2015-01-12T04:33:32Z")
I thought the Bryant catch was rightly incomplete. He was bobbling it when he was catching it and fell on the ground and the ball hit the ground and moved. Anyway how bout that Patriots trick play with the receiver declaring himself ineligible. I didn’t even know you could do that. I’ve never seen that before. It’s legal per the league but John Harbaugh sure was mad. Seems to me like bordering on unsportsmanlike deception but deception is how you win games 🙂 Also loved the pass TD by Amendola. Hoodie showed all his tricks. I wonder what he has left ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/97 "2015-01-12T05:01:00Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > If that was a catch, the infamous Calvin Johnson non-catch a few years back was also a catch. It’s a dumb rule, but it was applied correctly by the referee. Agreed, a very dumb rule. Both Calvin’s and Dez’s were outstanding catches that should be considered completions, but the strict interpretation of the rule says otherwise. Removing your Cowboys hate or love from the situation, all football fans should be disappointed in this ruling because it overturned a magnificent fourth down conversion and took the chance for an all-time great game off the table. Aaron Rodgers could have led the Packers on a game-clinching drive to cement his legacy as one of the best ever. There could have even been time for Romo to lead another comeback and shake off his choker rep or toss a pick and live up to it. Instead of any of those storylines, we’re talking about the refs… again. Get it together NFL ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/98 "2015-01-12T05:16:42Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > It was the ball touching the ground that caused incompletion. Not according to the explanation from the official. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/99 "2015-01-12T06:18:53Z")
They need to outlaw those damn gloves, then (non-)catches like this would stop being an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426/100 "2015-01-12T12:21:13Z")
> [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > Agreed, a very dumb rule. Both Calvin’s and Dez’s were outstanding catches that should be considered completions, but the strict interpretation of the rule says otherwise. It’s not a dumb rule. The point of the rule it to make it clear it’s an incomplete when a receiver dives for a ball, gets it on his hands, but the ball pops out when he hits the ground. That happens a couple times a game, and everyone agrees that should not be a catch. If the rule wasn’t there, the receiver could argue exactly what Dez is saying: He had control until the moment he was down, and only after that did the ball come out. Now if you can exactly define the difference between the common diving situation, and the Dez situation, in a way that referees can apply, and that doesn’t make the rulebook even longer and harder to interpret, and doesn’t screw up the rules for any other common situation, then knock yourself out. Heck, post it here to show us how much smarter you are than the league. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-playoffs-division-weekend/709426.md?page=6)