Yes, the refs suck. No, they are not angling for the Bills to lose.

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

Every single gameday thread there are a massive number of statements about the refs intentionally screwing us over.  It was particularly bad yesterday (probably due to our anxieties about the game and the refs being generally worse than usual) but it happens literally every week.  Lots of people seemed to think that the NFL wouldn't tolerate the Chiefs falling to 2-3.

 

I'll start by saying that I think a few more bad calls went against us than against the Chiefs.  And if they had made a comeback it would have been due in part to getting bailed out on a couple key 3rd downs.  Those were bad calls. 

 

Here's the thing, though - how could it possibly be true that the refs were instructed to let the Chiefs win when they called that questionable RTP to extend the eventual game-sealing drive?  I mean, really think about it.  If the refs were being given orders to let the Chiefs win or on Vegas' payroll to make them cover the 2.5 points, the stupidest thing they could possibly do is throw a flag against the Chiefs in that situation on a non-obvious call.  In my opinion this call means there was a 0.0% the rigging complaints were true.

 

Now I understand that there's no way to prove things are above board in a professional sporting league.  Sketchy stuff happens.  I immediately think of the Lakers/Kings series.  But I really think our anxieties about this are a projection of small-market insecurity, ie. the NFL thinks they will get more advertising dollars by getting the big city teams in the big games.  I don't think we need to worry about this at all based on being small-market.  The Bills are in positive headlines perhaps more than any other team these past two seasons and Josh Allen is among the top 5 faces of the league.  Take a quick look around national sites and you'll see Josh's face probably 3rd most after Mahomes and Brady.

 

In the NFL the big money is where the popular QBs are.  Indianapolis is hardly a glistening metropolis but the Colts were league darlings when Manning was the face of the league.  Green Bay is a tiny market even when you consider Milwaukee and the Packers are enormously popular due to always having elite QB play.  It's just how it works.

 

The NFL also doesn't have some incentive to make sure that popular teams rack up wins.  The discussion about why the Chiefs are struggling is drawing as many eyes and advertising dollars (perhaps more) than them continuing their winning ways.

 

The refs don't do their jobs well but remember Hanlon's Razor - "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."  

 

 

[fan_in_tx]

With all due respect, I believe it was a make up call for the phantom holding call the play before.  No holding call then there is no need for Josh to be in that position and throw the pick.

[Orlando Buffalo]

Your overall point is valid but the officials last were particularly awful, and inconsistent. The fact that was the SuperBowl crew says so much about how bad the NFL officiating has become. 

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

3 minutes ago, fan_in_tx said:

With all due respect, I believe it was a make up call for the phantom holding call the play before.  No holding call then there is no need for Josh to be in that position and throw the pick.

 

Still, if that's the case...why would they do that make up call if they wanted the Bills to fail?

3 minutes ago, Buffalo619 said:

Isn’t this common knowledge by now:

 

https://www.distractify.com/p/nfl-scripted

 

Most NFL players are about 17 years old mentally and emotionally.  The suggestion that thousands and thousands of them keep a secret every year about signing off on rigged game scripts except for Benny Cunningham sending out a tweet is preposterous.

[Rc2catch]

Fans are just wired to look for excuses. Refs definitely ain’t perfect and I’m sure lots of them have their own personal biases. I have never considered the fix to be in. Last nights crew was bad, no doubt about it, but last time we played KC in the championship game many fans complained the game was not officiated closely enough. There’s a happy medium but officiating is pretty bad league wide. 

[mead107]

They suck in 99% of all games 

 

[fridge]

There is likely a bias towards the greats, and referees have placed Mahomes in that category.

 

The only thing that bothers me is when drives stall and are extended by weak calls, and that goes both ways.

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

4 minutes ago, Buffalo Timmy said:

Your overall point is valid but the officials last were particularly awful, and inconsistent. The fact that was the SuperBowl crew says so much about how bad the NFL officiating has become. 

 

100% agree.  They are unacceptably bad.  Part of this is because it may be an impossibly difficult job to do well with the real-time scrutiny of multiple angles of instant replay.  I wouldn't be surprised if within 10 years we see all officiating done by an eye in the sky, reported by an on field ref.

[Beerball]

2 minutes ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

 

I wouldn't be surprised if within 10 years we see all officiating done by an eye in the sky, reported by an on field ref.

Stop making sense.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

A friend of mine is a big Dolphins fan and every time they play the Bills all I hear the next day is  how all the call went against Miami and the Bills got all the breaks.  Every week, every game, fans of every team feel this to be true, in fact I'm sure there are Chiefs fans today complaining how the Bills got all the breaks

[Orlando Buffalo]

17 minutes ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

 

100% agree.  They are unacceptably bad.  Part of this is because it may be an impossibly difficult job to do well with the real-time scrutiny of multiple angles of instant replay.  I wouldn't be surprised if within 10 years we see all officiating done by an eye in the sky, reported by an on field ref.

It actually needs to be a combo of people in booth only doing the safety calls( targeting, facemask, horse collar) and the guys on field handling the pass interference and holding type calls. If they only have to call a few items they should do better 

[Don Otreply]

It’s that they are not consistent within a game, or from one game to the next, ie; the phantom holding call on Morse, it’s frustrating as hell, 

 

Go Bills!!!

[NoSaint]

34 minutes ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

Every single gameday thread there are a massive number of statements about the refs intentionally screwing us over.  It was particularly bad yesterday (probably due to our anxieties about the game and the refs being generally worse than usual) but it happens literally every week.  Lots of people seemed to think that the NFL wouldn't tolerate the Chiefs falling to 2-3.

 

I'll start by saying that I think a few more bad calls went against us than against the Chiefs.  And if they had made a comeback it would have been due in part to getting bailed out on a couple key 3rd downs.  Those were bad calls. 

 

Here's the thing, though - how could it possibly be true that the refs were instructed to let the Chiefs win when they called that questionable RTP to extend the eventual game-sealing drive?  I mean, really think about it.  If the refs were being given orders to let the Chiefs win or on Vegas' payroll to make them cover the 2.5 points, the stupidest thing they could possibly do is throw a flag against the Chiefs in that situation on a non-obvious call.  In my opinion this call means there was a 0.0% the rigging complaints were true.

 

Now I understand that there's no way to prove things are above board in a professional sporting league.  Sketchy stuff happens.  I immediately think of the Lakers/Kings series.  But I really think our anxieties about this are a projection of small-market insecurity, ie. the NFL thinks they will get more advertising dollars by getting the big city teams in the big games.  I don't think we need to worry about this at all based on being small-market.  The Bills are in positive headlines perhaps more than any other team these past two seasons and Josh Allen is among the top 5 faces of the league.  Take a quick look around national sites and you'll see Josh's face probably 3rd most after Mahomes and Brady.

 

In the NFL the big money is where the popular QBs are.  Indianapolis is hardly a glistening metropolis but the Colts were league darlings when Manning was the face of the league.  Green Bay is a tiny market even when you consider Milwaukee and the Packers are enormously popular due to always having elite QB play.  It's just how it works.

 

The NFL also doesn't have some incentive to make sure that popular teams rack up wins.  The discussion about why the Chiefs are struggling is drawing as many eyes and advertising dollars (perhaps more) than them continuing their winning ways.

 

The refs don't do their jobs well but remember Hanlon's Razor - "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."  

 

 

i don’t think the roughing on josh was questionable.

 

I don’t think they were instructed to tank the bills.

 

I do think human nature is that if something is “on the fence” guys make the call that lets the game continue to be settled on the field instead of ending it with a call/no call.  

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

2 minutes ago, NoSaint said:

i don’t think the roughing on josh was questionable.

 

I don’t think they were instructed to tank the bills.

 

I do think human nature is that if something is “on the fence” guys make the call that lets the game continue to be settled on the field instead of ending it with a call/no call.  

 

Ok, perhaps not a questionable call, it was pretty cut and dry by the "no landing with full body weight" rule.  That said it's also a flag they could have not thrown and there wouldn't have been a fuss.  In real time it was a pretty innocuous looking take down.

[JoPoy88]

NFL officials are incompetent, not crooked.

[Nextmanup]

As far as I know, some have suggested there is a real officiating bias against the away team.

 

The theory is that the refs are--even on a subconscious level--trying to make the home crowd happy by ruling in favor of the home team, particularly with regard to really close plays.

 

Or something like that.

 

I also definitely think there is a bias that favors the proven, established, winning team over a team the is perceived to be not nearly as good.  The idea is that the better player on the better team is less likely to have to commit a foul, so the official is less likely to call it on him.

 

The bad player on the bad team is more likely to have to commit the foul, so he gets called more frequently.

 

This would all be taking place on a subconscious level as well, most likely.

 

How any of this would be proven, I don't know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FireChans]

1 hour ago, fridge said:

There is likely a bias towards the greats, and referees have placed Mahomes in that category.

 

The only thing that bothers me is when drives stall and are extended by weak calls, and that goes both ways.

They have also put Josh in that category, based on that breathing on the passer call.

 

Refs protect the big time QBs because the NFL wants them to.

[machine gun kelly]

12 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

As far as I know, some have suggested there is a real officiating bias against the away team.

 

The theory is that the refs are--even on a subconscious level--trying to make the home crowd happy by ruling in favor of the home team, particularly with regard to really close plays.

 

Or something like that.

 

I also definitely think there is a bias that favors the proven, established, winning team over a team the is perceived to be not nearly as good.  The idea is that the better player on the better team is less likely to have to commit a foul, so the official is less likely to call it on him.

 

The bad player on the bad team is more likely to have to commit the foul, so he gets called more frequently.

 

This would all be taking place on a subconscious level as well, most likely.

 

How any of this would be proven, I don't know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If that unintended bias were true, and would impact the game, why is it two years ago it was even home vs. away wins, slightly slant3d to the away teams last year (I know Covid but, wait..) this year is still trending to more away wins than home wins balking at the home field advantage notion in the last few years.  It’s been documented on NFLR for the last two years on various shows, and they referenced their hw.

 

Coaches when interviewed have said in a few occasions, it depends on what home stadium.  The last person to say that was Ron Rivera.  He referenced KC, Pitt., Buffalo, and Cleveland who have an advantage per his experiences.

[Warcodered]

If they are biased it's toward keeping the game interesting which still sucks.

[buffaloboyinATL]

Even a friend of mine who is a die hard Chiefs fan, texted me in the first quarter and said “obvious home cooking”.  It might not be a bias against the Bills specifically, but the calls were clearly going on favor of the  Chiefs, especially early in the game. 
 

That being said, how can you say with certainty that the obvious one sided officiating is unintentional?