Collins needs to lose a hefty amount for that stupid hit.
Man, at this point Dallas should just put the cheerleaders on the field. They wouldn’t do any worse and would be more fun to look at on tv.
And they keep putting 8 or 9 in the box to stop the non existant Packer running game. I really don’t understand what Dallas is doing.
Clay Matthews.
Between the way the Browns have been playing, and my utter dominance of all things SDMB football, Sundays have been fun for me.
The Bills may be having a terrible season but you at least feel like they’re trying to win the game. With the Cowboys it appears that they like winning but not at the cost of putting any effort into it.
I think I saw that guy Matthews on the cover of some metal album. Manowar? He shouldb play for the vikings, just for aesthetic reasons.
The Cowboys just really laid down tonight. No effort at all. Just tanking it. Basically throwing the game. They must really want a new coach.
As punishment for this if I were the NFL I wouldn’t give Dallas any primetime games next year.
Of course they’ll actually get at least 5.
At least five. I’m surprised they don’t get an exclusive primetime contract.
Quote of the night: “The Cowboys went back to basics this week and they’re basically awful.” – Cris Collinsworth
I don’t think so. Incidental contact in that same manner occurs probably once or twice a game, and I have never, not in all the time I can remember, seen that called for that little contact. It’s especially outrageous considering it nearly swung the outcome of the entire game.
In spite of the refs and their blatant attempts to earn a little extra Christmas spending money, they did find a way to win.
As much as I’d love to see Kolb given the job and the time to learn the position (lumps and all, but as is common in Philly, the QB is never given enough credit), I don’t think he could have won that game. Vick’s speed was invaluable in a game where his O-line played horribly against a superior D-line.
Also of note: Peyton Manning was hit or miss with his accuracy, and at times looked as if he was being out gunned by Vick. Reid and company have done an outstanding job getting the most out of McNabb and now Vick, making both into effective passers as well as runners. So far, Vick is having by far the best season of his career.
Beautiful. Wade just said at the presser that he doesn’t even know who the 'Girls are playing next week. Just came right out and said it.
Speaks volumes, doesn’t it?
Everything is a little bit brighter when the Cowboys are embarrassing themselves and all their fans.
Perhaps he realizes that, from his standpoint, it doesn’t matter, because he won’t be there. 
That it gets called “every time” is a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s hardly rare: if you slap the QB in the head, even with very little force behind it, a flag is a likely consequence. I’ve seen plenty of comparable “hits” draw penalties before, and you probably have as well. I don’t enjoy seeing those calls any more than you do, but this isn’t a special circumstance.
You don’t literally think the refs were in the bag for Indy, right?
I thought so until I saw it in slow motion, and realized how hard Cole hit him. Manning’s head moved so much it looked like he was being grabbed by the facemask.
I can not recall another time in which a QB drew an unnecessary roughness penalty for so little contact as a glancing blow, like in that play. I still think it’s not typically called at all, and certainly didn’t deserve a flag considering the circumstances of the play.
The only reason that penalty got called at all is because Manning happened to fumble, and the refs mistakenly thought the contact on Manning’s head caused the fumble. Yes, he hit his head. But let’s have a little restraint here and not call every single glancing, accidental, grazing contact that occurs on every single play.
Here’s the thing. I don’t think the refs were actually on the Indy payroll, or anything like that. Everything I said about that previously was kidding in frustration. That said, refs are human too and are absolutely prone to bias and manipulation like any other person would be. This has been proven time and time again in numerous ways in many sports (make up calls, “Jordan rules,” pitcher reputation stretching a strike zone, etc.). It is absolutely certain that the refs were more prone to flag Philly than Indy and that this particular game wasn’t called fairly. I’m not trying to say the refs were actually being consciously unfair, but they certainly were unconsciously unfair. There’s a distinction there that matters.
The no call on the shot Celek took where the Indy defender, literally, charged up and lifted off the ground, leading with his helmet into Celek’s chin, and caused an incompletion was an atrocity. It’s likely that defender will be fined for that hit during the week, even. Vick getting tossed to the ground four yards out of bounds was maddening as well. The “false start” call on a crucial 3rd and 2 where the left side of Indy’s D-line were all flinching as they tried to induce a false start was disgusting. The Collie penalty. The next play with the phantom facemask where the defender’s hand never even came near the facemask, but because the Indy player’s head kinda jerked they whistled it anyway (“Er, you don’t actually have to touch a facemask for a facemask penalty” …for fuck’s sake…). The Avant touchdown wiped out… for no reason. All of these calls went against Philly in crucial points of the game. Philly got the benefit of one or two no calls too, but this was an embarrassment. It was so one sided it’s comical.
Long answer short: No, I don’t think they were in the bag for Indy. But they didn’t call a fair game either. And the conspiracy theorist in me just wants to point out that the line for the game was Indy +3. So it is suspicious enough to make me angry.
I think you misremember. Manning’s head didn’t move even a quarter turn when Cole’s hand brushed against it. It was an awful call made even worse because of the situation. I think you need a hell of a lot more to justify a call that reverses the game ending play in a close game.
Twice today we saw teams run on 4th down (and 5+ yards to go) in field goal range late in the fourth quarter of blowouts. In addition to earlier this season when the Giants did it, (vs Texans, maybe?) we had the Giants do it in Seattle (for a first down, after which they knelt 3 times to end the game) and the Packers do it (for a turnover on downs.)
Whoever it was last year arguing that the Vikings weren’t running up the score on Dallas and that nobody would run on 4th down in field goal range, enjoy these couple more datapoints.
Loved that game. The Brownies are in the middle of a murderers row of 4 major opponents, and have started it 2-0. Gotta love that.
My absolute favorite part of that game was so inconsequential, but means so much to me in my assesment of coaching quality. Inside the final 2:00, game is basically over, Browns have run out the clock and will have to punt. They do NOT take a delay of game, or worse, call a timeout when the playclock gets down to 1. Instead, they snap the ball with ~2 seconds on the play clock and punt away. LOVE that. Such fluidity in that kind of clock management.
I’ve been impressed with the coaching over these last two games. Not just the specific play calling or game planning, but the general thrust. Most of the conservative/cowardly coaches in the league, when faced with a seemingly vastly superior opponent, will knuckle down, play conservatively, and try to keep the score low. Essentially they accept that they’ll be beaten, but they’d rather make a “respectable” 21-13 type game out of it than risk being more aggressive and having it blow up in your face and be a blowout. So they’re playing to save face rather than taking the extra risks that raise the volatility of the final result, but in the process, increase your likeliness of winning.
IOW, if you think you have an 80% shot of losing, you don’t go with the low variance, conservative play which results in the game coming close to its expectation (with the expectation that you lose) - you be aggressive, take some risks, and see if the variance works out in your favor.
Mangini, by pulling out all the stops - lateral punt return, fake punt from their own 15, whatever the hell you want to call that play that Stuckey scored on this week - responded exactly how you should respond to a team that’s favored against you. Go for it, take some risks, and hope it works out. In a league full of cowardace and conservatism, it makes me love guys like Payton and Bellichick who are willing to have some balls. It looks like Mangini is willing to do that.
Otherwise we are just fucking wrecking people. Peyton Hillis has been amazing - he starts running at a defender and they just don’t want to be there. The O-line is blasting people off the ball, and the coverage units seem to have some tricks up their sleeves to confuse even the best QBs in the league. Those weren’t flukey wins - the Browns dominated in both cases in all phases of the game. If only this team showed up on week 1, it’d probably be 5-3 or 6-2 now.