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Saints
Chiefs

JMO, but folks picking the Chiefs based on the close loss to the Patriots on the road a few weeks ago should remember that Kareem Hunt had 185 yards rushing & receiving and a touchdown in that game. Damien Williams has done a nice job filling in since Hunt was released, but he's not the receiving threat Hunt was. Spencer Ware is a decent receiving RB, but I believe he is questionable due to a hammy. KC's offense will have to depend on Hill and Kelce to produce, and I'm guessing BB's scheme will attempt to take one of them out of the equation. Easier said than done, I know, but if anyone can do it ...

I'm picking th chiefs because I hate the pats

Can't stand the Pats but watch the officiating today, Just Sayin'

Rooting for the Saints and the Patriots. I’m hoping these are better games than most of them so far.

up to the refs...

the refs are turning the league into wrestling drama. the wrestling ref turns to see distraction while the cheeting goes on...same

We will see soon enough who the refs are favoring ...

1-1 thanks to the refs. Rams/Pats in the Super Bowl that should never have been

I hate New England. Pats, Red Sux, Bruins, their fans, the city of Boston, their racist cops. The people.

same here

just like we all thought: the two road teams

There's a shot of the non-call showing 2 refs right at the scene and another watching from about 20 yds away. People keep posting it on Youtube, but the NFL keeps removing it. I can't seem to link it, but it's at post #30 on this page:

https://saintsreport.com/threads/two-off...o.402384/page-2

Well, I blew that... Should have accounted for the refs.

Goff still wasn't spectacular. But he did enough... 2 very good games to watch.

Rams vs Patriots isn't sexy in my mind, but LA vs Boston seems like a dream match up for the NFL.

Brady's first Super Bowl win came vs the Rams, hopefully his last Super Bowl win comes vs the Rams.

Wow, the NFL network is in serious damage control mode...blaming SP for not having his players ready after the blown call, minimizing the blunder's effect on the outcome of the game. Also saying it's a pattern after last year's game. (Total Access show).

I don't really have a problem with the patriots organization. Bill is probably the best coach of all time. Brady probably the best QB. Robert Kraft will go down as one of the great owners in pro sports. I love the mantra of "do your job". They find guys out of nowhere. They don't get leveraged by players who want more money. Any player who thinks of holding out knows where he'll end up. I'm envious of the whole thing. Take what the Patriots have become, and what the Ravens have been, combine it, and it's probably a rough estimate of what we would have been if Art Modell didn't screw us.

With all that said, Boston fans are last of the list of sports cities that deserve that kind of consistency and success.

Sports fans in general do this, but Boston fans take it to the next level. They talk down to you, because apparently your knowledge of sports runs along with the success of your teams. So Boston fans love to educate everyone else on the league, their own teams, and the sport in general, because they're the almighty beings.

I get that not every Boston fan is like this, but the worst of the worst are most definitely like this, and there's a whole bunch of them.

Plus, Bill Simmons.

And as far as my thoughts go on the games.

Chiefs/Pats. Great game that was poorly officiated in the second half. Calls were missed all over the place, on both sides. Mahomes was downright amazing, but you just have to tip your cap to Brady, because he's unstoppable in those moments. It's a great combination of having the QB with the accuracy, and the stones to make those throws, and the guys making the catches. Not to mention Brady isn't exactly mobile, so the guys up front always seem to do just enough to make sure Brady can pick his spots.

I did not see the Rams/Saints game. I had just gotten off the ice when OT started. I watched the highlight packages, and obviously the replay of that no-call on the DPI. All I can say is WOW. Who didn't see this coming though? Every Browns fan knew that was coming. We have been jobbed all year by horrible lazy calls by referees. It was only a matter of time before they screwed up a huge spot like that.

The quality of officiating in the NFL is atrocious. It's the top sports league in the country, and they are easily dead last right now in terms of officiating in major professional sports. If you ask me, the NHL has th best officials. MLB for the most part does a good job, and I think we have grown to become used to umpires having different strike zones, although there are a few umps that have no business being at the major league level (CB Bucknor, anyone?).

You can debate NBA and NFL, but the NBA is brutal with blocking/charging calls.

I'd put them above what we have watched this year with the NFL.

Even college basketball and football officials are doing a better job than the NFL.

I think some changes need to be implemented. I think NFL officials should be year-round employees who work with the league in the off-season to better understand rules, interpretations, and maybe even offer up solutions to some of the situations we get frustrated with every Sunday.

Challenges need to go away. All calls should come through a booth system like we see with college football. Challenging is dumb and makes a stupid game within the game, that we just don't need to see.

What I don't want to see is any kind of interference become reviewable. You just can't do that. That has to be subject to what the official sees in real time. Otherwise, you'll have 5 hour games, and the conspiracy theories within the league will get 10x worse. The NHL somewhat opened up this box by making goalie interference reviewable, and it's something that wasn't needed or asked for by anyone.

If the officals still can't get these pass interference calls correct, then maybe the league should look at adding an official or two, because I just don't understand how you miss that call yesterday. I just don't understand that at all. I don't care about the "WeLl YoU cOuLd HaVe StOpPeD tHeM iN oVeRtiMe!#@#" take that so many are having today. You can't miss that call. It also could have been flagged as a defenseless player personal foul.

I get that bad calls will happen, and that is absolutely part of the game, but the NFL is failing miserably with their officiating, and they probably won'd do anything because we all will continue to watch because we love the game. They may even come out and say they will improve, but until you see an actual change in the way these guys are employed, I don't think anything will change.

Nice posts, sperg.

There is no doubt in my my kind that the Saints got screwed. And something like that has to be fixed moving forward. Somehow.

A play like that needs to be reviewable, even if only in the playoffs. That would be reviewable in the Canadian league, by the way.

Well let's not bring Canada into this. I mean, they're a bunch of damned socialists for God's sake!



NFL could make pass interference reviewable in wake of disastrous ending in Rams-Saints playoff game

The NFC Championship Game could alter the review landscape dramatically moving forward

The NFL suffered an ugly public relations black eye with some terrible on-field officiating as the Saints were robbed of an opportunity to advance to the Super Bowl thanks to NFL refs failing to throw a flag on Nickell Robey-Coleman's obvious pass interference against Tommy Lee Lewis.

As a result, the NFL will discuss implementing a review of pass interference plays this offseason, according to a report from Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

"It will be discussed at length along with additional fouls that coaches feel should be subject to review," a source told Maske.

Something has to be done. The league has to find a solution to this problem.

There are many proponents of the "make everything reviewable" approach to football. It's something the Competition Committee has discussed previously, but the group of men in charge has been hesitant to make pass interference, a highly subjective call, reviewable. It's believed doing so could open an ugly can of reviewable worms.

But it should receive an extreme -- and perhaps more focused -- emphasis since current Saints coach Sean Payton, the very man who feels most robbed by the lack of a flag, is on the committee. Payton acknowledged as much, that it would be looked at "when we sit down as an ownership group ... at the league meetings."

"We all want to get it right, right? We've got plenty of technology to speed things up. Look, I'm on the Competition Committee, so hopefully that provides a voice. But, man, I hope no other team loses a game the way we lost one today."

The Saints were winning that game if the flag is thrown. Wil Lutz is a good kicker and he made the pressure kick he would need to make from farther away anyway. The only difference was the time on the clock and the end result.

"We were in a position to be right there on the 10-yard line, whatever yard line, to take three knees ... it's disappointing," Payton added.

New Orleans had other chances to win. They didn't lose this game solely on that penalty. But it's hard not to look at the play in question and think what could have been if the obvious flag had been thrown.

Officiating is difficult, but when the refs miss a layup like that, it becomes particularly problematic.

"Listen it's a hard job for those guys, but I don't know if there was ever a more obvious pass interference call," Payton said. "It's the NFC Championship Game, so it's a tough one to swallow."

Making matters worse for Payton, one would assume, is the swift private reaction from the NFL. Payton said after the game he was on the phone with the league and NFL VP of Officiating Al Riveron, who told Payton flat out that the league "blew it."

"For a call like that not be made, man it's just hard to swallow. And then to get a phone call [from the league apologizing] ..." Payton said trailing off.

The Saints are headed off to vacation while the Rams head to the Super Bowl. Other factors played into the outcome of the game, but there's no doubt that officiating was a massive part of what happened.

And as a result the NFL is will be taking a comprehensive look into potentially changing what is reviewable.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-c...s-playoff-game/