Bengals quietly 9-4…GREAT performance by the offense today. No picks by Ginger Jesus. Sweet…
I’m a Pats fan, and I think the refs should have picked up the flag on that one. But an ugly win is still a win.
How much do they pay Mr. Newton, again? Hopefully not by the yard.
We beat your team, Lieutenant Dan…
What a difference the dome makes. The Saints looked like a completely different team at home this week after getting crushed in Seattle last week.
I heard some lady from the bay area saying Seattle should not be allowed to have any home games because the noise gives them too much of an advantage.
Let’s talk about Josh Gordon.
After having missed the first two games for a suspension, he’s racked up 1400 receiving yards in 12 games. Almost 500 were racked up in the only two back to back 200+ receiving yard games in NFL history, but he’s been a force throughout the year.
And he’s gotten there on an offense that has been randomly captained by Brandon Weeden, Brian Hoyer, and Jason Campbell. His team has no run game, and only one other receiving threat, there’s no reason for the defense not to focus their entire attention on him. And yet he’s been wildly successful anyway.
I thought he was going to be stopped this week. Belichick is good at scheming against a team’s primary weapon, and particular the Pats have shut down top WRs all season long. Gordon threw Talib around and put up 150 yards on him and a TD, and 35 rushing yards too.
He’s extremely talented. He has a fluid, long striding running style that hides the fact that he’s extremely fast, sort of like Randy Moss. He’s 6’3, 230, can use his strength to toss DBs around. He’s always gotten behind the defense with his speed, but this year he’s making strides at becoming a more complete players. He’s running well through traffic on WR screens and end arounds, he’s running more routes, making catches all over the field, he’s always had excellent hands, and he’s been working on his biggest weakness - playing soft. Not using his strength and body to box out and throw around defenders, and consistency attacking the ball at the high point. He still hasn’t been doing that to the degree that he’s capable, but he’s improving at it.
I’m not sure what his limits are. If he keeps his pace, he’ll finish out the season with 1748 receiving yards. You know where that would rank all time? Fourth. In his second year. In a season he was suspended for two games. With awful quarterbacks throwing him the ball. On a grass field in a cold weather stadium.
It would be amongst the most impressive receiving seasons in NFL history, and he’s 22. He’s a dipshit, he may not even really be giving all his effort yet, and yet here he is. Where does he go from here?
Oh, and this was the Pass interference that gave the Pats a free 30+ yard TD with less than a minute left in the game. And the ref clearly isn’t even calling the contact near the 5 yard line - he starts pulling the flag in the end zone. Weak. I’m not sure anyone but Brady or Peyton Manning gets that call.
This was going to be a tough spot for the Panthers no matter what. Playing at the Saints, for the division lead, a week after the Saints took a tough loss. Big receivers like Colston present a match up nightmare for them too. Good game by the Saints, but I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world for the Panthers to have their win streak stopped at this point.
From the refs point of view from where he was standing it absolutely could appear to him like much more interference than it was, he’s got both hands on him before the ball . At the least it could be a penalty for the contact just outside the end zone which would puts them at the 20 with 30 seconds to go and a ton of momentum. Of course they’re going to score there, only then with not enough time left for Cleveland to get a shot to win.
Not a good call, but as far as ref hose job tragedies go, not so much.
Looking at the video (game wasn’t on any channel I get) it looks like the wrong call, but not anything like the worst call ever. Probably wasn’t even the worst call in that game.
Feel free to direct all complaints about the ridiculous nature of pass interference calls to Bill Polian.
My guess is from his angle it looks like the DB’s left arm grabbed the WR’s left arm, preventing him from being able to get it to the ball when the ball arrived.
Yeah, agree; it looked a lot worse from the sideline angle (which the ref had) than from the opposite side.
But I don’t think the Browns really can complain too, too much about the reffing as a whole. To quote the announcers after a Patriots receiver got mugged on a drive-ending first-half play, “The Browns really got away with one there.” I was also idly noting all the times Campbell threw it far out of bounds while standing in the middle of the pocket and putting it in the ‘But Intentional Grounding is never called in the NFL’ file. Well, until the refs decided that it’s not OK when Brady does it. Brady’s fumble could easily have been ruled an incomplete pass, and a couple obvious lineman holds by the Browns not called as well, but I’d concede there were in all probability just as many by the Patriots.
All of New England gives this a +1.
Except of course Cleveland *did *get a shot to win. A long shot, but the Pats defense couldn’t even keep them out of very long field goal range. Again, I’ll take the win, but it was certainly an ugly one.
Exactly- I’m saying if that PI isn’t called, or the right call was instead, which would be the illegal contact, then it’s 1st down at the 25 with 35 seconds left. I believe the Pats would still score, but burn most of the clock, leaving Cleveland not enough time. It’s possible the call could actually have been helpful for them.
He’s certainly having a hell of a streak right now, no doubt. But the thing is, in order to call him great, he’s going to have to keep it up. Lots of NFL players have had impressive seasons that turned out to be flukes. Peyton Hillis and Trent Richardson come to mind. If Gordon can keep up this kind of production, then yeah, he’s going to be one of the all time greats. A lot is going to depend on whether he can gain the maturity to not hamstring himself the way similarly talented receivers like Ochocinco did. I hope he does, because he’s one of those players that is just breathtaking to watch.
I enjoyed watching him at Baylor but now unless he’s on Red Zone I only see him in highlights. Over the last 4 games he’s got 774 yards. Damn.
Yesterday was one of the most exciting days of football I can remember. I thought I lost my 16 and 15 until the very last minute with the Pats and Ravens. Now I may win the week. Snow, clutch wins, a 64 yarder and 90 TDs yesterday. What an awesome day of football.
Neither of these teams seem very interested in playing defense at all.
I dunno. It’s more like how I feel about banging a super model. I’m very interested, but I have no idea how to go about doing it.