Congrats to Pats for a well played game, We had some penalties , got away from run a little, If Mark Clayton cathches that pass in the end zone, or even the 4th down catch i think we win the game but oh well, Tom Brady had a excellent game
it was a good game, but those 2 roughing the passer calls against the ravens were questionable to me, especially the one on suggs.
I thought Belichick's comments on the refs was interesting. He warned his players ahead of the game that this crew is the most heavily penalizing of all the refs. So they were tipped to keep it cool as much as possible. Bill even tracks the refs. Thats being thorough.:icon_cheesygrin:
If you think that those refs weren't told ahead that Face-of-the-league-QB Tom Brady was going to be on the field just the same as Bill Belichik told his team the Magoo crew was working that game you are dead wrong.
The only problem with being told that is that crap can come back to bite you in the butt. If a ref is told something like that, how do you fire him if he doesn't live up to the performance required by the NFL. He goes on ESPN, and rats out that there are players getting special treatment in the NFL,and credibility is detroyed. You are seeing these type of calls all over the NFL this year, and everyone is snitching. We got nailed on 2 the game before yours, and Wilfork's was totall bullcrap. The league is busting butt to protect the QB's, whoever they are. Most fans don't like it, including myself, but that's the way it is. I think this is coming from the teams as much as from Goodell, because let's face it, there just isn't that many decent QB's in the league in the first place. You lose your starting QB, you are really hecked. Welcome to 2009 in the NFL, and the future coming of the QB wearing a flag, where you aren't allowed to hit him at all.:icon_rolleyes:
You speak truth Dawg, they definitely buckled down after Brady got knocked out - and I think alot of fans don't like it (It was like +75% on ESPNs Sportsnation Poll this morning). I mean really, is there anything sweeter than seeing your team demolish their opponents QB even if he just got rid of the ball? I just think alot of this 'we can't do too much to protect the qb' stuff really isn't in the spirit of the game and that was what had Ray so angry.
I was watching the old school film of hits on QB's and WR's that someone posted here. Man, in those days football was brutal. No candyass QB was going to last long in those days. A guy like TO was going to get his head taken off, just for being a rod, and more than likely there wouldn't have even been a flag. There were guys on the field you were literally scared to death of, with good reason. :icon_cheesygrin: I think they didn't pass as much just to save the lifes of the receivers. Good stuff.