Didn't see one so I figured I'd start one. Good win by Dallas tonight, but New York has a history of stinking it up during the first part of the season and then getting hot at the end. No idea who'll be in the Super Bowl this season. I could see a number of teams there.
I was a fan of Russell Wilson back when he played for State (buddy of mine in my old unit was a huge State fan sorta converted me, them and Tech are my ACC teams), and got even more interested when Auburn and Wisconsin were dueling it out for him later. Been a fan ever since. QB was the last piece the WaterChickens needed. Fuck, even without a QB, look at how we did the last half the season last year. This is a team to look out for. Right now I think our weakest link is the receiving corps but even they aren't bad... (shout out to my 04 Auburn team!)
Spent the first of these High Holy Days at a buddy's house. He's got the Sunday Ticket (because he's a Broncos fan who lives in Texas) and, between his plasma television and the giant monitor for his Mac, we watched portions of nearly every game today. Peyton is still Peyton. Just a surgeon. I think the 49ers may be the team to beat in the NFC. As a sports friend of mine put it, they're just mean and nasty. Surprised to see the Jets put up those kind of numbers. Then again, they were playing the Bills. They'll come back down to Earth next week in Pittsburgh. If Sanchez is Sanchez at some point this season, don't be surprised if there's a quarterback controversy in NYC. Also suprised to see Washington beat the Saints...in their house. RGIII did not look like a rookie. I knew he'd look good, but I didn't think there were enough other "pieces" around him just yet. If he stays healthy, he'll be awesome. This time next week, my team may be 2-0. Seattle is improved, but not enough to beat Dallas on Sunday.
So how long is the NFL going to let this replacement refs farce go on? Seriously, they're trying hard, but they're out of their depth, and it's only going to get tougher as the season goes on. What happened in the Seahawks/Cards game was a joke.
Are you referring to them letting the crowd decide passer interference (how many flags were thrown AFTER the play was over?) or the time out thing?
The time out. They actually weren't that bad in most of the games, but that game and Green Bay/SF were really bad. I heard the Denver game was bad too, though I didn't see any of it.
They were pretty awful in the Denver game. They called the two minute warning when it didn't happen; they were off by a yard or so on the spot of a fourth and inches play; the Pittsburgh Center was routinely committing the most egregious false starts I've ever seen, jerking his head all over the place and taking steps before snapping, without being called; the penalty calling in general was bad, with a whole lot of egregious non-calls including a 12-men-on-the-field non call that the whole stadium saw. There was nothing good about the officiating this weekend, and a lot of bad.
I have to say that I feel much better about going with running backs first in my fantasy league and ending up with RG3 as my starting QB than I felt before. He looked really good.
According to ESPN, there were as many holding and defensive pass interference calls this week as in week 1 of 2010 and 2011 combined.
There were a lot of ticky-tack calls and a lot of egregious non-calls. Players essentially learned quickly to ignore the rules because penalty calls were random and not made based on actual violations of the rules. A lot of penalties doesn't necessarily mean the refs called a fair or a safe game, and in this case it means pretty much the opposite.
I completely agree. I saw blatant hands to the face and late hit penalties that went uncalled, and pass interference called on plays where one guy breathed on the other. There were calls where a line judge threw a flag 20 yards away and couldn't possibly have seen a foul, yet there was Jermichael Finley being stomped on right in front of a ref that went uncalled. I just fear that the NFL won't get serious until either a game is totally blown, or someone is badly hurt.
This is what I was talking about earlier. We got fucked on a couple key plays by this. Worse was that in most cases the flag was thrown REALLY REALLY late, as if the Ref was going by the fan reaction.
Honestly, nothing happened. Seattle is just a legit fucking team. You just wait, probably won't be this season but now that Pete Caroll finally has a QB this team will go to to the big game sometime soon. The only bad part about today's game is that the guy in the middle was at a baby shower: We grew up together in S. Alabama so weren't born into any pro team. He got a scholarship to A&M Commerce and went off to school there so got to be a big Cowboys fan. But b/c he wasn't watching the game and instead had it TiVo'd I couldn't even text taunt him. Takes half the fun out of the game.
Seattle is a lot better than they used to be, but it remains to be seen how good they get. Dallas came out flat and spotted them 10 points out of the gate. They took Seattle too lightly after beating the Giants last week. And if there were any doubters out there, the replacement refs officially suck ass. Horrible calls all over the league today. Plus, how do you not know that one of your officials is a Saints fan...and then you assign him to a Saints game? Unbelievable. At least the Saints lost, which is always a good thing.
Seattle is definitely improved, but they've got a ways to go to beat out San Fran. They are looking very legit, likely the class of the NFC this year. Of course, its week two. The whole NFC west suddenly looks like one of the stronger divisions. That was 2-0 vs the NFC East, a solid win by the Niners over the Lions, and an amazing upset by the Cards in a win over the Pats to top it off. Bradford looked like a #1 overall pick (his QB rating through 2 games is 112.7), the Cards defense and special teams clobbered the Pats, and Seattle came out and just destroyed the Cowboys.
Add in the Packers beating the Bears (and apparently the Raiders lost), and it was one of the better weeks in the NFL in a long while.
Meh. The officiating made a mockery of the game this week. Jets/Steelers and Broncos/Falcons--the games I saw--were completely unwatchable messes because of it, and the rest of the games don't appear to have been much better. The NFL may as well hire Zombie Ray Charles to head up officiating a game; at least he'd know how to use a microphone.
Another ugly game from the Jets and the officials. The Jets' winning was a bit of a miracle, especially given the lousy officiating that nearly cost them the game. Not that the Jets earned a win--they were awful--but a phantom roughing the kicker, phantom pass interference, and a completely blown replay call all could possibly have had the Jets win in regulation if they hadn't been massively blown. End the lockout already, please!
I'm watching. It's bad. I've been critical of NFL officiating in the past, but this lockout has made me appreciate the difference between "competent, but not as good as they should be" and "drooling morons who make a complete mockery of everything they touch."
The NFL is officially no longer a sports league. It's a piece of fruit that's been exposed to heat for a few years.
It's not a planet I'm familiar with, but since it involves embarrassing the Patriots it's definitely a planet I approve of.
This Green Bay/Seattle game is a joke. The officiating has been horrible--both ways. The league needs to settle things with the real refs and send these bozos back to officiating college games or whatever. It's beyond clear that they don't have what it takes to call a pro football game.
