I distinctly remember the comatose stare on Kaeding's face making me laugh, and then they show the picture of him on a normal day and I about cracked up. Looked like somebody shot his dog. Heard some audio today of Roethlisberger talking about how he had his hands on the ball at the bottom of the pile but I'm not so sure...the refs had to play by the rules and apparently in this case rules dictate the fish get fucked. With all those officials watching the action you'd think somebody would have seen what happened in the end zone. It's another way reliance on instant replay can impact the outcome of a game in a less than desireable way. :drunk: ricky williams
Forget the ref conspiracy theory...the Pats, Ravens and Steelers all looked very average. OK the results could have gone our way but there was nothing there to worry us.
i agree. the ravens especially out of that group the past 2 weeks. we gave that team wayyyy too much credit and respect in week 1. they're not as good as rex ryan believed they were. The pats make me uneasy...and i think the steelers will be a force for most of the season. They played a mediocre game but still won. kinda like us last week. i hope the pats lose a game or two soon. I know they will, because they have too many mediocre to above average areas on their team to keep squeaking these type of games out, but something about them being over our shoulder makes me anxious. we still have the division record lead but factor in the game @ foxboro and it's not much of a gap, considering most of us think we'll lose that game. i'm in that group the steelers will finish with the #1 or #2 record in the AFC. i think it's pretty much a lock. but hopefully we're that other team. the AFC standings are pretty close right now though. lotta 5-2 and 4-2 teams us, pats, steelers @ 5-1 titans, ravens @ 5-2 chiefs, colts, texans @ 4-2 fortunately for the AFC south teams, still a lot of divisional games left so there will be some teams taking L's in that group.wouldn't be surprised if it takes 11-5 to get a wildcard spot this year
The Steelers got hit hard today on the injury front. Aaron Smith may be done for the season with a torn triceps, and Woodley, and Flozell Adams, were injured seriously as well.
I haven't paid too much attention to this thread but anyone that thinks the refs gave anyone a win just gives the Denver homers from last week an argument that we were given the game. Even though we got many calls against us we still overcame them and won the game. These 3 teams had 60 minutes to win the game not the 2 seconds it takes to throw a flag. The Jets just need to keep winning. Fuck the rest of them.
The Patriots specialize in looking average and winning games anyway. I am furious with the Chargers right now. Every time they play the Pats, they do something profoundly stupid. Literally giving the ball away before the whistle blows? Not running to cover up a backwards lateral? False start on the game winning field goal? Unbelievable.
Yeah, no doubt. If anything, yesterday's games should reinforce that there are no dominant teams in the NFL this year, just a bunch of good ones. The possibilities are so wide open this year. Looking at the rest of the Jets' schedule, the margin between a 13-3 season and a 9-7 season is razor thin. It's going to come down to staying healthy and minimizing dumb mistakes (TO's penalties).
The difference between that and the 'force out' rule is this... Offensive player makes leaping catch, and gets physically prevented from coming down and 'carried' OOB as opposed to pushed. (And for all the naysayers, they did mention the rule in the postgame show.Pretty sure those guys have accurate rule books)
What did the refs do to help NE? SD helped NE more than the refs w/ those bonheaded plays to get them down big. The Pitt play was the correct call, it was a fumble but play was unfortunately stopped for Miami so what was the ref supposed to do? and last I checked Miami had plenty of time and were only wn a point and even if Miami got the TO in the EZ Pitt had 3 TOs and the 2 min warning so that game was not over. Miami is struggling scoring Tds instead of FGs and that's why they are 3-3. I'm not sure about the Bal game, I did see the TO in OT and I thought the whistle should have been blown dead but they did blow 14 pt leads multiple times and bad teams find ways to lose(we should remember what that feels like).
I am happy with the Chargers, they gave us two of thier best players. LT and Cromartie have been awesome.
The easiest way to not let this happen is to not be in the position for it to matter. Pittsburg simply made one more play then Miami. If you keep the game close enough for a ref's call to decide the game, well, then that's what it is. Every team gets hosed on calls every week. They need to be able to overcome it. It's part of the game; a necessary evil, as it were.
I'll make the same comment that I make to the parents of my son's HS football team who are always looking for "help" in a close one....... You can't depend on the refs to win the game for you in the 4th quarter, and you have 4 quarters of football to make sure that you are not in a position to be hurt by them either. If that isn't the case, then either you haven't played well enough, or you are being beaten by a better team.
It sounds like the refs really did give the Steelers a gift in that game, but championship caliber teams find ways to win. The refs gave the Broncos a bunch of gifts last week, but the Jets still pulled it out in the end. The Fins still had a chance to make a drive and win, but they didn't.
I actually do have sympathy for Dolphin fans this morning (*ducks incoming eggs*) but it only goes so far. They should have been up 10-0 in the first 5 minutes if not 14-0. For us it was the best outcome possible - Phins get a soul-crushing defeat and the Steelers expose a few chinks in the armor. Chargers screwed themselves. End of story. Best we can hope for is that they totally implode and A.J Smith trades us Ryan Mathews for a chicken-salad sandwich on his way out the door. Say what you want about the end of the Ravens game, but it never should have been that close anyway. That was the biggest evidence all day of the refs putting the fear of God into DB's.
SD is just awful -- interceptions are one thing but catching a 20 yard pass and just throwing the ball away without being touched is deserving of a loss.
You have to question the quality of the coaching in SD. I may hate the Pats and their psycho head coach, but you don't see them making stupid plays like SD was making. Their season is pretty much in the toilet now when they had a good shot at a division title.
