Bills Pats Replay on NFL Network

[Buftex]

Royal shoved the guy in the back with all the ferocity of six year old girl pushing a puppy away from licking her face. But he did shove the guy in the back right in front of the ref. It was ticky tack, for sure, but it was a penalty and the guy probably could have tackled Peerless a yard short of where he went OB without the shove. It had no bearing on the first down but IMO it was a penalty, and very, very stupid on Royal's part.

 

FWIW I also thought Clements shove was a penalty but ticky-tack. You can't shove guys with two hands in the back. The coaches should have taught these guys that.

 

In Pop Warner.

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I will defer to you!

[2020 Our Year For Sure]

Another thing to watch is Kyle Williams' deflection of a Brady pass in the 1st Q. May have intercepted it if TWO Patsy linemen weren't holding his arms down.

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Perfectly legal. Once the ball is deflected, they can go ahead and tackle him if they wish.

[OCinBuffalo]

I don't have the advantage of seeing it again, but at the time (and I haven't heard anything since to make me feel different), I was in complete agreement with this...both were bad calls (I would classify the Clements call as "ticky-tacky", especially since his contact was in part the result of the sudden shift in direction of play on the field, becuause of the interception).  It seemed to me, on the Royal play, the Pats defender initiated the contact with Royal, with his back...Royal wasn't trying to make contact, it looked to me...

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I thought we weren't supposed to believe in things like "just give it to em" or that messing with Fast Freddie was clearly an obvious tactic, or anything that might be close to an alterior motive - according to you.

 

I watched the game tonight - again - and I am here to tell you that Nate(after watching it several times) did not even touch the guy he supposedly blocked in the back. In fact, it was just the opposite. Nate was clearly defending his own legs on that - if he touched him at all it was with two fingers on his right hand. The guy went down in an attempt to tackle Whitner. Nate kinda just stood there but - what else would one expect from a guy who is going into a contract year.

 

There is no doubt after having done my thing IT-wise that the look in his eyes was "oh sh_t don't hit me in the knee" not "great let's hit this guy in the back and score". Say what you all will but Clements was simply trying to keep the Pats guy from hitting him - not blocking. What is clear is that there was no reason to blow a whistle - at all. Moreover, the ref closest to the play is not in position - and his head is wrong - but you can't see his eyes of course - to even make the penalty call. So that leaves us with nothing other than human error - or that the refs are used to things going the other way. I dunno but after the 4th missed holding call I started to say that we had to win in spite of the refs - just like the old days. And that, as crazy as it sounds, felt great!

[Kelly the Dog]

Even if how you described it were true, OC, although I dispute the two finger thing, and however ticky-tack the call was, which it surely was, it sure looked to me like Clements pushed the player with two hands in the back. If you're on offense, away from the line, you cannot push a player with two hands in the back. It's just such a dumb call but it's also such a dumb thing to do. And it's even worse if it's for the reasons you imply.

 

Surely, there was zero reason to blow the whistle and the play dead. That is a completely separate call and issue (and I believe different official).

 

And looking at it objectively, even if Clements didnt touch the guy hardly at all, or push or shove the guy, it's very easy to see why a ref would have made the call. On first blush, in full speed, it LOOKS like Clements sends the guy flying and the guy would have made the tackle had he not been hit in the back. That's not what happened at all but full speed it looked that way. So that could have been an honest mistake (when some of those calls, like ignoring blatant offsides 2-3 times when that's the only thing you'rer looking for cannot).

[ConradDobler]

Perfectly legal. Once the ball is deflected, they can go ahead and tackle him if they wish.

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If you look closely, you'll see them holding his arms before the ball ever arrived. He had to break the holds to deflect the ball.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

Even if how you described it were true, OC, although I dispute the two finger thing, and however ticky-tack the call was, which it surely was, it sure looked to me like Clements pushed the player with two hands in the back. If you're on offense, away from the line, you cannot push a player with two hands in the back. It's just such a dumb call but it's also such a dumb thing to do. And it's even worse if it's for the reasons you imply.

 

Surely, there was zero reason to blow the whistle and the play dead. That is a completely separate call and issue (and I believe different official).

 

And looking at it objectively, even if Clements didnt touch the guy hardly at all, or push or shove the guy, it's very easy to see why a ref would have made the call. On first blush, in full speed, it LOOKS like Clements sends the guy flying and the guy would have made the tackle had he not been hit in the back. That's not what happened at all but full speed it looked that way. So that could have been an honest mistake (when some of those calls, like ignoring blatant offsides 2-3 times when that's the only thing you'rer looking for cannot).

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Agree 100% The refs--standings in front of Clements and Royal--had to make those calls. Those were stupid and unnecessary penalties by both players.

[Buftex]

I thought we weren't supposed to believe in things like "just give it to em" or that messing with Fast Freddie was clearly an obvious tactic, or anything that might be close to an alterior motive - according to you.

 

 

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The hysteria over the Fast Freddie situation is something completely different. Does the fact that the Patriots have since re-signed Smith change your perception on this at all?

 

I have never commented on the officials, before this past weeks game...not sure what you are speaking of. In this past Sunday's game the officials seemed to take a different approach to the two teams on the field...with the Pats it seemed the attitude was "just let 'em play football", while they had no problem seeing infractions (real or unreal) committed by the Bills...it seems that when anyone plays the Patriots, they have to contend with officials too.

 

BTW, I still don't think there is a conspiracy out there specifically against the Bills. Nearly every game I watch these days, seems to have some rather questionable penalties. Like the NBA, it seems that there are special sets of rules that don't apply to all players and teams equally. Unfortunately, for the Bills and their fans, there is nobody on their roster who gets the vetran star treatment. They have been a bad team for 6 years now, and will have to crawl their way up toward that level again, so it appears.

[reddogblitz]

I picked up on it right after the 4th and 1. My beef about the game again was the play calling in crucial situations. Going for it on 4th and 1 was just plain dumb. It's not second guessing at the time I told my wife and daughter "kick the field goal" Stopping a team on 4th and 1 is the greatest morale booster in football. Being pretty much blown out in the 1st and then the other team taking the opening 2nd half kick off and marching down the field for an easy field goal would make any team quesion themselves. As this has been covered, I'll move on.

 

The other: With 3rd and long on your own 8, why drop your QB in the end zone? For that matter, on 1st and 10 from your own 8, why drop your QB in the end zone when you got Willis in the backfield? What happened to sticking to the run?

 

Or course the reffing was bad too. That sure was a sweet spot the Patsies got on third and long.

[Ralonzo]

Here's one I love. During the Pats drive immediately following the 4th-and-1, Brady makes a throw to the left to Daniel Graham that skips a good 5 yards short of the receiver. Now, this is the kind of throw where, if JPL makes it, everybody is all over his ass, saying he's not ready, youthful mistakes, where's Holcomb, yada yada. But this is Tom Brady, who according to Steve Young, upon his next SB win is "the greatest QB of all time." What do these dipsh** announcers have to say about this miserable throw? Let me quote:

 

"It was a good throw, believe it or not. Everybody's going, what do you mean? Because it was TIGHT! So he gave himself the only route he could take in order to complete the pass. It was low, he needed a miracle catch."

 

Are you f***ing kidding me? Miracle catch in this case would mean Daniel Graham would need to have been previously exposed to gamma radiation on an unshielded space station, altering his molecular structure to the point where his arms could stretch FIVE f***ing YARDS!

 

I've seen some Marcia knobjobs in my time but this one beats all.

[Ralonzo]

Jesus Christ, I just saw Moorman get annihilated by 2 Pats, and nothing! This is the first time I've seen this replay! You gotta be kidding me! And Scifires draws a flag for having a guy roll through his shadow?

 

Holy GOD, Watson never even achived the 47, let alone the 48! This is a f***ing farce! Commentators: they came in and spotted in right initially, then they moved it up to the 48. HUH???

 

I'm so glad I wasn't watching this live, in retrospect. My TV is way too expensive.

[Ralonzo]

Just saw the Whitner pick and the Royal "penalty". The fix was in: no matter who you root for in the league, how can you doubt it? Nobody is that incompetent, even under Communism. Blowing a coin-flip is chump-change compared to this travesty. This one might even surpass "Just Give It To Em" for the sheer incredulity of it.

[Tasker]

Forget the fix stuff, because it's done, and we have the L.

 

But looking at the game changing INT for a TD by Whitner, I'm really glad we don't have Leinart or Bunkley or Justice instead of him.

 

This team is not going to win the Super Bowl this year, but they are going to compete, win some games, be lots of fun to watch, and start laying down the tracks for some big winning over the next couple years.