Monday, November 05, 2007

Patriots 24, Colts 20

Well, the Pats won the big football game and now have the inside track for the best record in the NFL and #1 seed in the playoffs.

And still, I'm not terribly pleased.

There are two things that really bothered me about the game: the penalties and the poor tackling.

The penalties were ridiculous. There was a combination of bad officiating and then the Pats starting committing stupid penalties, which made it harder to complain about the actual mistakes the officials made.

There were three pass interference calls on the Pats, two on defense, and one on offense.

There was one pass interference call on the Colts.

The first PI call on Assante Samuel seemed ticky-tack to me. The charge seemed to be that Sammuel grabbed the receiver by his jersey, which prevented the receiver from being able to catch the ball. At first glance, it seemed like the pass was uncatchable in any case. And any contact was minimal. But Sammuel did grab the jersey, so I can let this one pass.

The second PI, on Ellis Hobbs, was absolutely ridiculous. Hobbs was covering Reggie Wayne, and the pass was underthrow so Hobbs turned and went for the ball, while Wayne crashed into Hobbs while going for the ball. When I first saw the play, I thought Wayne had committed offensive PI. Hobbs had position and went for the ball. By the rulebook, that means that it's not PI when Wayne crashes into him.

The third PI was called on a Colt on a long pass to Randy Moss that he caught. Some commentators are citing this flag as evidence that the refereeing was fair. Um, guys? Don't you notice the difference between a PI flag thrown on an incomplete pass and a PI flag thrown on a completion? Let's not be children here.

And then there was the offensive PI called on Randy Moss which was completely ticky-tack, if that. Moss had one hand on the receiver but was not pushing him or moving him, and was whistled for OPI.

Some people argued that the PI calls did not change the game, but given Vinatieri's difficulty kicking the long FGs, I think it's hard to support that claim when the PIs give 37 and 40 yards respectively.

And then there was the tackling by the Patriots on Addai. God that was horrendous.

If this had been a playoff game, I would be happy with "survive and advance". But it was an ugly win and the bad officiating really tainted things.

I have to give credit to Randy Moss, who deserved the game ball. Once the Pats figured out in the 4th quarter to stop messing around and to go with their best weapon, they started moving the ball more efficiently. There was nobody on the Colts who could cover Moss, so the simple plan was the better one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The officiating was so bad, and so one sided against the Patriots, I had to turn the game off. I've since heard about several other events - a Patriot was on the ground and a Colt walked over and kicked him in the head. The ref was right there, it was caught on camera, and nothing was done. Add amplified crowd noise and Brady's radio being jammed and my opinion was pretty much cemented on how fair this game was. The NFL should be ashamed.

Landru said...

Should the NFL be as ashamed as it should've been the last time the Patriots won the Super Bowl--you know, when the NFL allowed the Pats' secondary to get away with voluntary manslaughter for the entire season?

Jesus Christ, fucking Boston fans are pussies, Whispers excepted from such a charge because...well, because he's not a pussy. And don't you start either, Jolene, because you know I'm not talking about you.

Congratulations to the Pats for winning Apocalypse This Week. Now can we return to our regularly scheduled Not Having To Hear About This Freaking Game Every Freaking Second of Our Lives for Ten Days?

Jolene said...

So, I should keep talking about the game, then?

Actually, if I am going to bitch about anything, it's the fact that I had to miss the first fifteen minutes of the game because the NFL has decided I live in the Chargers home market, even though I don't, and the stupid Chargers game went long, and they wouldn't switch to NE-Indy till it was over, and when games (i.e., NE-Indy) are on broadcast TV, they're blacked out on Sunday Ticket, despite the fact that I have paid about half my monthly income for it. Normally this is not a problem, but obviously sometimes it is.

And for that, yes, the NFL should be ashamed. There, I said it.

Whispers said...

"Should the NFL be as ashamed as it should've been the last time the Patriots won the Super Bowl--you know, when the NFL allowed the Pats' secondary to get away with voluntary manslaughter for the entire season?"

Welcome to the blog, Mr. Polian! We have soda and chips, and a keg is coming soon. The stereo's in the corner - and I know you love toying with those things!

*grin*