Jim Kubiak Analysis in BN-- How Officials Likely Cost the Bills the KC Game

[Casey D]

https://buffalonews.com/sports/professional/nfl/bills/jim-kubiak-josh-allen-buffalo-bills-kansas-city-chiefs-film-review-afc-championship-game/article_4650eea0-de87-11ef-a2e7-a3585994bafc.html

 

Really good stuff.  He points out how Josh-- who he is a huge fan of-- did not play his best game, although he did lots of good things.  And the officiating was even worse than I thought based on his analysis.   Bad calls and lots of bad no-calls on KC that almost certainly changed the outcome.

[Casey D]

I Have to add, it is really kind of depressing.

[colin]

can you summarize as this is behind a pay wall?

[Pete]

5 minutes ago, colin said:

can you summarize as this is behind a pay wall?

lots of plays left on the table, and multiple horrible Ref decisions cost us the game.  There are multiple photos that show Josh got the 4th and 1

[DaVinci]

I will summarize it. You have the ball with 3 minutes left and you're best offensive player besides Allen is on the bench. On 4th down you run the play the Chiefs knew you were going to run.

[zow2]

5 minutes ago, Pete said:

lots of plays left on the table, and multiple horrible Ref decisions cost us the game.  There are multiple photos that show Josh got the 4th and 1

 

I thought the Kincaid reaching on 3rd down was an obvious first down as well.  Obviously the ref marked the ball where he thought  his knee was down but Kincaid made a great play to keep his knees elevated.  So the ball should have been marked where his elbow touched first and the ball was right on the yard line.  First down.  Unfortunately Buffalo rushed to the line, never took their time to have another look.  Prob just assumed Allen would get it on the next play and we know what happened.  Ugh.

[US Egg]

Hadn’t watched any replays. There’s quite a few on X pertaining to the refereeing.

 

I watched one clip. I wished I hadn’t. Should have left it alone. 

Edited 7 hours ago by US Egg

[4merper4mer]

1 minute ago, DaVinci said:

I will summarize it. You have the ball with 3 minutes left and you're best offensive player besides Allen is on the bench. On 4th down you run the play the Chiefs knew you were going to run.

Cook was hurt.

[colin]

5 minutes ago, 4merper4mer said:

Cook was hurt.

 

was he really?  do you have a link, or know what play he was hurt on?

 

tx

[Charles Romes]

4 minutes ago, DaVinci said:

I will summarize it. You have the ball with 3 minutes left and your best offensive player besides Allen is on the bench. On 4th down you run the play the Chiefs knew you were going to run.

per Marino, Cook in his one play the final series blew his pass pro assignment badly causing one of the critical incompletions. Ty is by far the Bills best pass RB. Hopefully cook will be dominant at pass pro the end of camp 2025. 

[All_Pro_Bills]

31 minutes ago, Pete said:

lots of plays left on the table, and multiple horrible Ref decisions cost us the game.  There are multiple photos that show Josh got the 4th and 1

The Bills could have changed the result by executing any number of plays. And then any of these officiating gaffes wouldn't matter. That it true.

 

But in a close game they did matter. At at this point in the evolution of the game and tools available to officials there's no excuse for them to blow that 4th down call other than incompetence. You've got one official that clearly saw the spot on the right side and one that didn't on the left side and head official decided to go with the guy that didn't see it clearly. Why is that? Who would do that? Why didn't the official that clearly saw the ball insist on his view being used to spot the ball? 

 

You've got replay assist which should have shown Allen made the first down.

 

Then there's the coaches challenge that showed Allen made the first down and the officials still wouldn't reverse their call.

 

Then there's the broadcast crew and their in game rules expert all declaring the refs blew the call.

 

Along with millions of viewers.

 

The only guy that didn't get it was the only one that mattered.

 

Maybe if the officials got it right the Bills still lose or maybe they go on to win but we'll never know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by All_Pro_Bills

[Casey D]

29 minutes ago, colin said:

can you summarize as this is behind a pay wall?

Sure.  There were multiple calls and non-calls that were wrong.  On the Elam facemask, the receiver had Elam's facemask too.   On the 4th down tush push that failed, on the play before (3rd down) Knox or Dawson(can't remember which) made the line to gain but was marked short.  On the subsequent play Allen clearly made it from multiple angles that he got about 1/3 of the ball over the line to gain but was called short. 

 

Other examples, on a key short yardage Chris Jones was clearly offside-- 2/3 of his head is over the line-- which allowed him to blow up the play.  On the KC punt return, a flagrant block in the back was not called.  The Bishop/Worthy call, clearly the ball hit the ground.  Hollins was called for an illegal formation when he asked the ref if he was OK, the ref said yes, then called a penalty anyway. There were more.

 

He also points out that Allen reverted to hero ball at times, and did not take critical gains he could have gotten on checkdowns.  Also, a key bad throw to Samuel that was a short pass that would have been a huge gainer.  Says Allen makes the pass 999 out of 1000.

[colin]

3 minutes ago, Casey D said:

Sure.  There were multiple calls and non-calls that were wrong.  On the Elam facemask, the receiver had Elam's facemask too.   On the 4th down tush push that failed, on the play before (3rd down) Knox or Dawson(can't remember which) made the line to gain but was marked short.  On the subsequent play Allen clearly made it from multiple angles that he got about 1/3 of the ball over the line to gain but was called short. 

 

Other examples, on a key short yardage Chris Jones was clearly offside-- 2/3 of his head is over the line-- which allowed him to blow up the play.  On the KC punt return, a flagrant block in the back was not called.  The Bishop/Worthy call, clearly the ball hit the ground.  Hollins was called for an illegal formation when he asked the ref if he was OK, the ref said yes, then called a penalty anyway. There were more.

 

He also points out that Allen reverted to hero ball at times, and did not take critical gains he could have gotten on checkdowns.  Also, a key bad throw to Samuel that was a short pass that would have been a huge gainer.  Says Allen makes the pass 999 out of 1000.

 

sad.

 

i do remember seeing jones and maybe another guy up too tight to the line on the sneak.  it's silly that pre snap procedural stuff like that can't be caught on the replay, and that no one spotted it to start.

 

i think kc is like the old ne teams in that they look deep into the details and observe what doesn't really get called, allowing their RT to line up way beyond legal depth all the time and getting called for it only sometimes, and crowding the heck out of the line vs us on the short yardage stuff.

 

between this game and the insane calls last game vs houston, i'm thinking there will be some rules committee action.

[Casey D]

2 minutes ago, colin said:

 

sad.

 

i do remember seeing jones and maybe another guy up too tight to the line on the sneak.  it's silly that pre snap procedural stuff like that can't be caught on the replay, and that no one spotted it to start.

 

i think kc is like the old ne teams in that they look deep into the details and observe what doesn't really get called, allowing their RT to line up way beyond legal depth all the time and getting called for it only sometimes, and crowding the heck out of the line vs us on the short yardage stuff.

 

between this game and the insane calls last game vs houston, i'm thinking there will be some rules committee action.

I really think there is an implicit bias for KC by the refs.  It's not overt, but deep down the thinking is KC is good, they are not mere mortals, so they don't make many mistakes.  It's a problem and makes the NFL boring.

 

Another two penalties not called on Kelce for taunting Elam twice.

[Ralonzo]

49 minutes ago, Pete said:

lots of plays left on the table, and multiple horrible Ref decisions cost us the game.  There are multiple photos that show Josh got the 4th and 1

 

Amazing how they couldn't find the angles until after the Chrefs ran a couple plays. Sorta like "No Goal"

[Nephilim17]

55 minutes ago, colin said:

can you summarize as this is behind a pay wall?

Here is some salient text from Jim's conclusion:
 

Allen didn’t play his best football game, and neither did the Bills’ offense. The Chiefs overpowered the Bills’ offensive line at times while Allen felt the pressure of needing to do more.

 

There were also numerous times in which Chiefs players appeared to benefit from officiating calls and no-calls.

 

The offensive game plan by Brady was solid – but early in the game, Allen didn’t take what the defense gave him. He pressed. He reached. He tried to make plays rather than reading and reacting and taking the completions that were available to him.

 

Admiringly, Allen has transformed himself into an MVP-level player, and in doing so, he changed the way he plays the game....

 

The evidence tells me that Allen and the Bills franchise will one day bring the Lombardi Trophy to Buffalo. Returning and developing this team, with these coaches, is the very best beginning to that end.

[SoonerBillsFan]

We now know why Allen had bad 2nd half throws.

[Ralonzo]

19 minutes ago, Casey D said:

on the play before (3rd down) Knox or Dawson(can't remember which) made the line to gain but was marked short.

 

 

I'm being an ass, but it's my nature

[JohnNord]

1 hour ago, Casey D said:

https://buffalonews.com/sports/professional/nfl/bills/jim-kubiak-josh-allen-buffalo-bills-kansas-city-chiefs-film-review-afc-championship-game/article_4650eea0-de87-11ef-a2e7-a3585994bafc.html

 

Really good stuff.  He points out how Josh-- who he is a huge fan of-- did not play his best game, although he did lots of good things.  And the officiating was even worse than I thought based on his analysis.   Bad calls and lots of bad no-calls on KC that almost certainly changed the outcome.

I’ve always said to win a Super Bowl you need to get breaks.  The Bills got a few with dropped INT’s and recovered moments but ultimately the two most important calls of the game went to the Chiefs.

[NewEra]

Just now, JohnNord said:

I’ve always said to win a Super Bowl you need to get breaks.  The Bills got a few with dropped INT’s and recovered moments but ultimately the two most important calls of the game went to the Chiefs.

Yuuuuuup. Lots of luck involved.  Benfords injury and the refs = all the luck they needed