I mean… what in the living…
They should have called a jump ball. 
Incorrect. The 3rd and short was clearly down a foot short. As for the 4th down, there is zero video showing the ball in Allen’s arms to show definitively one way or the other. The near side ref had a clearer view of Allen (his back) - and more importantly, his right shoulder that never cleared the line to gain.
Stop. The idea that the NFL is paying refs to rig games is so far-fetched and ridiculous that it makes these conspiracy theorists sound like J6ers.
I agree with this. But the idea that Mahomes gets more than his share of roughing the passer and personal foul calls isn’t ridiculous.
The NFL puts a priority on protecting QBs, and he’s the highest profile QB in the league. He’s going to get the borderline calls that other QBs don’t get.
No one said the NFL is paying refs to rig games. There’s probably not even a memo that tells refs which side to favor or anything like that. There are lots of ways that you could have some sort of bias without any intent to rig or any overtly-communicated plan. For example, people are very influenced by what they perceive to be social norms or social pressures, and refs watch video of all the penalties that go on in the NFL. If there’s a slight bias for whatever reason, it can become self-reinforcing through the refs picking up on that. So if you just spent the last 4 years seeing every ref giving Mahomes preferential treatment, you’re probably going to do it yourself.
The opposite idea – that refs are perfectly impartial and are never influenced by how other refs call things, how some star players have been treated in the past, how some franchises have a long history of success and others are a joke, what the current storylines in the NFL are, etc. is pretty far fetched.
It actually makes me think of a fun experiment. If we could take some games and have AI replace the jerseys and make players and teams unidentifiable, and then had refs watch them and rate what’s a penalty, it would be interesting to see what a “blind” reffing would look like compared to the real thing.
Mahomes has drawn 31 roughing-the-passer calls in his career, in 132 games.
Josh Allen has drawn 38 roughing calls, in 123 games.
This season Mahomes drew 6, Allen 5.
He’s certainly going to be perceived as receiving such, because Chiefs games get the national broadcast more often than not these days. No one notices when Kyler Murray gets or doesn’t get a favorable call. It’s purely observational bias. As noted, Allen has gotten more roughing the passer calls than Mahomes has over a shorter stretch. There’s a lot of noise when it comes to why that might be, but if there’s a measurement with more signal, I’d be happy to take a look.
Well, so much for my hunches. See, this is why I don’t gamble. 
One prediction of mine did pan out, unfortunately, and that was Buffalo’s annual folderoo against the Chiefs. They fell too much in love with their “scrum qb sneak”. All they had to do was roll out their future Hall of Fame QB and give him an option to run or throw.
Exactly. Since the sneak failed on 3rd down, perhaps they should have tried something different on 4th down. Particularly since an earlier successful 4th down attempt resulted in a fumble which Allen did well to recover.
KC used the run-pass option rollout with great success. Mahomes got a first down on 4th down in the second quarter, and he scored two touchdowns running the same play.
That’s utterly insane: did these bookies not notice how James Cook shredded the KC defense? KC’s +1 score string of wins? Barkley is going to have a huge game against them. I was fully expecting Philly -5 when I woke up, sheesh.
I can understand the Chiefs hate. I was sick of seeing Tom Brady and the Pats in what seemed like every Super Bowl for about 20 years. But as a long time Chiefs fan who suffered through many many years of first round playoff losses, I’m going to ride the wave for as long as it lasts. Go Chiefs! Three-peat!
I’m not as annoyed with the Chiefs as I ever was with the Pats. I don’t like Brady, but I’m fairly neutral on Mahomes. Brady’s color commentary really isn’t improving his standing any for me.
I didn’t watch the Eagles - Commanders game, but I understand the Commanders lost badly, not only by being outplayed but by committing several turnovers and other mistakes in the process.
Not sure how to feel about that. The Commanders beat the Lions convincingly in the divisional round, and I was bitterly disappointed, thinking this was finally the Lions’ SB year. So you’d think I’d be feeling a little bit of payback, hearing the Commanders got stomped. But I usually feel in these situations, when my team gets beat convincingly in a playoff or even a key regular season game, that I want that team to go on to, maybe not win it all, but do well, have a good showing, to demonstrate that their beating my team was not a fluke or a bad reflection on my team. And I know, ‘any given Sunday’ and all that. If the Lions had managed to beat the Commanders, they might have stomped on the Eagles, who knows.
How do you all react in that situation, when your team is beaten convincingly in the playoffs by a team that is then stomped in the next round-- do you feel delicious schadenfreude, or are you disappointed, thinking it reflects badly on your team?
Washington is a special case this season. Nobody, not even in the organization, thought they would even sniff the playoffs, let alone make it to the NFC Championship game. My pre-season prediction for them was 8-9, and I was being quite optimistic.
The Lions had a bad night. Jared Goof showed up instead of that other guy that had been playing for them all season. They somehow forgot they had Gibbs in the second half.
And the Eagles are simply a much better overall team than the Commanders at almost every single position. What can you do?
The score might have been closer, but I still think the Eagles win a matchup with Detroit.
I forgive the Eagles for cheating to beat the Commanders and now will heartily root for them to crush those cheating Chiefs.
i believe it was 3 fumbles and 1 interception. the fourth quarter is where things went off the rails for the commanders.
it is a tough one when your team is out. i’m a dolfan and the marino-kelly years were so difficult. buffalo would stop the dolphins from getting to the super bowl and then they would lose is some sort of crazy fashion. i just wanted them out of the way. just really frustrated by them. hhhhm, you pose an interesting question. i would say, if my team doesn’t make it i don’t want the team that knocked them to make it.
Like I said, I don’t want the team that knocks my team out of the playoffs to win it all, necessarily, but I also don’t want them to lose badly or embarrassingly in the very next playoff game. Say if the Commanders had lost to the Eagles in a close battle with only a single score deficit. I would have been happy with that, thinking, OK, at least the Commanders showed up and showed that their convincing win against the Lions was no fluke, or no bad reflection on the Lions.
agreed. the game on sunday will be talked about for quite some time. there were some very, very memorable plays.
that punt that turned into a pass was brilliant.
We got to see the threat of a penalty for a ‘palably unfair’ act which could result in a touchdown awarded to the Eagles. Never saw or heard of one of those before.
I was really hoping they would force them to do it.