Every single game in the NFL has calls that were missed, or shouldn't have been called or what have you. Humans are involved, so there's a certain amount of human error to be expected. You could likely sit here and complain about bad calls every single time we lose. We have benefitted from bad calls or no calls as well over the years. To sit here and whine about it and say "wah wah, we lost the game cuz the refs suck!" Seems incredibly childish and naive. Did u analyze all the no calls on the Hawks or missed calls that could/would/should have affected the game for Detroit? Just Seattle? Thought so. Over the course of a season it likely averages out. And as the saying goes, "don't leave the game up to the refs". If we excelled more in other areas, stopped them here or there, converted there or here, the no calls and bad calls don't often matter. In a highly contested playoff game, often it's a different matter.
Whine about the refs if u want to. But don't cry about it when u get called a whiner.
I dont think anyone is arguing that bad calls go both ways. And the number of times bad calls actually materially affect the outcome of a game is something close to not often.
But..
There are those instances when a series of bad calls in critical moments does change things.
No doubt we played poorly.
There is also no doubt that the obvious and blatant wrong call on the 2 pt conversion sapped momentum, nevermind taking points off the board
And there is no doubt that if we get the blatant PI call on DK in the endzone, with the ball on the 1, we score a TD. What was the flipside of calling it wrong? We turn the ball over on downs.
And there is no doubt that if the rediculous offensive PI call on Tyler is just left to ride ( its obvious he wasnt blocking) we are in position again to score. Taking momentum, and putting doubt in the Detroit side that as well as they'd played, the team that beat them 9 of the previous 11 times was about to do it again. You cant just ignore hiw significant that is.
Theres a saying, that when great officiating is happening in a well played game, the refs are invisible. There's a reason they say that.
There are points and momentum that no doubt, materially affected the outcome of this game.
If you want to claim detroit got calls as well, fine, they were actually called for more penalties than we were, but which ones were SO obvious and contributed directly to taking points off the board? None
Which ones had NY hastily double check a 2 point conversion and prematurely determine it was incomplete?. A call THAT close is NEVER resolved THAT quickly. And thats not just fan talk. MM was onbiousky ticked about it as well. And Aikman and Buck were surprised by it as well.
So no. Just because we played poorly doesnt give the refs license to steer a game.
Thats the same nonsense that was spewed post SB in 05. 'If you'd played better, it wouldnt have mattered'. Sure if we had played a series or 2 better , we may have won that game Monday - it would have taken more than that to win that SB. The field was still tilted in the other team's favor.
And for a team to not have played well on defense and STILL have a very realistic chance to win, to have a referee affect that chance because of what smacks of at best, doing their job poorlyor at worst, negligence in what were poor calls that affected one team signifucantly more than the other...
Sometimes the lesser team on a given day still wins. When you officiate a one sided affair with respect to MAJOR calls, you all but nullify that opportunity. And who wants to watch a sport where you have a team overcome hurdle after hurdel after hurdel to position themselves to win, only to have the refs wrongfully say ' Nope. Sorry. Try again '
Its BS to normalize that kind of nonsense and just say play better, bad calls happen. You play 'better' to overcome the other team, not incompetent officiating, multiple times over the course of a game and in key situations. And i make that statement in full acknowlegement that offocials are human and that we needed to make fewer mistakes ourselves.
But if 'human error' means BS like we've seen in recent years and we saw Monday, then there needs to be less human intervention either in the form of more tech, or more play situations being reviewable. It is nonsensical that some plays, like spotting a ball can be reviewed on the spot, but a wr being knocked away from the ball before it gets to him cant?. Especially when that call is in the endzone. And in this game that wasnt even the only one.
Detroit was the better team Monday night. Doesnt mean they should have won. And just because they were flagged more, it doesnt nullify the magnitude of the calls that went the other way that werent just calls but BAD calls. Nobody is complaining about an illegal man downfield. Its calls that are blatantly errant.
Another great example - there was a facemask penalty called in a game the weekend before last on THE PLAYER THAT RECEIVED THE FACEMASK - forget which game and team byt im sure its on youtube. The call stood, game went on. Just 'human error'?
The Non PI that knocked the Saints out of the SB a few years ago. Just human error? There are judgement calls that could go either way. There are calls in the stream of play that a ref can likely make on either team every other play (like holding). And there are calls that are flat wrong and shoukd not be allowed to stand for the outcome they have on a game.
And shame on anyone to just claim 'human error' in today's legal gambling world where folks are making and losing money hand over fist.
You honestly think the refs who are 'only human' dont make moral errors and gamble on games? Games they can effect the outcome of? And no. I am NOT saying thats what happened. Just that its foolish to cast aside blatant, game altering errors as simply 'oopsies'. Forget them having their own private gripes or rooting interests. As was said... they are only human. Goes both ways.
Its naive. And the NFL needs to do something about it. Period. More replayabale calls. More tech. Less subjectivity. As little of it as possible.
so congrats or whatever I'm supposed to say.
