Day #9 after the loss to KC: Feeling better? Worse? Why? (Thread started at Day #2)

[finn]

No way I'm watching the Fraud Bowl with the incessant glazing of Mahomes. Makes me physically ill to hear that garbage. 

 

But first signs of recovery: I'm just beginning to think about the draft. I hope Beane realizes his team doesn't just have go be better than KC; it has to be a LOT better to overcome the cheating. Somehow he has to give Allen receivers of Bengals caliber and a defense of KC caliber, or even one of these. I know he's been trying. The Von Miller contract was--and will continue to be--an epic disaster, through no fault of Beane's, as was the Diggs contract albatross last year. If both those players had worked out, things would likely be different, even with the cheating. 

[2003Contenders]

For me -- and I am sure for many others as well -- this board is a great place to come for therapeutic healing after a loss like last week's. (Thanks to everyone for that!) I will say that after a week of digesting what all went on with the game, my own feelings are much more positive than they were last week.

 

Initial reaction to the offensive performance: the coaches did not sufficiently stick to the running game, Josh was not his usual post-season Superman self, and the over-use (and lack of innovation) on the "tush push" proved fatal.

 

Initial reaction to the defensive performance: the Bills allowed the Chiefs to score points than they did in any other game this season, and once again the post-season comes to an end in the McD/Beane/Allen era with a resoundingly poor showing by the defense.

 

With some time to reflect, while my initial reactions have not necessarily gone away, I will say that I am not nearly as down as I was last week. Just some random thoughts:

 

• Sometimes you look back at a game with a close score and you say to yourself that the close score was not truly indicative of how closely matched the 2 teams were in the game. Well, in this case, that is NOT true. The game really was THAT close. Both teams scored 4 TDs and 1 field goal. Despite all the bad officiating, questionable play calls, etc. the game really did come down to the fact that the Chiefs made good on their 2 point conversion -- whereas the Bills failed on both of their attempts. The Bills ran 66 plays, and the Chiefs ran 61. The Bills racked up 384 yards of offense, and the Chiefs racked up 380. Yes, it was that close.
• As much as we decry the defense allowing the Chiefs to score 32 points in the game, if you had told me before the game that the defense would hold Travis Kelce to 2 receptions for just 19 yards, mostly bottle up the Chief's running game (less than 4.0 yards per carry), prevent the RBs from having a big day catching the ball (just a total of 4 receptions for 35 yards), win the turnover battle 1-0, and keep Mahomes under 250 yards passing WITHOUT two key pieces of the Bills' secondary on the field -- I would have been VERY happy.
   
• While I see the argument that a great number of folks have made about McD and his staff being out-coached, we are talking about an opposing team that has Andy Reid calling the plays and Spags running the defense. Both of these gentlemen will likely wind up in the Hall of Fame one day. Yes, there were certainly things that I wish the coaches had done differently, but given how close the game was, that the Chiefs had home field advantage, were mostly healthy, and most certainly received MANY favorable calls from the officials, I think it is hard to complain too much about the coaching.
• Josh certainly came out with too many juices flowing - a la Brett Favre. I do wish that Brady had dialed up a more scaled back start to the game with some runs mixed in, etc. But after that poor start, Josh settled down -- and the offense scored the 2nd most points that any team scored against the Chiefs all season.  The first-most, of course, was the one additional point that the Bills scored against them during the regular season. If the officials did not get so many of the spots wrong throughout the AFCCG, I honestly wonder how many more points the Bills would have scored! At the end of the day, Josh's and Mahomes numbers were quite similar: 237 yards and 2 TD passes for Josh, 245 yards and 1 TD pass for Mahomes. Ironically, it was Mahomes who did more damage on the ground: 11/39 yards rushing for Josh compared to 11/43 for Mahomes, which was close -- but Mahomes scored twice. Clearly, the Chiefs #1 goal was to minimize Josh's success outside the pocket -- and credit to them for doing that. Last note about the offense: the Chiefs biggest weakness during the season was that they allowed TEs to catch the ball at will. The Bills completed a combined 3 passes for 20 yards to TEs. I know Kincaid was supposedly still nursing a knee injury -- but why was Dawson Knox, who has had a pretty good track record against the Chiefs, targeted just once (which he caught)?

Oh well. I will say that I feel better heading into next year than I did a week ago. The team should have more cap room to work with this year and, rather than an overhaul, if they can make some smart tweaks here and there -- a few more solid pieces on defense and at least one more capable receiver -- they should be a Super Bowl contender again in 2025.

 

[SaulGoodman]

1 hour ago, finn said:

No way I'm watching the Fraud Bowl with the incessant glazing of Mahomes. Makes me physically ill to hear that garbage. 

 

But first signs of recovery: I'm just beginning to think about the draft. I hope Beane realizes his team doesn't just have go be better than KC; it has to be a LOT better to overcome the cheating. Somehow he has to give Allen receivers of Bengals caliber and a defense of KC caliber, or even one of these. I know he's been trying. The Von Miller contract was--and will continue to be--an epic disaster, through no fault of Beane's, as was the Diggs contract albatross last year. If both those players had worked out, things would likely be different, even with the cheating. 

Dear God, people…

 

You really think the outcome of that game was determined by a bad spot? And you think the ref knowingly spotted it short?

 

There were two blatant missed calls that contributed to two Chiefs punts (their only punts in the game). An obvious facemask, and an obvious Offside that was called a false start, leading to 3rd and 15. Were the refs cheating for both teams?

 

For their own mental health, people should really let go of the ref insanity. 
 

Buffalo had the ball, down three, with three min left. That was a golden opportunity. Plus, there were five fumbles in the game and all five were recovered by Buffalo. KC also dropped multiple gift-wrapped interceptions. That’s a lot of luck and I don’t think it’s offset by a questionable spot. 

[ShakAttack]

38 minutes ago, SaulGoodman said:

Dear God, people…

 

You really think the outcome of that game was determined by a bad spot? And you think the ref knowingly spotted it short?

 

There were two blatant missed calls that contributed to two Chiefs punts (their only punts in the game). An obvious facemask, and an obvious Offside that was called a false start, leading to 3rd and 15. Were the refs cheating for both teams?

 

For their own mental health, people should really let go of the ref insanity. 
 

Buffalo had the ball, down three, with three min left. That was a golden opportunity. Plus, there were five fumbles in the game and all five were recovered by Buffalo. KC also dropped multiple gift-wrapped interceptions. That’s a lot of luck and I don’t think it’s offset by a questionable spot. 

I personally don’t think that, actually. But at the same time it is also hard to believe that ever since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside last season (a correct call) the Chiefs have not had ANY decisive calls go against them, while having numerous go in their favor, and it just seems like too many to be merely a “coincidence”. Especially when you consider this is a team that played almost every single game down to the wire this season. I have my own theory on it, and it’s not that refs are “intentionally” doing it, but it’s very difficult to believe it’s pure coincidence (unless they really do just have four leaf clovers up their a$$es)

[SaulGoodman]

6 minutes ago, ShakAttack said:

I personally don’t think that, actually. But at the same time it is also hard to believe that ever since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside last season (a correct call) the Chiefs have not had ANY decisive calls go against them, while having numerous go in their favor, and it just seems like too many to be merely a “coincidence”. Especially when you consider this is a team that played almost every single game down to the wire this season. I have my own theory on it, and it’s not that refs are “intentionally” doing it, but it’s very difficult to believe it’s pure coincidence (unless they really do just have four leaf clovers up their a$$es)

I don’t understand why people say that no big calls go against KC. The biggest calls have often gone against them.
 

4 TDs and 2 turnovers were wiped away by penalties in the previous two playoff runs. 0 for their opponents. Last postseason they were the only team to have a TD negated by penalty and it happened twice. In the SB, SF drew a bailout DPI on 3rd and 13 in OT. KC was penalized 11 times to 4 for Tampa in the SB in ‘21. Etc.

 

An ESPN article from earlier this season found that the Chiefs were the most penalized team in the league in close/late game situations. Overall they’ve been one of the most penalized teams during the Mahomes era, despite having a great coaching staff that’s very detail-oriented and practices them hard. 

 

Fans claim to want fair officiating but it’s clear that’s not the case, because they don’t say a word if a call is blown in favor of a KC opponent and they don’t question calls that go against the Chiefs. 
 

It’s fair to say that KC’s had some lucky moments here and there, but it’s not exclusive to them. Look at just the last two games for the Bills for example. The turnover luck vs Baltimore and the drop by Andrews, the fumbled handoff by KC, multiple blown calls. 5 fumbles in the game and all 5 recovered by the Bills. Multiple dropped INTs. 
 

I don’t think KC has more luck than most teams, and they definitely don’t get all the calls. It’s just magnified to the extreme whenever they do benefit from a questionable call.

[finn]

2 hours ago, SaulGoodman said:

Dear God, people…

 

You really think the outcome of that game was determined by a bad spot? And you think the ref knowingly spotted it short?

 

There were two blatant missed calls that contributed to two Chiefs punts (their only punts in the game). An obvious facemask, and an obvious Offside that was called a false start, leading to 3rd and 15. Were the refs cheating for both teams?

 

For their own mental health, people should really let go of the ref insanity. 
 

Buffalo had the ball, down three, with three min left. That was a golden opportunity. Plus, there were five fumbles in the game and all five were recovered by Buffalo. KC also dropped multiple gift-wrapped interceptions. That’s a lot of luck and I don’t think it’s offset by a questionable spot. 

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but this is just the reasoning the league, if it is cheating, wants to hear from fans. "It didn't happen" along with "If it did, it wouldn't have affected the outcome," with plenty of "What about that call?" remarks thrown in. If the cheating is real, you're playing a very important role for the league, which, with you and other ordinary fans defending them at every step, hasn't even bothered to dispute the charges (although they're careful to come down hard on the more damaging criticism from players and coaches). 

 

I'm skeptical of all conspiracy theories because of motivated reason (you find what you're looking for and disregard the rest). But sometimes there is some truth under the suspicion. So I play the "believing game" to explore the given question. For a moment, put aside your skepticism that the league cheated and believe that it did. How would they go about altering the result? What would they do and not do? For example, would they urge the refs to be blatant or subtle? Would they tell them to try to throw blowouts or only very close games?

At the end of those sorts of questions, I get the KC-Buffalo game. Even then, I'm not persuaded there was cheating. But factor in the billions of dollars balancing on the outcome, it seems blindingly naïve that conclude that there wasn't. 

 

 

[ShakAttack]

1 hour ago, SaulGoodman said:

I don’t understand why people say that no big calls go against KC. The biggest calls have often gone against them.
 

4 TDs and 2 turnovers were wiped away by penalties in the previous two playoff runs. 0 for their opponents. Last postseason they were the only team to have a TD negated by penalty and it happened twice. In the SB, SF drew a bailout DPI on 3rd and 13 in OT. KC was penalized 11 times to 4 for Tampa in the SB in ‘21. Etc.

 

An ESPN article from earlier this season found that the Chiefs were the most penalized team in the league in close/late game situations. Overall they’ve been one of the most penalized teams during the Mahomes era, despite having a great coaching staff that’s very detail-oriented and practices them hard. 

 

Fans claim to want fair officiating but it’s clear that’s not the case, because they don’t say a word if a call is blown in favor of a KC opponent and they don’t question calls that go against the Chiefs. 
 

It’s fair to say that KC’s had some lucky moments here and there, but it’s not exclusive to them. Look at just the last two games for the Bills for example. The turnover luck vs Baltimore and the drop by Andrews, the fumbled handoff by KC, multiple blown calls. 5 fumbles in the game and all 5 recovered by the Bills. Multiple dropped INTs. 
 

I don’t think KC has more luck than most teams, and they definitely don’t get all the calls. It’s just magnified to the extreme whenever they do benefit from a questionable call.

 

There are some good points here, but I was referring to the fact that there have been no calls against them in decisive moments since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside penalty last year when Mahomes threw a massive tantrum, which remains valid.  I do agree that there have been significant calls against the Chiefs prior to this season, but this season, there have been none that I can think of.  This season, KC seems to be getting different treatment, whether you want to say it is coincidental or not, the bottom line is the same.

 

Regarding the Bills lucking out in the Ravens game, that is 100% correct.  In fact, when friends & family congratulated me after that game, my initial reaction was, "Wow, I am not used to seeing the Bills get the lucky breaks in the playoffs; maybe this season is different after all,"  and then after Mark Andrews drops the pass on the Ravens final play on offense of the season, we all watch Kincaid do the same thing.   Does that mean the Chiefs got lucky?  I mean, yes, we were clearly outcoached in that game, but regardless of what happened in the first 3 quarters, this game was always going to come down to the 4th quarter one way or another, and in that quarter, the Chiefs had 2 extremely lucky moments.  First being the terrible spot on 4th and 1 (refs and out of our control), and second being the Kincaid drop (self inflicted by Bills).  

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, 2003Contenders said:

For me -- and I am sure for many others as well -- this board is a great place to come for therapeutic healing after a loss like last week's. (Thanks to everyone for that!) I will say that after a week of digesting what all went on with the game, my own feelings are much more positive than they were last week.

 

Initial reaction to the offensive performance: the coaches did not sufficiently stick to the running game, Josh was not his usual post-season Superman self, and the over-use (and lack of innovation) on the "tush push" proved fatal.

 

Initial reaction to the defensive performance: the Bills allowed the Chiefs to score points than they did in any other game this season, and once again the post-season comes to an end in the McD/Beane/Allen era with a resoundingly poor showing by the defense.

 

With some time to reflect, while my initial reactions have not necessarily gone away, I will say that I am not nearly as down as I was last week. Just some random thoughts:

 

• Sometimes you look back at a game with a close score and you say to yourself that the close score was not truly indicative of how closely matched the 2 teams were in the game. Well, in this case, that is NOT true. The game really was THAT close. Both teams scored 4 TDs and 1 field goal. Despite all the bad officiating, questionable play calls, etc. the game really did come down to the fact that the Chiefs made good on their 2 point conversion -- whereas the Bills failed on both of their attempts. The Bills ran 66 plays, and the Chiefs ran 61. The Bills racked up 384 yards of offense, and the Chiefs racked up 380. Yes, it was that close.
• As much as we decry the defense allowing the Chiefs to score 32 points in the game, if you had told me before the game that the defense would hold Travis Kelce to 2 receptions for just 19 yards, mostly bottle up the Chief's running game (less than 4.0 yards per carry), prevent the RBs from having a big day catching the ball (just a total of 4 receptions for 35 yards), win the turnover battle 1-0, and keep Mahomes under 250 yards passing WITHOUT two key pieces of the Bills' secondary on the field -- I would have been VERY happy.
   
• While I see the argument that a great number of folks have made about McD and his staff being out-coached, we are talking about an opposing team that has Andy Reid calling the plays and Spags running the defense. Both of these gentlemen will likely wind up in the Hall of Fame one day. Yes, there were certainly things that I wish the coaches had done differently, but given how close the game was, that the Chiefs had home field advantage, were mostly healthy, and most certainly received MANY favorable calls from the officials, I think it is hard to complain too much about the coaching.
• Josh certainly came out with too many juices flowing - a la Brett Favre. I do wish that Brady had dialed up a more scaled back start to the game with some runs mixed in, etc. But after that poor start, Josh settled down -- and the offense scored the 2nd most points that any team scored against the Chiefs all season.  The first-most, of course, was the one additional point that the Bills scored against them during the regular season. If the officials did not get so many of the spots wrong throughout the AFCCG, I honestly wonder how many more points the Bills would have scored! At the end of the day, Josh's and Mahomes numbers were quite similar: 237 yards and 2 TD passes for Josh, 245 yards and 1 TD pass for Mahomes. Ironically, it was Mahomes who did more damage on the ground: 11/39 yards rushing for Josh compared to 11/43 for Mahomes, which was close -- but Mahomes scored twice. Clearly, the Chiefs #1 goal was to minimize Josh's success outside the pocket -- and credit to them for doing that. Last note about the offense: the Chiefs biggest weakness during the season was that they allowed TEs to catch the ball at will. The Bills completed a combined 3 passes for 20 yards to TEs. I know Kincaid was supposedly still nursing a knee injury -- but why was Dawson Knox, who has had a pretty good track record against the Chiefs, targeted just once (which he caught)?

Oh well. I will say that I feel better heading into next year than I did a week ago. The team should have more cap room to work with this year and, rather than an overhaul, if they can make some smart tweaks here and there -- a few more solid pieces on defense and at least one more capable receiver -- they should be a Super Bowl contender again in 2025.

 

Yes the game was as close as it can possibly get. Both statistically and scoring. So when 2 teams are that evenly matched, it will always come down to coaching and officials.  We got 6 documented bad spots. The Worthy/ Bishop catch could've been called 3 different ways.  We had twice as many penalty yards as KC.  And Reid/ Spags again outcoached Sean and his boys all day.  When a game is expected to be that close KC (-1.5) you are 100% guaranteed to get beat by refs and the opposing coaching staff.

[Buffalo716]

3 hours ago, SaulGoodman said:

Dear God, people…

 

You really think the outcome of that game was determined by a bad spot? And you think the ref knowingly spotted it short?

 

There were two blatant missed calls that contributed to two Chiefs punts (their only punts in the game). An obvious facemask, and an obvious Offside that was called a false start, leading to 3rd and 15. Were the refs cheating for both teams?

 

For their own mental health, people should really let go of the ref insanity. 
 

Buffalo had the ball, down three, with three min left. That was a golden opportunity. Plus, there were five fumbles in the game and all five were recovered by Buffalo. KC also dropped multiple gift-wrapped interceptions. That’s a lot of luck and I don’t think it’s offset by a questionable spot. 

There are missed penalties on both sides of the ball throughout the game but spotting a ball is an absolutely critical part to football that nobody talks about 

 

100% Chiefs had good spots while the bills had 7 or eight maybe even 9 iffy  spots throughout the game

 

That's a way to control the game 100% especially in a game of inches don't kid yourself

 

 

[BarleyNY]

 

[SaulGoodman]

39 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

There are missed penalties on both sides of the ball throughout the game but spotting a ball is an absolutely critical part to football that nobody talks about 

 

100% Chiefs had good spots while the bills had 7 or eight maybe even 9 iffy  spots throughout the game

 

That's a way to control the game 100% especially in a game of inches don't kid yourself

 

 

 

8-9 bad spots for Buffalo and 100% good spots for KC? Don't you think that's a slightly biased take?

[Buffalo716]

5 minutes ago, SaulGoodman said:

 

8-9 bad spots for Buffalo and 100% good spots for KC? Don't you think that's a slightly biased take?

I just said there are multiple no calls on both sides throughout the game 

 

I watched the game three times 

 

There are terrible spots in all four quarters for the bills.. I did not see a bad spot for the Chiefs in the same vein 

 

I did see some no calls where they could have called The penalty on the bills but they didn't.. I'm not being biased when I did not see one bad spot for the chiefs

 

The spotting was out of whack from the first quarter for the bills

Edited yesterday at 09:18 PM by Buffalo716

[SaulGoodman]

59 minutes ago, ShakAttack said:

 

There are some good points here, but I was referring to the fact that there have been no calls against them in decisive moments since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside penalty last year when Mahomes threw a massive tantrum, which remains valid.  I do agree that there have been significant calls against the Chiefs prior to this season, but this season, there have been none that I can think of.  This season, KC seems to be getting different treatment, whether you want to say it is coincidental or not, the bottom line is the same.

 

Which decisive calls are you referring to? Only one I can remember was the DPI vs the Bengals, which set up the game-winning FG, and that was one of the most blatant DPIs you'll see. 

 

 

59 minutes ago, ShakAttack said:

 

Regarding the Bills lucking out in the Ravens game, that is 100% correct.  In fact, when friends & family congratulated me after that game, my initial reaction was, "Wow, I am not used to seeing the Bills get the lucky breaks in the playoffs; maybe this season is different after all,"  and then after Mark Andrews drops the pass on the Ravens final play on offense of the season, we all watch Kincaid do the same thing.   Does that mean the Chiefs got lucky?  I mean, yes, we were clearly outcoached in that game, but regardless of what happened in the first 3 quarters, this game was always going to come down to the 4th quarter one way or another, and in that quarter, the Chiefs had 2 extremely lucky moments.  First being the terrible spot on 4th and 1 (refs and out of our control), and second being the Kincaid drop (self inflicted by Bills).  

 

Only one thing I disagree with here...people always focus on what happens near the end of the game, but big plays/calls are impactful and play a role in the outcome no matter when they occur. Which is why it irritated me to hear people going on and on two years ago after the AFCC vs the Bengals and the Eagles SB. Nevermind that the late hit vs CIN was clear and obvious...would the game have even been close enough for it to matter if the officials hadn't taken both a TD and an INT away from KC? No one even acknowledges that those things happened. In the SB, would the defensive hold have mattered if they hadn't made a questionable call that took Bolton's fumble TD off the board?

 

You have to admit, Buffalo was pretty lucky to recover all 5 fumbles and have multiple INTs dropped (plus a botched handoff). What are the odds of all those things going your way? But yeah, they were probably unlucky with that 4th down spot. Maybe the 3rd down spot too. Only saw one angle of that and it was hard to tell. It was right in front of the Bills' bench though, so you'd think they'd have challenged if it appeared he had it. 

[SaulGoodman]

11 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

I just said there are multiple no calls on both sides throughout the game 

 

I watched the game three times 

 

There are terrible spots in all four quarters for the bills.. I did not see a bad spot for the Chiefs in the same vein 

 

I did see some no calls where they could have called The penalty on the bills but they didn't.. I'm not being biased when I did not see one bad spot for the chiefs

 

The spotting was out of whack from the first quarter for the bills

 

I didn't pay enough attention to the spots to have an opinion on it, but if your agenda is to hurt a team, there are much better ways to do it than to short them by six inches or a foot on some spots. Especially an offense as strong as Buffalo's, which is usually automatic in short yardage situations. 

 

Meanwhile, it was obvious in real time that the Bills defender jumped offside way before any false starts occurred, yet they called a false start that put KC in 3rd and 15 and killed a drive. On another play, a blatant facemask on the ball carrier was ignored, which would have set KC up for a FG try at minimum. Instead they punted. 

 

 

[uticaclub]

1 hour ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Yes the game was as close as it can possibly get. Both statistically and scoring. So when 2 teams are that evenly matched, it will always come down to coaching and officials.  We got 6 documented bad spots. The Worthy/ Bishop catch could've been called 3 different ways.  We had twice as many penalty yards as KC.  And Reid/ Spags again outcoached Sean and his boys all day.  When a game is expected to be that close KC (-1.5) you are 100% guaranteed to get beat by refs and the opposing coaching staff.

Where do you think that point and half came from? 

[Buffalo716]

1 minute ago, SaulGoodman said:

 

I didn't pay enough attention to the spots to have an opinion on it, but if your agenda is to hurt a team, there are much better ways to do it than to short them by six inches or a foot on some spots. Especially an offense as strong as Buffalo's, which is usually automatic in short yardage situations. 

 

Meanwhile, it was obvious in real time that the Bills defender jumped offside way before any false starts occurred, yet they called a false start that put KC in 3rd and 15 and killed a drive. On another play, a blatant facemask on the ball carrier was ignored, which would have set KC up for a FG try at minimum. Instead they punted. 

 

 

The line judge who also spotted the ball a yard differently from the side judge 

 

Also is in charge of calling Offside or neutral zone infraction 

 

On the tush push Kansas City had a defender clearly lined up in the neutral zone in clear direction of the line judge who refused to call that.. then had a spot a yard different than the side judge 

 

He literally had two mistakes on one play.. NFL officials should never be a yard off when the two are spotting.. and they definitely shouldn't miss a helmet in the neutral zone on fourth down

[SaulGoodman]

3 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

The line judge who also spotted the ball a yard differently from the side judge 

 

Also is in charge of calling Offside or neutral zone infraction 

 

On the tush push Kansas City had a defender clearly lined up in the neutral zone in clear direction of the line judge who refused to call that.. then had a spot a yard different than the side judge 

 

He literally had two mistakes on one play.. NFL officials should never be a yard off when the two are spotting.. and they definitely shouldn't miss a helmet in the neutral zone on fourth down

 

My point is that mistakes were made on both sides. It's not easy to be a ref and to get every call correct in real time. 

 

If there were an agenda to help KC, it doesn't make sense that they'd overlook blatant penalties on the opponent. The easiest way to help a team is to call the obvious ones. 

[Buffalo716]

Just now, SaulGoodman said:

 

My point is that mistakes were made on both sides. It's not easy to be a ref and to get every call correct in real time. 

 

If there were an agenda to help KC, it doesn't make sense that they'd overlook blatant penalties on the opponent. The easiest way to help a team is to call the obvious ones. 

I don't blame refs 

 

But it's ok to say they had bad spots in key moments

 

1 ref had 2 mistakes on 4th down 

[thewookie1]

In the end the matchups are very close and thus every ref related situation is magnified.  
 

The refs missed calls on both sides

 

The Bills got screwed on possibly 2 spots on one drive while up 1 in the 4th. 
 

The NFL loves to message games to keep them close and interesting. In many ways both sides took some licks in that regard but the Bills took a serious shot upon that 4th and 1. I have zero doubt that the NFL marked it short to keep the game on a razor’s edge. If the Bills go down and score a TD and get the 2 on their 3rd try; the Bills are up 30-21 and puts Kansas City in a pickle depending on how long their ensuing drive takes. The NFL is hoping for a back and forth affair to the very end and OT if possible; especially after the NFC Championship was a blowout. You give Buffalo the opportunity to be up 9 with 12 left in the game; suddenly a different story is made. Instead of lead swaps you get Buffalo trying to hold off KC biting at their ankles and while fun; doesn’t bring the 13 seconds game level of drama. 
 

If Allen to Kincaid works out; the Bills likely work down the field and eventually get screwed by the refs forcing the FG. Now you get the new OT between the teams who effectively caused the rule to begin with. 
 

In the end they wanted the Chiefs to win the game because they get Swiftie viewers, who knows how long they’ll have that well to go to, and a 3peat dynasty narrative to yammer on about. 
 

 

[Buffalo716]

1 minute ago, thewookie1 said:

In the end the matchups are very close and thus every ref related situation is magnified.  
 

The refs missed calls on both sides

 

The Bills got screwed on possibly 2 spots on one drive while up 1 in the 4th. 
 

The NFL loves to message games to keep them close and interesting. In many ways both sides took some licks in that regard but the Bills took a serious shot upon that 4th and 1. I have zero doubt that the NFL marked it short to keep the game on a razor’s edge. If the Bills go down and score a TD and get the 2 on their 3rd try; the Bills are up 30-21 and puts Kansas City in a pickle depending on how long their ensuing drive takes. The NFL is hoping for a back and forth affair to the very end and OT if possible; especially after the NFC Championship was a blowout. You give Buffalo the opportunity to be up 9 with 12 left in the game; suddenly a different story is made. Instead of lead swaps you get Buffalo trying to hold off KC biting at their ankles and while fun; doesn’t bring the 13 seconds game level of drama. 
 

If Allen to Kincaid works out; the Bills likely work down the field and eventually get screwed by the refs forcing the FG. Now you get the new OT between the teams who effectively caused the rule to begin with. 
 

In the end they wanted the Chiefs to win the game because they get Swiftie viewers, who knows how long they’ll have that well to go to, and a 3peat dynasty narrative to yammer on about. 
 

 

In the end human error is a part of football 

 

But there's always been a massive difference between professional and college ref... Like the pros are better 

 

It's inexcusable that the line judge missed a neutral zone infraction and had a yard spot difference from the side judge 

 

That's something you'd expect from a high school ref... Not supposedly one of the best crews left