Goodell laying down the Hammer on us

[HoustonRaven]

I had it wrong.

I thought tin foil hats would come out a few more weeks from now.

[BPF2]

I had it wrong.

I thought tin foil hats would come out a few more weeks from now.

Yup the refs totally stopped us from rushing Ben but allowed Pittsburgh to rush unblocked up the left side over and over.

[Piltnh]

Honestly, I was worried about the game when 3 flags came out on one play - the issue is that all three of those were legitimate. While I don't think ever ensuing flag was (one of the PI's in particular), just having 3 penalties on one play (which thankfully you can't add together) was pretty undisciplined. I was hopeful that it was just a fluke, but I know how chippy these games can get.

I was less impressed with the composure than the game itself, to be honest. We split with Pittsburgh, at the end of the day, and we kicked their butts, and they kicked ours yesterday. 1-1 against our rival is not bad. The lack of discipline I saw was bad. I would have started benching people (I don't think they should have been ejected as it seems the officials were threatening to do), but when players are committing dumb penalties or turning the game into a fight after the whistle, it's time for them to take a play off.

That goes on both sides, of course, but as I'm not a Steelers fan, I couldn't give a damn about their team discipline.
Also, anyone watch the cinci game today? It's not often I see horsecollar being called (mostly because everyone knows it's a penalty), but both we and Cinci did it today.

[4G63]

The biggest egregious one for me was the failure to overturn when Harbaugh challenged the spot when Ben was well short on that 3rd down. Hell, even Collinsworth thought that was a bad call. The Ravens got beat but it was called awfully tight against the Ravens all night...

[Piltnh]

The biggest egregious one for me was the failure to overturn when Harbaugh challenged the spot when Ben was well short on that 3rd down. Hell, even Collinsworth thought that was a bad call. The Ravens got beat but it was called awfully tight against the Ravens all night...

Yeah that call was awful.
At the end of the day, though, while I think the game was poorly called, we played far worse than Pittsburgh for 3 quarters, and we were less disciplined... so I don't think it affected the outcome.

That being said, it's still legitimate to call out bad refereeing. I just don't want to hear that they cost us the game when we played like crap and had a lot of legitimate penalties. That's another issue - teams that start getting flagged get flagged more often in "questionable" situations like DPI. We got a lot of dumb penalties like roughing and horse collar, and other things people know not to do - that's why the bad calls started going against us.

We didn't have very many bad calls against us before the last two weeks - and I assert that at least part of the reason is because we were, before those two weeks, the least penalized team in the league - so most of the times we got the benefit of the doubt. Watching most of Pittsburghs games (as I live in Pittsburgh) as well, at the beginning of the season they got some very ticky tack bad calls against them because they were making dumb mistakes and getting highly penalized to begin with.

Edit : That has nothing to do with the overturning of the call, mind you, I'm speaking of the silly penalties. I dont think the silly penalties happen if we don't melt down and start jamming helmets into people or delivering hits late that don't need to happen.

[BIGBALL]

I had it wrong.

I thought tin foil hats would come out a few more weeks from now.

Well, I will say this Houston.. I have always been a level headed poster and not rushed to any judgement about anything. But, I think one can wonder about things like this.. do you think the NFL wants the Ravens, former home of Ray Rice, getting deep into the post season? This league is all about money, ( and if you don't think so I don't know what to tell you ) and if the Ravens were to get in all the Ray Rice stuff starts all over again. I am not saying that is what is happening, but wondering about it does not make one a nutty conspiracy theorist.

[wickedsolo]

Well, I will say this Houston.. I have always been a level headed poster and not rushed to any judgement about anything. But, I think one can wonder about things like this.. do you think the NFL wants the Ravens, former home of Ray Rice, getting deep into the post season? This league is all about money, ( and if you don't think so I don't know what to tell you ) and if the Ravens were to get in all the Ray Rice stuff starts all over again. I am not saying that is what is happening, but wondering about it does not make one a nutty conspiracy theorist.

Yea, but they could easily spin it as a feel good story surrounding Harbaugh for getting the team to overcome that kind of adversity.

[Section 120 View]

I agree, a POORLY called game needs to to be called out when the crew is so very calls a game. I like when Collinsworth called out the officials on the 3rd down run. It is just amazing that the ref on the Stealers side was that far off. Then the replay CLEARLY shows the knee down and then the ball is moved forward. Flacco was down when his SHIN touched the ground and his knee was not down yet!!! Then for the head ref yo go over to the booth and see what NBC was showing us speaks poorly of him. I sure hope we don't see any of those guys getting playoff game assignments to ref. That would speak poorly of the playoff process for officials. The Brownies, Squealers + Bengals play each other twice so there will be a lot of movement in the standings. We will make the playoffs.

[HoustonRaven]

Well, I will say this Houston.. I have always been a level headed poster and not rushed to any judgement about anything. But, I think one can wonder about things like this.. do you think the NFL wants the Ravens, former home of Ray Rice, getting deep into the post season? This league is all about money, ( and if you don't think so I don't know what to tell you ) and if the Ravens were to get in all the Ray Rice stuff starts all over again. I am not saying that is what is happening, but wondering about it does not make one a nutty conspiracy theorist.

Yes, it does.

And speaking of Rice, if the league wanted to fuck over the Ravens, why did he get a slap on the wrist at first? Rice isn't even on the team anyone and totally removed from the equation.

It was poor officiating, from crews that are terrible with their craft, who have rejected to go full time. It's not some grand conspiracy to keep a small market team down.

[BIGBALL]

Yes, it does.

And speaking of Rice, if the league wanted to fuck over the Ravens, why did he get a slap on the wrist at first? Rice isn't even on the team anyone and totally removed from the equation.

It was poor officiating, from crews that are terrible with their craft, who have rejected to go full time. It's not some grand conspiracy to keep a small market team down.

"And speaking of Rice, if the league wanted to fuck over the Ravens, why did he get a slap on the wrist at first? Rice isn't even on the team anyone and totally removed from the equation"

No, it doesn't.

Because they hadn't yet got the response from the video? After that blew up, the league got a black eye. Again, I am not saying that is what is going on here - but when billions are at stake, nothing is impossible.
You have your opinion, I have mine - nothing wrong with that. I will just go re-watch 'Signs" - they had really cool homemade tinfoil hats!

[HotInHere]

We had FIVE personal fouls last night. FIVE. That's seventy-five yards. And even though you can argue Pitt should have gotten some too, we earned every single one of those penalties. That's a pathetic lack of discipline.

[wickedsolo]

We had FIVE personal fouls last night. FIVE. That's seventy-five yards. And even though you can argue Pitt should have gotten some too, we earned every single one of those penalties. That's a pathetic lack of discipline.

indeed.