American Football Talk II

Wow. When that big TD went in, I thought Denver was gone. That muffed punt and then subsequent TD drive was big. I thought the INT was a good defensive play, but otherwise, Osweiler played well.

I think November 29, 2015 will mark the day Osweiler cemented his hold on the starting job. CJ Anderson is finally back. Patriots' rushing D is no joke, and he looked sharp tonight. Good job from the o-line and running backs to help Osweiler out.

Yes, the Broncos got some fortunate calls, and caught some major breaks tonight, but that was a good team performance. Defense was a bit iffy, and has been wobbling recently, but they came up big in critical situations.

I really hope Gronk is okay though. I heard after being carted off, he was struggling to put weight on that right knee. The NFL isn't the same without him. With that stifling defense though, the Patriots should be fine, even if they have to scramble to find someone,

That's 73% of all Pats receptions and 76% of all receiving yards currently injured. Gonna be hard to get a first-round bye now, but if anyone can scheme it, Bill can.

I don't know what Kubiak did to get the run game going, but it's certainly worked! Maybe the Pats could try that.

The refs were savage against the Patriots! Obviously I understand they're going to get calls wrong and missed stuff, but damn you hope at least they're consistent and both teams get breaks/penalised. Patriots players were getting penalised for breathing (Gronkowski and Chung pass interference calls were extremely harsh) while Broncos got away with some blatant mask pulling, arm holding and shirt grabbing, including on their last two TD scoring plays.

The less I say the better about that game. I'll probably be arrested if they hear what I think of those refs. They were absolutely ****ing disgraceful. Classy by the Broncos players though to go over to Gronk when he went down.



****ing appalling.

Having had my team on the end of some questionable decisions in the past few games, I can relate. von Miller has been held all season and nothing was called until last night.

Obviously, it is time for referees to be full time, and to give them the training, pay and unionisation they need to get a much better standard of refereeing. It has been absolutely atrocious.

From what I have read at Pat Pulpit, the obvious bad one was the Gronk one, which was huge. It's not one that's obvious in real time, so I don't know why it was thrown, but as he comes out of his break he pushes off to get separation from Omar Bolden. I mean, sure, if that's called, the refs have to call it on every single throw really, but I can sort of see why it was called.

Obvious non-calls hurt things more than the not-so-obvious called stuff. There probably was holding on the TD run, but you can arguably call holding on every single play in the lines if you look hard enough. An arm extension from an o-lineman which goes up isn't facemasking though, from what I understand -- and lineman have bigger facemasks to stop just that. If you grab it, that seems to be when the distinction is. Pats Pulpit seemed to think that the Chung one, although a tad harsh, was more understandable. It was defensive holding which is a five yard automatic first down penalty, rather than defensive pass interference. Also, he went outside of the shoulder, and they're going to call it every time.

What team do you follow?
I think the most frustrating thing is most of the contentious calls, legitimate or otherwise, were on important plays. Gronk 1st down, potential 60 yard pass, Branch sack, Broncos touchdowns etc.
Coupled with the staggering list of injuries to key players, the Patriots essentially almost beat the Broncos in Denver with a squad made up of the likes of Bob from accounting, Steve the homeless guy and James who runs the burger van. So it's like, damn, imagine the possibilities when even half the team is fit and the refs are having a good day.

The OPI call was tough, by rule it was probably the right call since he did initiate contact but it's obviously a judgement thing, and it's kind of a how well do players hide it kind of thing. Steve Smith does that on basically every route he runs but he times it a bit differently. Holding on Mathis, exactly the same thing. He did grasp, but all OL do on all blocks and usually it isn't called unless it is the reason a defender doesn't make the play. As usual I didn't think the referees were horrible. The main thing that won the Broncos the game was being able to fall on just about every fumble in a fairly sloppy game.

It's odd that Gronk keeps getting called for it though. Normally the big names get more leeway because they're good, and so what they're doing must be legal. The commentator on the Steelers-Seahawks yesterday pointed out 3 or 4 Sherman DPIs that weren't called in 1 quarter, but he's a great corner, so he gets away with more (same with all top DBs and WRs, before I get called out for hating Sherman. Despite the fact I do.)