Official rest of the playoffs thread

[call_me_ishmael]

This is legitimately one of the worst calls in NFL history. This is what we call "The fix is in" lol. https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/stat...18505906597888

[pbmax]

Mike Renfro is silently weeping at the injustice of it all.

And how he played a small part in condemning us with instant replay.

[Fritz]

Two New Orleans Saints season-ticket holders filed a lawsuit against the NFL on Tuesday, asking a Louisiana state court judge to order Commissioner Roger Goodell to invoke an obscure rule that could force the final moments of Sunday's NFC Championship game to be replayed. According to Rule 17, Section 2, Article 1 of the NFL rulebook, the league commissioner "has the sole authority to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary and/or corrective measures if any club action, non-participant interference, or calamity occurs in an NFL game which the Commissioner deems so extraordinarily unfair or outside the accepted tactics encountered in professional football that such action has a major effect on the result of the game." Remedies include reversal of a game's result or the rescheduling of a game -- in its entirety or from the point when the act occurred. (from a Fox News article by Samuel Chamberlain)

If they invoked this, it would set a weird and IMO bad precedent. The call was not nearly as egregious as the "Fail Mary" play was to the Packers, and I don't recall any lawsuit talk or possibility of invoking this rule back then.

Anyone care to join me in a class-action lawsuit regarding Mike Sherman's ridiculous, clearly outside-the-accepted-tactics punting the ball on fourth and one when Ahman Green had been having his way with the Eagles's defense like a farmer with a lamb stuck in a fence? Or maybe McCarthy's decision-making in multiple places against the Seahawks in the NFC championship game a few years back?

[texaspackerbacker]

Refs were paid off! That's not judgmental! 'Routine' errors?!?!?! Define ROUTINE! AAAAAAAARRGGGGGGG!!!!

Replay the game! Replay the game! SUE SUE SUE SUE!!! Go to SCOTUS!

Rand, it seems like you are employing politics-level sarcasm here in a football thread ...... or are your two previous posts your real views? At any rate, they'd have to prove any allegations like that. Even if true - and I very much doubt they are, it's highly unlikely there's a smoking gun out there.

[pbmax]

Boy, I love instant replay so much I am sure I will enjoy replaying either segments or the entirety of games.

[mraynrand]

Rand, it seems like you are employing politics-level sarcasm here in a football thread ...... or are your two previous posts your real views? At any rate, they'd have to prove any allegations like that. Even if true - and I very much doubt they are, it's highly unlikely there's a smoking gun out there.

Of course this is sarcasm. The refs blew the call. It's over. Sucks to be the Saints and Saint fans but there's nothing they can do but beef about it for the rest of their days.

I used to have this guy tape games for me and send the videos. Got to be friends and he sent me the article he wrote to the local paper complaining about the Jerry Rice non-fumble call in the WC round of 1998. Might have been the Wisconsin State Journal. I don't recall. But it was a perfectly awesome fan letter filled with his testimony regarding the decades of loyal fanship and righteous indignation over the injustice of the blown (non) call. Maybe it made him feel better, but somehow I doubt it.

Fritz is re-hashing the 2003 loss at Philly, and while that used to drive me crazy, that loss, and the anger about the losses to the Rams in 2001, ATL in 2002, Vikings in 2004, Giants in 2007, and AZ in 2009 all kind of went away after the SB win in 2010, especially since they beat the Bears in the NFL Championship to get there. I think I will feel the same way about the Giants (2011), 579! and Seattle (2014) losses when they win their next SB, although I have to admit, I just don't care as much anymore. (As much as I disliked the 2013 loss to SF, the wins over Dallas and Chicago that year were so great as to make the year one of the most positively memorable of all the years I've watched the Packers. I don't really need them to win the Championship or to enjoy a specific year and often I don't need them to win a game to enjoy that particular game. Of course, if they get screwed by the refs like Interceptouchdown, it will piss me off all over again!

[Bossman641]

Pats win the super bowl. LA is overrated.

Agreed. Rams might have big names on D but they haven't played up to it.

[pbmax]

I think of this game much differently now, not because of what we know about Belicheat and Brady, but because of what we know about Mike Martz.

Football, play by play, is about numbers on either side of the ball or in an area. Cheat knew Martz was sending 4 or 5 out on a pattern every time. So he committed that many DBs to the job before almost anyone else did. He also knew he was facing a 5 man protection. So he could rush with five and fool the line about where the fifth guy was coming.

https://www.theringer.com/nfl-playoffs/2019/1/24/18195420/10-observations-rams-patriots-super-bowl-xxxvi-bill-belichick-tom-brady

[mraynrand]

I think of this game much differently now, not because of what we know about Belicheat and Brady, but because of what we know about Mike Martz.

Football, play by play, is about numbers on either side of the ball or in an area. Cheat knew Martz was sending 4 or 5 out on a pattern every time. So he committed that many DBs to the job before almost anyone else did. He also knew he was facing a 5 man protection. So he could rush with five and fool the line about where the fifth guy was coming.

And hold like crazy

[pbmax]

And hold like crazy

That too.

[pbmax]

Finally, a completely objective review of why the Saints were wrong. Penalties! Tipped ball! Review would have upheld the call!

It's all here.

[Freak Out]

If Gurley is healthy and plays the rams win. If he is a weak decoy then its a game.

[Anti-Polar Bear]

Finally, a completely objective review of why the Saints were wrong. Penalties! Tipped ball! Review would have upheld the call!

It's all here.

While I ain’t an NFL rules lawyer, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen an instance where the Packers offense got 15 yards and automatic 1st down on a play where at least an offensive and a defensive player committed a foul. Now I might be wrong but i’m pretty sure I ain’t.

For example, A-Rod is holding onto the rock for eons. In the process, Bulaga bear hugs Mack to prevent a sack. Finally, after 10 seconds, A-Rod slangs the rock to Adams 30 yards downfield, but Adams is tackled by a DB while the rock is enroute. Mack breaks free of Bulaga’s illegal bear hug and strikes A-Rod late.

Instead off-setting penalties and replaying the down, the Packers get 15 yards and the chain b/c of the personal foul.

Even if a Rams was held. Even if the ball was tipped, making pass interference moot, the Aints shoulda gotten 15 yards and the chain for the helmet to helmet, from my understanding of the rules. Am I wrong?

[hoosier]

Check the tight rotation on Brees's spiral. Pass wasn't tipped. I take the main point about why adding non calls to the menu of replayables would be a disaster, though.

[Anti-Polar Bear]

Check the tight rotation on Brees's spiral. Pass wasn't tipped. I take the main point about why adding non calls to the menu of replayables would be a disaster, though.

Aren't tipped passes reviewable? If so, the zebra should've simply fired his flag since it was clear as day that TommyLee got wrecked. Let replay pick up the flag or not. Zebra's excuse for the no call was that he thought rock was tipped.