Comments on: Week 14 Monday 10-pack

By: tellmeaboutitbaby

tellmeaboutitbaby — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:14:28 +0000

Ravens get first seed in AFC because Roger Goddell says so, and Ray wil stab anyone who says otherwise!

By: raqaiw

raqaiw — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:52:35 +0000

bigtimetexanfan says: Dec 12, 2011 9:20 AM

Texans > Patriots

Texans > Steelers

Texans = Ravens
_____________________________________

The 2011 Texans = The 2010 Chiefs.

The similarities are staggering:
Strong running game, weak QB play – Check
Revived defense spurred by change of D coordinator – Check
Weak schedule and lackluster division – Check
Host a home playoff game and get absolutely dominated by a team from the AFC North – TBD

Let’s just go ahead and pencil in “check” on that last one though.

By: MossMoon2Packers

MossMoon2Packers — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:13:34 +0000

Why shouldn’t the fans complain when the refs blow a call? As fans, it’s tough to swallow a blown call which changes the outcome of a game. So, why can’t there be off-field refs viewing the replays and helping-out with the ultimate decision on the field (via headsets)? That can happen in real-time, so the game would not be appreciably slowed. Why should we continue to accept mediocrity/bias from the refs???

By: thirdandgoal

thirdandgoal — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:02:57 +0000

@ darrelb : dead-on comment about the old refs.

By: solman1

solman1 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:37:22 +0000

Why not schedule two games on Monday nite and nationally televise the best one….the other stays local. also agree on the heel idea. Don’t know why you get so much flak sometimes….think your pretty OK………..for an ex-lawyer.

By: teal379

teal379 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:55:48 +0000

The idea that some how bad weather in January will stop the Packers blows my mind.

Explain this to me – bad weather ONLY hurts the Packers – the team that lives and plays there but there’s NO WAY it hurts a dome team (Saints) or a team off the west coast like San Fran.

Really……

And before someone goes off about running games – Ryan Grant averaged over 8 yards per carry yesterday – GB can run the ball when they WANT to. It’s not often they WANT to.

By: downinbungleland

downinbungleland — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:44:33 +0000

Replace pylons with powerful lasers so refs can judge a TD by the burns on players or the ball.

By: rlouisbarrett

rlouisbarrett — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:10:37 +0000

This article implies that the Vikings would have scored given another play. That’s a bit much, especially since, according to Mike Pereira, the ball would have been spotted at the 5 yard line, half the distance to the goaline from where the penalty occurred. Not to mention Webb can’t throw to a wall, much less a receiver on a short field.

That being said, why are the Lions not scoring in the second half? They should have easily put up 50 on the Vikes. I’d love to see them win a playoff game this year, but they won’t if they have second halves like that. Gross.

By: domehead

domehead — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:11:05 +0000

In Re #9: “Though the Packers never will say it, they’re surely rooting for the Saints to finish with the second seed.”

Careful what you ask…You may surely get it.

By: darrelb

darrelb — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:57:59 +0000

The games are already being extended half-an-hour by replay. Pretty soon it will be like watching and Yankees, Red Sox game – 5 hours.

The answer is to get better referees. Younger, full-time, trained referees. As a 60 year old I’m sick and tired of seeing 55 year-old high school principals who work as NFL refs once a week blow calls week after week. How about some 25 – 40 year olds who can still see and move work as full-time refs?

By: skel420

skel420 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:02:52 +0000

I fly down from Canada to see three or four games a year and almost always include a Monday night game. For those Monday night games, I fly into town on a Monday morning. It would be damn expensive to pay airline change fees not to mention the hassle of rebooking car rentals and hotels. Monday night flex is a terrible idea.

By: txfatmatt

txfatmatt — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:36:14 +0000

There should be 2 games Monday night – but start them within half an hour of each other so we can flip back and forth, avoiding laughers and commercials.

By: rpkllc

rpkllc — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:09:09 +0000

Why not schedule 2 games on Monday? Why just in week 1? In fact, why do we only have 3 games on Sundays? There is room for 4 games. First game between east coast teams start at 11 eastern time, next game starts at 2:30 eastern, next game starts at 6 eastern and the final game between west coast teams starts at 9:30 eastern.

By: 3yrsnfl

3yrsnfl — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:09:04 +0000

In the Packers-Raiders game, the Raiders picked up a fumble and returned for a touchdown. BUT, there was a clip on the RETURN. Upon further review, it was determined that it was NOT a fumble, but an incomplete pass. So, the Raiders did not get the ball, BUT were still penalized for the clip on the RETURN of the “incomplete pass”. If it was an incomplete pass, then the play was dead at that point. Was that a mistake by the officiating crew?

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:00:37 +0000

The rule book specifically says that if unless your foot/feet come down in bounds and you drag them out, that if a first part of your foot lands in bounds, and then the latter part lands out of bounds, then the entire foot counts as out of bands. Read a book, guy.

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:58:45 +0000

For a dude who does this for a living, your blatant lack of knowledge concerning the rules is alarming.

By: worldchampiongbp

worldchampiongbp — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:41:24 +0000

southpaw2k says:
Dec 12, 2011 9:16 AM
11. 2008 Detroit Lions > 2011 Indianapolis Colts

I’m beating a dead horse here – pun intended – but I’m just appalled at how pathetic the Colts are. Even though the Lions were blown out several times on their way to an 0-16 season in 2008, they could at least put points on the board occasionally. The Colts have not scored more than 24 points in a game this season, and I’m now wondering if there’s a way in Madden NFL to simulate a game between this year’s Colts squad and the 2008 Lions.

*******************************************

This humors me a little bit, because do you know how many times the lions scored more than 24 pts in 2008? 1 time, don’t even need an s to pluralize it. 1 single time.

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:35:28 +0000

I’m not a Packers fan, but I refuse to believe a working-class guy like Mike McCarthy is going to wimp out on the chance to make history. Of course, he can–and should–pull his starters once they’ve put the game away. But McCarthy isn’t some Machiavellian puppet-master like Bill Polian. He’s a football guy, and I think he’ll play every game to win.

By: bcar1023

bcar1023 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:33:59 +0000

Would the ball have been returned to the Vikings since it happened after the fumble? The Vikings didn’t get the ball back when Ponder was lit up after his interception due to infraction coming after possession change. Just wondering……

By: trollhammer20

trollhammer20 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:32:26 +0000

Just so you know, not every fan lives within a 1-hour commute of the stadium and would have the luxury of rescheduling their lives to attend a Monday night game. I’m sure many fans find it enough of an inconvenience to re-plan based around a change from a 1 pm start to an 8:30 start.

This is to say nothing of all the stadium workers (many of whom have other jobs) and extra policemen needed to staff such events. Having a low-paid stadium worker have to choose at this time of year between showing up at one job and showing up at another may cost them one of the jobs. Merry Christmas, Joe Beer Vendor, your kids get no toys because you’re getting canned from your holiday job at Target for not showing up.

Yes, it would be nice if every single nationally-televised game were meaningful….and given a Seattle win puts them one game behind New York, Dallas, and Chicago (who Seattle plays next Sunday), it actually does have some meaning as far as potential playoff berths go.

The Rams were considered favorites to win the West, and the Seahawks were defending division champs (don’t give me that 7-9 crap, they won a playoff game for crying out loud), so the idea of having them play at this time of year wasn’t absurd before the season started.

By: southpaw2k

southpaw2k — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:31:21 +0000

tcdeg says:
Dec 12, 2011 10:27 AM
As a Texans fan I will admit I want no part of the Pats, Steelers, or Ravens in their stadiums (as evidenced by the beat down we received in Baltimore). They are very tough places to play, especially in the post season. But I will take Houston at home against these three teams any day, even Baltimore. The Ravens game was the last time Houston lost, and they seem to be hell bent on proving the don’t need marquee stars to win games.

Does anyone know if any team has had this many injuries to this many star players in a season and still excelled?

————————————————

You might need to go all the way back to last season for an example of that. The Packers lost Ryan Grant and Jermichael Finley early in the season, and Charles Woodson was hurt in the Super Bowl and couldn’t return, so it was on the shoulders of Aaron Rodgers from that point on.

If you’re talking about a team losing its first two quarterbacks and making a title run, I can’t think of any recent examples, but the Patriots obviously lost Drew Bledsoe in Week 3 when Tom Brady stepped in and carried the team from there. I don’t remember any other notable injuries or players lost during the course of the season though.

By: bcar1023

bcar1023 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:31:08 +0000

SMDH. The missed facemask on Webb get’s brought up but nothing about the missed facemask on Pettigrew or the phantom 1st down that was clearly not at or beyond the chain? Bad calls happen. Deal with it.

By: pencepost

pencepost — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:29:57 +0000

Regarding #7: Extending the pylons would be a problem for passes to those corners of the endzone. If they are much taller than the knees, there’s a pretty good chance they would occasionally interfere with the trajectory of the football or a receiver’s hand/arm positioning.

A better idea would be a computer-generated projection upward that is visible on the replay review. Unlike the inaccurate first-down markers that align with first-down markers that move throughout the game, I would think a computer graphic projection of a pylon’s position could be done with very good accuracy since it is a fixed location. This could possibly be done all across the goal line, not just the corners.

By: pigskinswag

pigskinswag — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:17:19 +0000

“What would have been a stunning, 21-point comeback by the Vikings was thwarted by the failure of the officials to notice Lions linebacker DeAndre Levy grabbing and pulling the facemask of Minnesota quarterback Joe Webb.”

Scott Norwood didn’t have a miss this bad.

By: Carl Gerbschmidt

Carl Gerbschmidt — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:53:54 +0000

A Monday night flex option.
_____________________

I am ok with no flex option on Monday Night. I enjoy watching team that I would not get chance to see. Even if they are horrible.

By: Kya_Tropic_Fan

Kya_Tropic_Fan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:42:15 +0000

I am not saying I favor the ability to review penalties or anything like that, but I never understood the argument that it “makes the game longer”. I do agree that it would make the game longer, however, I dont understand the NFL making that argument. A game is typically in the area of 3 hours long. That gives 2 hours of football, and one hour of commercials (just guessing). If replay review made it 2 hours of football, and 90 mins of commercials (in other words, 30 more minutes), how much money would that generate in advertising each weekend? How much each month? How much each season? Now consider the price of air time for the Super Bowl. If anything, the NFL should be wanting longer games…

By: cags777

cags777 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:39:59 +0000

flipadelphia, you’re saying the Vikings are never on the receiving end of bad calls? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Yes, the CAPS lock had to be on because you are so wrong on this it isn’t even funny. There were a lot of bad calls yesterday and it wasn’t just in this game. London Fletcher should not have been flagged for a roughing the passer penalty. The Packers were holding Raiders players a lot and not getting called yesterday. So please, stop giving a pity party specifically to the Lions organization. Refs and the NFL gave them a gift yesterday and still made them relevant for the playoff hunt.

By: Kya_Tropic_Fan

Kya_Tropic_Fan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:34:42 +0000

I have always thought that the rules for catches on the sidelines were BS. If a player running in the direction of the sidelines, dives, catches the ball, and drags his toes in bounds, it is a catch. I have no issue with that.

But, if a player standing in the back of the end zone jumps up, makes a catch, comes down on his toes, in bounds, then puts his heels down and they end up on the back line, it is now out of bounds and incomplete. Why is that not a catch? Where as, if the player came down on his toes, and a team mate grabbed him and picked him up (not allowing the heels to touch the back line) it would be a catch. I have always been of the opinion that if a player has possession, establishes his toes in bounds, isnt bobbling the ball, and his heel comes down out of bounds it should still be a catch (otherwise you have to argue that dragging your toes is not a catch, since the heels came down out of bounds, just saying)

By: pravin68

pravin68 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:30:40 +0000

As far as replays i agree. Expand the replays, but make the replay “team” an extra official of the crew which would speed up plays. Now, if a coach wants a play to be examined closely, then he should be able to throw a replay flag for the head ref to examine this for more than a few seconds. But stuff like 15 yard penalties can be reviewed on an instantaneous basis and there would be no real delay. Onfield huddles by refs take longer.

By: nyyankeedave

nyyankeedave — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:29:30 +0000

Offensive line and red zone offense problems will most likely spell the end of the 49ers’ playoff hopes before the playoffs even start – and it’s a shame too, they’re gonna waste a darn good defense in the process -similar to how the SF Giants wasted a World Series caliber pitching staff this past season because they’re offense SUCKED -same with the Niners.