NFL Playoffs Running Thread

I have no idea who the officials are from one game to the next, or who's good and who sucks.
I guess I don't wacth the NFL intensely enough.

 

NFL officials as a whole are at or near the credibility problems of the NBA, and nobody has any trouble believing David Stern is dictating outcomes of NBA postseasons. (Which, of course, he is.) Good for the NFL to take heat. Last year the controversy around single-possession OT in Vikings-Saints provided a great smokescreen, allowing the NFL to avoid the fact that the Saints' drive stayed alive on a phantom PI call.

 

Jeff Triplette is a factor in every game he does, and I have no problem pointing that out. His name has been mud to fans because he's been bad at his (part-time) job for many years. If you want to pretend he knows what he's doing, go ahead.

 

Ed Hochuli has his own web site. That's a joke.

 

Does he sell guns?

 

Especially a Steelers home playoff game. That combo guaranteed that officiating would be a post-game issue.

 

Let's assume the NFL knows what it's doing in referee assignments. Since it's well-known by us that the Triplette crew is a bunch of busybody fusspots who throw enough yellow flags to make every game they work a tribute to National Daffodil Day, it's well-known to the league. We must assume it WANTED such a crew to officiate the playoff between two teams who rightly or wrongly are associated with pushing the outside of the envelope on the rules governing violence.
I think that's hare-brained, but it's the only sequence that makes sense.

 

Nobody is arguing that. What many of us are saying is that your crackpot theories about the NFL using the officials to fix games are ridiculous and always have been.

 

Way to not answer the question.

How many straight playoff games have the Patriots lost? How many Super Bowls have they won since Spygate?

 

Look lee, I get that you are a seahawks fan and I understand why you would have this opinion, but why would the league want to benefit the Steelers? Why would Goodell want Roethlisberger as a beneficiary and even want to give him a chance to get to the super bowl? And you do realize the Steelers had three more penalties for about 30 more yards than did the Ravens on Saturday night. And they blew a pretty easy call on the opening kickoff that forced the Steelers to use a challenge before an offensive play was run. And you do realize that Manning /Brady would have been the beneficiary of one or both of the non-calls on the drive that led to the Ravens scooping up a ball that everone thought was dead and run it in for a TD. (hit below the waist, close to the knee on Ben, and a blow to the head on what was the fumble play from Suggs. But we as Steelers fans hear over and over that Big Ben doesn't get those calls, like you know, when Ben gets smacked in the nose by Heloti Nata leading to a broken nose, because, well, he's bigger and tougher to bring down and officials let those calls go with him. I guess maybe he should fall to he ground when a defender looks at him the wrong way.

My point is, the officiating has always been bad, and it is worse with some crews over others. But your obsession with the Steelers being the beneficiary of bad calls over every other team, and seemingly that no other team gets those breaks, is laughable. Its an excuse. I know we are not going to change your opinion, nor should we, because you really should believe what you say or write on a message board. But just think about how you would view another person who has the same opinion as yours about another topic.

Personally, going back to the Ben vs Peyton and Brady argument, I believe without a shadow of a doubt that those two QBs play under a different set of rules than Ben and guys like Flacco and others. I don't waste post after post mentionign this. It gets old.

 

Aren't you a Browns fan?

 

Umm, NO. What gave you that idea?