Having joined this thread a bit late, and carrying a perfect 0-0 record into this round as a result, I pick the Saints and Colts to win today.
And I, likewise. But no, I don’t want to hijack this thread.
Bears beat my Saints. Grossman stepped up to the challenge on a key drive. Indy/NE should be a good one…
Well it was probably my fault, I was rooting against the bears and I rarely pick the winning team…
(To the thoughtful few who want to tell me it is probably a perception bias: Thanks. I understand the concept. It was never meant as science, but instead as light-hearted commentary 
)
Interesting first score in by the Pats there. :eek:
Just like they drew it up.
You know. I think I am dreaming…
I don’t know if I can live in a world where the Colts can beat the Pats in a game that matters. It’ll be better in the morning, right?
(Melodrama aside… there are a couple of things I didn’t like about that game, namely one pass interference that was called and one that wasn’t… but this hurts so badly because the Pats had multiple chances to put it away and just didn’t do it. The Colts should have never had that chance, no sir, no way.)
Woooooooooooohoooooooooooo
Goooooo Collllllllllllllts
:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d:d
I can’t believe the Pats lost after being up by 18 points, and ahead or tied for 59 minutes. Not to mention the fact that they had excellent field position throughout the game.
This game reminds me of a saying that we used to say about football at Rice University: “They deftly seized defeat from the jaws of victory.” :rolleyes:
Who greased up Reche Caldwell’s hands before the game? Two dropped passes–the second one cost the Pats a touchdown (they had to take the field goal) that would have pushed the game into overtime.
Crap.
At least the game didn’t come down to the kickers. A game winning field goal by Vinatieri would have been even harder to take.
Yeah, I thought the referees were asleep on several things, including a glaring hold that sprung a big Patriots run early on. I thought the refs were favoring the Pats in the first half and the Colts in the second half. Bubba Caldwell had a couple of embarassing drops which probably would have guaranteed the Patriots a win. Still I’m glad to see Smith and Dungy get in. And I thought that Belichek was actually fairly gracious, if a bit tight lipped with the press, in defeat.
Damn! Both my teams lost again! OK, I will accept money to root for opposing team in the Superbowl.
OK, now *that * was a good game.
Reggie Bush: penalty for premature taunting. Unless you’ve just scored a spectacular TD that puts the game away, showboating just makes you look silly.
As good a place to bring this up as any: Parcells Retires From Coaching
My thing isn’t really so much with the reffing in general (for the most part, they let them play unless it was egregious), but with how we’re approaching pass interference conceptually these days with the whole “Is the defensive back looking at the ball?” thing. On the Hobbs interference call in the end zone, he was obviously not looking at the ball… but Peyton basically threw it into his back, and all of the (very minimal) contact was initiated by the receiver trying to reach straight through Hobbs’s established position. But since he wasn’t looking at the ball, it’s interference. On the other hand, a couple of drives later on one of the FG drives, there was an end zone toss where the cornerback on Caldwell was watching the ball the whole way… but pretty clearly mauled Caldwell about two seconds before the ball was in the area. But since he was looking at the ball, the (much greater, and more relevant because the ball wasn’t so poorly thrown) contact was shrugged off completely. Given how focused the interpretation of the rule has become on “looking at the ball” over the past year or two, I understand why the refs made those calls the way they were… but from a football point of view, looking at purely what “pass interference” is and the spirit of what the rules are meant to prohibit, I feel pretty strongly that each call was wrong.
Like I said, though, it’s hard to get really worked up about that sort of thing when the Pats blew several chances to seal the deal.
We are who you thought we were! WE ARE WHO YOU THOUGHT WE WERE! Crown our asses!
The way I understand it, that was legitimate pass interference as the spirit of the rule intended, even if he never touched the receiver. Face-guarding has always been against the rules.
Defenders are able to choose what role they want to play. If they turn and look at the ball, they become receivers with the exact same rights to the ball as the intended receiver. (One exception: shared possession goes to the offense.) If they don’t turn and look at the ball, then they have to abide by several rules that wouldn’t otherwise apply. They can’t bump or tangle with the receiver, and they also can’t put a hand (or just stand, as Hobbs did) in front of the receiver’s face to block his view of the ball. What Hobbs did was textbook face-guarding and an easy call to make.
I was rooting for the Patriots; I think their fatal mistake was not taking a timeout after the first long completion with a minute to go. To their credit, they hurried up and completed another one, but it still cost them around 10 seconds. (They went 35 yards in 25 seconds spanning two plays.) The difference between 34 and 24 seconds left in the game is a lifetime; maybe Brady wouldn’t have forced in that interception if he had an extra 10 seconds.
I read way too much into the post-game conferences. I could swear that Peyton was taking a swipe at Tomlinson with his “Bill Belichick and the Patriots organization are the epitome of class” or words to that effect. And then I thought Tony Dungy was taking a swipe at Denny Green with his “I was glad to see a coach like Lovie win, showing that you don’t have to yell and swear to be effective.”
Regardless of how off-base my interpretations were about the press conferences, they all drove home the point to me that Tomlinson was indeed being a classless whiner.
I’m going to have to get back to you with a more recent cite when I have the time, but this is incorrect as of 2001:
Wow, great cite, thanks. I was sorely mistaken.
After Peyton whined his way into a crackdown on PI following the 2003 (or thereabouts) playoffs, it is possible that they added face-guarding. Doesn’t seem likely, though.
Given your cite, I agree with your complaint.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t actually change any rules after 2003, but just the enforcement policy.