N.F.L. Week 14: What We Learned

It's entertainment. Watch, enjoy or not. Then, fugetaboudit. All this wailing and gnashing of teeth over "show business" is baffling.

What a fantastic game I saw yesterday, SF @ Saints! And thankfully, the 49ers came out on top! Garoppolo should be able to put aside once and for all the faux news that he can't play in big games, and win games. While our D was not as lights out as they have been, our O led by Jimmy G and George Kittle did the job! And huge thanks to the Rams for beating Seattle last night! :)

What did we learn in Week 14? What we learn every week. That the real winner is chronic traumatic encephalopathy. That our society spends billions on gargantuan stadiums that require huge infrastructure paid by taxpayers, companies gouge customers to pay for luxury boxes and private planes to the Superbowl, etc..., but our society shortchanges our children's schooling. That professional spectator sports are the opiate of the American people.

Bad officiating is like inclement weather or injury- a huge bummer that is outrageous and unfair, but a part of the game nonetheless. Whining over pivotal bad calls can betray an entitlement to winning, and so does a stadium of fans booing defending superbowl and division champions off the field because of a slow start. These are moments when you can see the character of an organization and its fans, and all the bandwagoners are revealed. I’ve been watching the Patriots with renewed interest to see what this micro-slump (if you can even call 10-3 any kind of slump) will show the league about this team.

The 49ers game was one of the best I've ever seen. I felt in a daze afterwards.

When the officials blatantly miss a call that impact the game, why can't the head office call in to correct the call? I've seen too many this season. And if they can't, they should be able to.

It seems a perfect use (eventually) for computers. Each player would have a camera/computer following him (or perhaps one following those with or near the ball) and the computer would be able to decide any infraction and all things like 'out of bounds', etc. Crazy, you think? No crazier than you telling me 25 years ago that I'd be carrying my office in my pocket.

Every play involving 1) a contested pass or 2) a ball crossing the goal line (except field goals) or 3) an injury resulting in a player leaving the game needs to automatically be reviewed. No other kind of play should ever be reviewed. Coaching challenges need to be eliminated. Since none of these things is likely to happen, people need to stop talking about 1) the overall karmic affect of bad officiating. It’s silly, although a very human, sports fan-type idea. 2) how it’s okay for the Patriots to be the victims of bad calls because they’ve benefited from them, or their coach has committed sins, in the past. That’s just Pats haters making themselves feel better. It’s also silly, if, again, understandable. But then, football is silly. It’s deadly serious because so much money and so many livelihoods and such awful injuries are involved; but it’s a silly, needlessly complicated game, conducted according to many convoluted rules that are subject to the whims of fate and the interpretation of mortals to an impossible degree. I’ve only been a sort of fan for 10-ish years and I can’t believe I still watch it so often, understand it so little and don’t really like it (much). It just gets into the head.

I don't know why I immediately thought of a pack of wolves trying to bring down a bison, but George Kittle carrying 3 Saints hanging on to his snout and back was just that. George, call me, man. I'll buy you a house, car or anything you want. You can even have my soon to be ex-wife.

Williams should be fined for holding on to Kittle's facemask for so long - doing so is incredibly dangerous. It's bad to grab a facemask unintentionally, worse to intentionally grab one for a moment, but inexcusable to hold on for 10 yards or more.

What we learned: 1. Fanduel and other betting sites are generating hundreds of millions in revenue based on the outcome 2. NFL referees are part timers, holding down office jobs during the week and barely making any money. Did you know that? No, they are not professionals like MLB umpires Put 2 and 2 together above, and what do you get: I make little money in by day job. I have this Italian dude offering me a side hustle if I don't throw the pass interference flag...hmmmm

Actually the officials beat the Patriots. Here's a useful rule of thumb: when in doubt, keep the whistle in your pocket. Kelce clearly fumbled and the Patriots recovered the ball and were advancing it when for some reason, the referee felt compelled to stop the play. Even though the replay clearly showed the fumble, the opportunity to immediately score was negated by the quick whistle and a Patriot's challenge was wasted. Dumb! The next stupid officiating occurred when N’Keal Harry scored a touchdown but was erroneously ruled out of bounds. Second useful rule of thumb: if there's some doubt, keep the whistle in your pocket. Sharp observers will realize the second rule is the same as the first because it's just that important. The only way you know an officiating crew did a good job is when no one is talking about them after the game. So, a final useful rule of thumb: when in doubt, keep the whistle in your pocket. This final repetition was for the officials who called the Patriots game because they seemingly are really slow learners (or had a lot of money on the Chiefs).

George Kittle...University of Iowa grad! Go Hawks !!

The Pats are left without a challenge, not because they challenged the blown fumble call but because they used a challenge earlier as to whether the Chiefs had made a first down. That is one of the poorest reasons to challenge unless it was a fourth down situation. But the officiating was lousy for both teams. It was just worse for the Pats than the Chiefs.

The officiating of the KC/Pats game was some of the worst I've ever seen in 50 years of watching football. It wasn't just the Patriots TD being disallowed it was also the catch first ruled a TD then overturned without a challenge from KC and the time on the clock that ticked off in the resulting confusion created by the REFEREES and those same referees refused to restore the time on the game clock.

The Patriots had plenty of opportunities to win but couldn’t. There is a delicious irony in hearing Boston fans complain about officiating when for years most calls went their way, including the bogus roughing call last year that got them into the Super Bowl. Then there their classless booing of Brady. And does anyone outside of Boston believe the lost equipment was “an accident?” Shades of Deflategate.

On the KC/Pats game, there was plenty of bad calls on both sides, so to say the win only came from bad officiating is not a very fair statement. Belichick has his players hit the ground if they get touched to bring non-existent holding calls and the refs can't see that? NFL officiating needs to do better should be the story line.

I am an occasional watcher of football but I know the game and I know the rules. The officiating in the New England game yesterday was extraordinarily bad. It makes the product no fun to watch. This is a matter of rules and policies but it seems like whoever makes the rules is not keyed into the game they regulate.

And for those whose blood pressure is still at an unsafe level after witnessing some of yesterday's officiating, doctors have come forward with a ready remedy: Take a large dose of tonight's Giants - Eagles game, which will ensure a reassessment of one's relative good fortune and also promote a state of restful slumber.

An easy replay fix for next season would be to not charge a team for a successful challenge under any circumstance. Right now if you fail on the first challenge, you run out of challenges after the next one even if it is successful. Teams shouldn’t be penalized for cleaning up officials’ mistakes, and this change would be a small step toward fairness.

I can dimly recall back to a time when replay didn't even exist. Of course there were bad calls but somehow it seems much worse now despite all the technology that is supposed to eliminate that problem. At home we're able to see replays from virtually every angle in seconds and it seems readily apparent what happened, but we're barraged with five or ten minutes of commercials while the officials check their monitors, call New York, wait for New York to call Las Vegas and wait for Vinnie to decide what to tell New York to tell the officials. Why not at least experiment with doing away with all this for at least a season? Go back to the old way where the official makes the call and that's it. Someone will always be unhappy with the result but the games will flow much more smoothly and be more enjoyable for the fans. After the trial run the owners can vote and decide what to do going forward. The system we currently have doesn't really satisfy anyone.

Please lose the phrase, "What We Learned." It is the worst. Thank you.

After viewing portions of five games yesterday I was left with the infuriating conclusion that the players should simply leave the field and leave the officials (sic!) to 'play' the game. They're like so many peripheral celebrity wanna be's, and politicians, who need to insinuate themselves into every frame. Me, me, me! Sickening.

The Packers won again. But Aaron Rodgers said it best "We're winning ugly." The Packers are a good team but there are other teams that are excellent. That said..."Go Pack!"

Kittle's run after the catch was a thing of beauty. I don't know if Gronk could have even done that.

The author down plays how bad the officiating has been in the NFL. Every week games are decided on dubious officiating.

In the off season the league is going to have to do something about pass interference calls and replay policy. In the age of jumbotrons and multiple camera angles viewers and players are still told to ignore what they've just seen. Even when it's replayed in slow motion over and over again. Refs can't be perfect in the fast moving game of football. but what's the point of replay if clearly missed calls that decides the outcome of games is ignored? I don't know what the new rule should be. Maybe the refs in a New York studio should have the final call. But I do know that missed calls that decide big games leaves a bad taste with players, fans and coaches.

The NFL should review plays when the guy "upstairs" thinks there's a problem, like they do in college football. There were three likely touchdowns that were taken away by bad officiating.

Wow, Jon Gruden couldn’t ruin the Raiders worse than if he deliberately tried.

“Travis Kelce of the Chiefs pretty clearly had fumbled ... wide receiver N’Keal Harry was incorrectly ruled out of bounds on his way to the end zone ... the Patriots’ final drive also featured a questionable non-call of pass interference” Hey but that’s OK cause their offense was anemic, and remember in last year’s playoffs they benefitted from bad officiating. So it all evens out year to year because officiating errors are randomly applied. Accuracy in officiating doesn’t matter - in fact, human error makes the game exciting and evens out the vig over time. Great, above-it-all look for the NFL!!

the refs cost the pats 2 tds; i’d have preferred it if the pats had lost all by themselves

Yep, Williams showed he'd rather cause serious injury to an opponent rather than let him get in field goal range.

Yes, I wish the officials would get it right all the time. Then the Patriots wouldn't have been in the Superbowl last year. Neither would the Rams.