Mathews Penalty

[SeaWolv]

It was also FIRST DOWN. They make it sound like it extended the drive or something.

This is exactly what I'm thinking. It's not like it was 4th and 10, if it was then this discussion would at least make sense but it wasn't so STFU already media people. The way Russ was playing last night he still would have moved the chains and scored.

I still can't believe the play call on the 3rd and 2 with under two minutes left when they decided not to hand it to Carson for the first down to ice the game but to let Russ roll out to his right to throw and it gets blown up.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Yep, wasn't a roughing penalty..........but the refs missed a hit to the head on Russell earlier, a delay of game on a Gurley TD and at least two false start penalties on the Rams.

So if anyone's saying that's why the Rams lost, they didn't watch the game.

 

[onanygivensunday]

With the outcome of the game already decided after the final whistle all that is left to talk about is "was the game refereed fairly?"... mostly because of the non-call in the NFCCG last year.

Last night calls went in both directions... that's football and that's the human element. Hope that it never changes.

In the days before slow motion. and of course instant replay, the call on the field was sacred. It was never challenged by the announcers.I started watching the NFL in the late '50s so I recall those days quite clearly. To a degree I wish that we could return but that genie is out of the bottle never to return.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

It was also FIRST DOWN. They make it sound like it extended the drive or something.

This is exactly what I'm thinking. It's not like it was 4th and 10, if it was then this discussion would at least make sense but it wasn't so STFU already media people. The way Russ was playing last night he still would have moved the chains and scored................

This, this and oh, this.

ESPN can go to hell.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

.........Last night calls went in both directions... that's football and that's the human element. Hope that it never changes.

In the days before slow motion. and of course instant replay, the call on the field was sacred. It was never challenged by the announcers.I started watching the NFL in the late '50s so I recall those days quite clearly. To a degree I wish that we could return but that genie is out of the bottle never to return.

Yep, facemask on Russ that wasn't called.

The 50s??!! Damn, you're older than me. So did you see the Lions actually win a championship (1957 it was iirc)?

 

[scutterhawk]

The front page article on ESPN today doesn't even make mention it in the summary of the game.

Bad calls only really become the story when they're late in the 4th quarter and clearly extend the game winning drive.
Because the Rams DID have another shot and botched it with a missed field goal, THAT is the story, not the blown call.

As far as the call itself, for stuff like calls and non-calls, I think you always have to defer to unaffected parties. What that means is that what Rams fans or Seahawks fans have to say about the call is uninformative and uninteresting: they're the two most motivated parties. Instead, if you want your answer, you have to look to people who don't have any skin in the game. From that perspective, it is unanimous that it was a very bad call.

If anything I think Hawks fans are lucky that the Rams got another shot and blew it because that's why the bad call isn't the story of this game, and will just be forgotten among everyone except for Rams fans.

See post below yours for MO on Mathews...Also, it's NOT "Unanimous" when a hit with a forearm around the head...That's just ONE of the bullshit plays that was perpetrated BY "Cheap Shot Artist" Mathews that finally caught up to him.
For the most part, this was a pretty good contest by a couple pretty good teams.
As for the frustrations of the Rams fans?...………………….GOOD.

 

[Hawkpower]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/i/status/1179918077951172608[/tweet]

Here was that hit that wasn't called. For all the rams whiners

I didn't see that one, yeah that was punk.

IMO that's really ticky tacky and a good no call, IMO.

I'd be up in arms if that got called against my team, and feel like I got away with something if it got called against my team's opponent.

I dont think anyone is saying this shot here was an egregious roughing call, just that it falls into a pattern of Clay being a dick.

Matthews has earned his reputation. And with that, he has lost the benefit of the doubt at times with the zebras.

If he doesn't like it, he could clean up his game.

 

[Seymour]

The hit may have been close but Mathews continued it following through with a shove to the ground with no effort of holding up. High chance of getting that called if it's close so Bo Who sheep fans. :irishdrinkers:

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Dear God, every damn time we win a game people make excuses. Not some of the time, EVERY time :roll:

 

[HawkGA]

The hit may have been close but Mathews continued it following through with a shove to the ground with no effort of holding up. High chance of getting that called if it's close so Bo Who sheep fans. :irishdrinkers:

I haven't seen a replay to show the shove after, but I listened to some NBC folks talking about it today and I thought they made a good point. Matthews tends to walk the line for what is acceptable in terms of hits and if you walk that line enough, sometimes you're going to get called on it, even if sometimes you weren't technically over the line.

 

[HawkGA]

This game was a near perfect game for the officials - the Ansah hit on Goff was the right call, we all know you can't hit QBs low these days.

I get that the Ansah play is probably going to get called every time, but it really is a crap call. At some point refs need to make allowances for a player falling to the ground, which is essentially what happened with Ansah. He didn't dive at the knees. Honestly, if I were anywhere close to talented enough to play football, there is no way I would play defense. The league is just too anti-defense with their rules.

 

[GetNjigbaWithIt]

It was also FIRST DOWN. They make it sound like it extended the drive or something.

:ditto:

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

The only thing with Mathews to me was he definitely made no attempt to hold back even if Wilson baited him a little bit, Mathews wanted to demolish Russ who was somewhat unprotected after his throwaway. What I view as the penalty and unnecessary part was after Mathews hammered Russ with a strong shoulder, Mathews then full-strength arms extended pushed down Russ has he was jarred and unbalanced. Mathews might have had a clean hit but he made no attempt to hold up as evidence of his strong follow through that was unnecessary.

Even then not sorry, no one is talking about Ansah practically being blocked into Goff’s knees where he did nothing malicious in trying to tackle Goff before or after contact, a penalty that came on 3rd Down and turned a FG Att into an eventual TD.

 

[olyfan63]

If you watch the play again, and you see the correct angle, you can very clearly see a forearm shove after the initial hit.

Personally I think that secondary “shove” is what drew the flag.

I haven’t seen it broadcast since the game, and I only saw it the one time in slo-mo replay but I saw it very clearly. It’s not surprising that the particular angle in slo-mo isn’t being aired.

Yes, it was basically a forearm to Russell's ribs, and a bit of a cheap shot by Matthews.
I think there was so much over-focus on the helmet-to-helmet aspect that this shot was overlooked, and quite possibly the primary reason the hit drew a flag.

 

[sutz]

Hey, credit where it's due. Russ did a pretty good flop there. I'd give it 3 stars at least.

:twisted:

 

[TreeRon]

The Matthews call was not as impactual as the call on Ansah.

 

[Jerhawk]

I'm done with the media. They all stink

 

[Hockey Guy]

The penalty on Ansah was the correct call. He was off balance but he hit him low & if anybody did that to RW & there was no flag this place would go into total meltdown.

The call on Matthews was also correct because the crown of his helmet hit RW in the facemask & he gave him an extra forearm shove even though he knew the ball was long gone. All the refs know Matthews for doing this stuff & he'll never get the benefit of the doubt because it just happens too often with him.

 

[chris98251]

The penalty on Ansah was the correct call. He was off balance but he hit him low & if anybody did that to RW & there was no flag this place would go into total meltdown.

The call on Matthews was also correct because the crown of his helmet hit RW in the facemask & he gave him an extra forearm shove even though he knew the ball was long gone. All the refs know Matthews for doing this stuff & he'll never get the benefit of the doubt because it just happens too often with him.

Sometimes you get Reputation penalties, Burfict and Matthews are two, Romanowski used to get them also if something looked close or wacky due to his style of play leading up to whatever happened over the years.

If you are an aggressive cross the line player your in the officials report watch list.

Think of Basketball, some guys can get away with Murder and others flagged for bumps.

 

[Hockey Guy]

The penalty on Ansah was the correct call. He was off balance but he hit him low & if anybody did that to RW & there was no flag this place would go into total meltdown.

The call on Matthews was also correct because the crown of his helmet hit RW in the facemask & he gave him an extra forearm shove even though he knew the ball was long gone. All the refs know Matthews for doing this stuff & he'll never get the benefit of the doubt because it just happens too often with him.

Sometimes you get Reputation penalties, Burfict and Matthews are two, Romanowski used to get them also if something looked close or wacky due to his style of play leading up to whatever happened over the years.

If you are an aggressive cross the line player your in the officials report watch list.

Think of Basketball, some guys can get away with Murder and others flagged for bumps.

Totally agree. I'll also add that if you're a player that always plays it up like you're the victim of bad calls when replays clearly show you're not, you won't get many breaks from officials.