NFL Week 3

[HVC]

LOL @ Belichick grabbing a ref and screaming at him.

Justified, the officiating was terrible all game long.

it was terrible both ways so in a weird way it was fair

[sbr]

LOL @ Belichick grabbing a ref and screaming at him.

Justified, the officiating was terrible all game long.

Someone ban this jerk-off.

[Neil]

And to make the evening even sweeter, the Ravens winning with offence rather than defence sealed my LFFL win.

[sbr]

I'll get my first LFFL win unless Cedric benson scores 30 points tomorrow.

In my money league Aaron Rodgers needs to out score jordy Nelson by 4.

[Strix]

LOL @ Belichick grabbing a ref and screaming at him.

Justified, the officiating was terrible all game long.

You get what you pay for...so the officiating was spot on. The irony is that Kraft will lose more than the $2 million wanted by the refs if the Pats miss the playoffs (or even get a bad seeding). He has only himself to blame.

[Neil]

LOL @ Belichick grabbing a ref and screaming at him.

Justified, the officiating was terrible all game long.

You get what you pay for...so the officiating was spot on. The irony is that Kraft will lose more than the $2 million wanted by the refs if the Pats miss the playoffs (or even get a bad seeding). He has only himself to blame.

Well, not that much money.  After all, the worst that the Patriots will finish is 3rd seed.  They have the easiest schedule in the league, and play in a horseshit division.  The Texans can say the same thing, so the Ravens/Steelers are probably going to need 13 wins for a first-round bye, and probably 14 if they're hoping for homefield advantage.  With the strength of the Ravens schedule, and their desperate lack of a pass rush (although they did get it done last night with the game on the line), 13 wins is going to be awfully difficult.  Steelers-Chargers-Steelers and Broncos-Giants-Bengals are going to be killer runs.

[frunk]

The Breaking Point

If, as is the case with almost everyone my age, you got used to the basic flow of a football game by watching it on TV every Sunday, the effect of what's going on out there this year is jarring. There is an almost palpable sense of ambivalence and uncertainty. Plays no longer end when they should. The fans in the stadiums — and the fans watching at home and, god knows, the gambling community in both places — have an obvious moment in which everybody wonders if something completely screwy is going to happen. The ongoing long con occasioned by locking out real officials has accomplished one thing — it's buried forever any notion that an NFL game is predictable. Early in the second quarter, while going out of bounds, Baltimore's Anquan Boldin reached out with the ball, trying to get it past the first-down marker before he went to the ground. The referees ruled the play short of the stick. Then, they decided to measure. By now, both Belichick and Harbaugh were performing enthusiastic pantomime on the sidelines. The measurement also showed the Ravens as a yard or two short, whereupon Harbaugh challenged the spot. Under the curtain went referee Bruce Hermansen, while Belichick explained things in great bovine detail to one of the other officials. Finally, after an interminable delay, the call was reversed. The Ravens got their first down, and we all at last got to compliment Anquan Boldin for the heady play he'd made. I'm not willing to make nice with these guys because a scab's a scab, and because, occasionally, it looks as though Goodell found these guys because they all had the correct lucky number on page 42 of tonight's program.

"Hey, youngblood, be careful, or you're gonna get fined."

Ed Reed was shouting over a scrum of reporters in the general direction of Lardarius Webb, who was attempting to be diplomatic, and wasn't exactly being Talleyrand about the whole business. "So," Webb explained, acknowledging Reed with a wave, "if you see me ripping off my hat out there, it's because it doesn't fit, OK? It's not because I'm angry at the referees. Make sure you write that down. 'Not mad at the referees.'"

"I let 'em do their job and I focus on what I have to do," Webb later said. "It's hard to focus on what you have to do when you've also got to worry about how they're doing their jobs. We have to worry about what is holding and what isn't."

Ray Lewis, who's been around long enough not to care, was a little more direct. "That's another subject and I really don't want to go there and damage the win, but you can't do that to the game," he said. "You have to let the game take care of itself. The saddest thing about it is when you hear other people talk about it and say, those are the rules. Those aren't the rules. The rules of this game are — do whatever you have to do, by whatever means necessary.

(Not for nothing, but this is not a turn of phrase that Ray Lewis ought to be using, given events earlier in his life. We continue, however.)

"That's the beautiful thing about this game. It takes away the pureness of the game. We have to find a way to address it. You can't let guys keep going through that. This is our livelihood. People make careers out of this right here. Some of the things they say to you, as men, you can't speak to a man like that, just because you have on a black-and-white uniform. Be a man about your call and, if there's any indecision, don't make a call like that to affect the game. Something needs to change."

He may be fined for saying that. Lardarius Webb may be fined for his little tap dance along the edge. Bill Belichick will almost certainly be fined for his little contretemps with the official after the game. The players are outraged. The coaches are outraged. The fans are outraged. Even the pet TV commentators seem marginally perturbed. Roger Goodell is about an inch away from having general mutiny on his hands. If Lewis, or Webb, or Belichick is fined for stating the honest truth, or for reacting as any sane person would when a travesty is made of his life's work, then it's time for players to decide not to play for a while. It's their lives. It's their bodies, and people with the heart of Torrey Smith deserve better than to be made complicit in dishonest vaudeville.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I'll get my first LFFL win unless Cedric benson scores 30 points tomorrow.

In my money league Aaron Rodgers needs to out score jordy Nelson by 4.

So you are the one I gave an early Christmas present to.

[Kleves]

Why is everyone acting like the regular refs were infallible? Lest we forget:

And no, I will never let that go.

[Tonitrus]

A sad day indeed. 

[Valmy]

People keep acting like the Steelers only won because the refs screwed the Seahawks and it is just ridiculous...how true that is.

[Sophie Scholl]

People keep acting like the Steelers only won because the refs screwed the Seahawks and it is just ridiculous...how true that is.

I'm always baffled by the pass people give to the refs in the Cardinals-Steelers Super Bowl.  I think that was as much if not more of a mockery.

[CountDeMoney]

People keep acting like the Steelers only won because the refs screwed the Seahawks and it is just ridiculous...how true that is.

I'm always baffled by the pass people give to the refs in the Cardinals-Steelers Super Bowl.  I think that was as much if not more of a mockery.

That's because by then it was simply accepted.

Still waiting for that block in the back flag on Harrison's return before halftime and Santonio Holmes' other foot to come down.

[Sophie Scholl]

I'm always baffled by the pass people give to the refs in the Cardinals-Steelers Super Bowl.  I think that was as much if not more of a mockery.

That's because by then it was simply accepted.

Still waiting for that block in the back flag on Harrison's return before halftime and Santonio Holmes' other foot to come down.

And the celebration penalty on Holmes for his LeBron dance and an explanation for Warner's forward pass that was ruled a fumble amongst the most blatant examples of no calls or magic calls.

[Neil]

I'm liking the Seattle D.  It's like when the Niners were starting to get good.