During overtime of the first round of the 2009 playoffs, referee Scott Green was so focused on the question of whether Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers‘ arm was moving forward on a fumble that resulted in the game-winning touchdown for the Cardinals that Green didn’t notice a blatant pull of the face mask of Rodgers’ helmet.

At no point was Rodgers’ facemask pulled, tugged or twisted, which needs to happen in order for it to be a penalty. The defender’s fingers bumped the mask down some. Can’t even say how much it caused Rodgers’ helemt to go down since he started looking down to find the ball at the same time. The league came out afterwards and stated it was NOT a facemask!

Stop with this already, we had our fill of it two years ago. This point of view was wrong then and is wrong now.

I’m getting tired of analysts who are attributing the Bengals win over the Bills to one “bad call” for Steve Johnson’s reception or saying the Bills are not quite as good as they thought. The Bills fought hard yesterday and have a great offense, but they were beaten all day by a superior defense. In the 2nd half the Bills run defense was getting pummeled by our offensive line and we established the run and started connecting downfield on passes.

If you disagree, you must have been watching a different game than me. Bengals had 25 first downs and were 41% on 3rd down conversions. Bills had 12 first downs and were a measly 28% on 3rd down conversions. Bills could barely get past the 50 yard line the entire game. We had 458 total yards, they had only 273.

Last week, everyone was singing the praises of the Bills and their come-from-behind win over the Patriots. Now that the Bills played a top tier defense, many of these football “experts” are needlessly changing their opinion of Buffalo just so they can cling to their bias against the Bengals.

Who Dey!!

What could be more fitting in this crazy, upside-down season than the Bills beating the Pats for the first time in 16 tries than the Bills then losing to an inferior team that had previously lost 10 straight to Buffalo?”
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I’m a Pats fan but this was one of the 1 pm games I watched while waiting for my team’s game to air and I don’t agree that Cincy is an inferior team. Buffalo has a hellafied offense and Cincy’s defense kept them in check. I am jealous not only of the Cincy defense but also their tackling ability. I’m a defensive fan at heart and having an average to below average D and run game is what has kept my team from winning a SB since 2004. Cincy has a solid D, a nice run game and Dalton looks to be a gamer who doesn’t get rattled after mistakes. They have a good future I think.

Sacrifices have to be made, and we are rolling out our new Squander Ponder effort. Many of us thought Ponder was a reach when we drafted him, and now that we have him we need to try him out and see what he can do for us. But not on the field. Let’s put Ponder over a tank of water and let fans throw balls at a target to dunk him, we’ll call it ‘The Luck Tank’. All proceeds will go towards drafting Andrew Luck next April.

Tank you for participating.

In God We Trust is on our fiat US currency, and trust and faith is about all you get with a fiat dollar, but a new Vikings’ strategy can offer some real rope-a-dope hope for our future. We’re going to need to lose a lot of games, though, to accomplish our goal, so let’s focus on sucking the rest of the season to be assured of that first draft pick in 2012. This won’t be too hard for us to do because we already really do suck. We just have to keep it going and make it look like we’re really trying to win. Conspiracy theorists are convinced we started this plan long before the season began, and by the time the Vikings start to win again, with Luck, they’ll be in their new stadium in L. A.

Spread the word, In Luck We Suck.

The Bengals had the same off season as the Vikings.

Dalton is doing fine.

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Dalton is also learning on the job, which, if you’ll read my entire comment, was covered by alluding to the fact that the only blame they can have for not giving some development for Ponder is by keeping McNabb in and not letting Ponder have his shots.

Frazier can definitely be blamed for that and I’m not making any excuses for him there, because I’m of the mind that Ponder needs as many snaps as possible this year so we know what we have in him before the draft as it’s looking the Vikes will have a top 5 draft pick.

I know we’ll represent well, the detriot fans will be pumped.

Been awhile since a Packer/Lion game has had this much on the line….

Reminds me of the Favre/Sanders days.

- Instead of using replay for EVERYTHING as you seem to be in favor of, I think it’s a better idea to go the other way. Eliminate replay altogether, except for maybe the final 2-5 minutes of the game, so there won’t be a blown call to end and truly decide a game. No matter how much replay you use, there will always be the human factor involved. For instance, trying to determine roughing the passer from a slow-motion instant replay, which is the worst idea you have ever presented. It is still a judgement call, and it DOES open up a can of worms. The whole thing is getting ridiculous and more time is spent now splitting hairs instead of talking about the game.

- Calvin Johnson is not the bigger, better Randy Moss. Stop it. He looks great, but let’s not get carried away.

Hate to be hypercritical of Carey, but he might not have called the play correctly even if he’d had the opportunity to review it. During last year’s Colts/Jags game, a flag was inadvertently thrown after a play. Carey announced there was no foul on the play–then ordered the teams to replay the down. The man has been an NFL official for two decades. You do not replay the down when there’s no foul on the play. And Ngata’s helmet hit of Sanchez wasn’t the only action Carey missed last night. He also missed Ed Reed roughing the kicker, which would have been an offsetting penalty to a holding call.

Carey isn’t the only official screwing up on the field. Games are being decided by bad calls and, the Red Zone review has only made matters worse by robbing coaches of their chance to challenge crucial plays.

Just as you’ve campaigned for a more intelligent method of Hall of Fame selection, you need to be lobbying for more effective methods of officiating.

“Calvin Johnson….better than Fred Biletnikoff, Cliff Branch, Tim Brown, and every other standout Raiders wideout combined.”

That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard.

Cliff Branch – 3 Superbowls

Fred Biletnikoff – 1 Superbowl, HoF

Tim Brown – 9 straight 1000-yard seasons… and 100 touchdowns. (NFL record 10 consecutive seasons with at least 75 receptions)

Dave Casper (technically a TE, I know) (2 Superbowls, HoF)

Do your homework…. there was an NFL before you started writing about it.

So what is Ponder, chopped liver?

Would they be so ready to toss the kid to the curb?

Aced out of a career by Donovan McNabb and a Vikings team who can’t develop a QB.

What a tragedy.

What a joke.
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So picking a quarterback in the first round is a wasted draft pick because there’s a chance you might be so bad you could get the first pick in the draft the next year? Planning on having the worst record in the NFL is your idea of good management? The only tragedy and joke around here is you.

ALL penalties (both called and uncalled) should be reviewable and challengable.
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And invite 15-hour Raiders games? I could picture this in ONE game, Oakland penalties: 132 for 1575 yards if you had refs reviewing every call.

You just can’t be review on-field calls like that. The game would just take too long.

Someone on this team needs to play defense.

I have a few questions:
Which receiver has almost twice as many yards and catches at Calvin Johnson.
Which receiver has produced 29 first downs to Johnson’s 24 catches?
Which received only has 3 less TDs?

Wes Welker at 154 yards/game average is the answer.

You would never consider a goal line running back to be the best in the league, especially if he had only 3 TD more than the a running back with twice as many yards.

Thinking Calvin Johnson is the best receiver is fine, but don’t disregard Welker when you say he’s the best without question.