The problem isn’t that the NFL is fixed.
It’s that the rules are so subjectively and imperfectly applied that there’s no way to prove it’s not fixed.
The NFL should add an instantaneous sky judge, make the officials full time, and add more officials to the field so that more stuff gets seen in real time. The costs are minimal compared to players’ salaries.
Oh, and while they are at it:
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Make intentional grounding a real penalty by penalizing 5 yards plus the spot of the foul and loss of down. As is, there’s no real penalty: it gets called maybe 30% of the time, and when called is no worse than a sack;
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Fix RTP to get rid of the ridiculous “body weight” and ticky-tacky calls. Let the defense play defense.
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Revise the pass interference rules to get rid of gimme calls on under thrown balls where the receiver initiates contact with the DB and tried to go through the DB to get the ball. Pass interference should require the DB to be the primary initiator of contact.
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Don’t make defensive holding an automatic first down. Ticky tacky calls on 3rd and forever shouldn’t be an automatic first.
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Bills fans are giving 49ers a run for their money. Three crucial calls went against the Eagles at the end of the game, two false starts and the debatable RTP. There was a no call on an illegal man downfield on the go-ahead TD. You lost this game because Tyler Bass ain’t Jake Elliott, Jalen Carter is incredible, and the Eagles skill position talent won out. And McDermott being a coward, ofc.
It was REALLY Gabe Davis running the wrong route. That is the dead answer to why the game was lost.
It’s just the new talking point against any winning team. Blame the refs. Chiefs been getting it for years. I can’t be too hypocritical because I bitch about the refs too. It’s just funny hearing people say the refs like the Eagles. If you’ve watched the Eagles for as long as I have, it’s hilarious because we have more often than not been on the shit side of bad officiating.
DPI is kind of like a strike zone in MLB… as long as the referees make it clear how they are going to call it and call it the same way for both teams.
Unfortunately, MLB doesn’t do this well ever and lately NFL referees are struggling with this as well.
Problem in football is you have refs on different sides of the field so even if each ref is consistent themselves they may be inconsistent between each other. So things that you get away with on one side may end up being penalties on the other. Football is so fast and these calls are so subjective. Need an eye in the sky.
Here’s my thought on the eye on the sky thing:
There’s so many penalties every play, how do you have a real game? There’s always a lineman holding. There’s almost always some form of pass interference.
How do we get through the flag on almost every play in every game?
You’re not wrong. Need cleaner football or different rules.
If you call things tighter, players will adjust. If there are rules that players can’t adjust to, then the rules need to adjust. For example, people like to talk about offensive holding going on for every play, but the NFL’s rulebook has a list of exceptions that aren’t holding that actually make it so that even if you called it strict, there’s a lot of plays where there wouldn’t be holding called, because it’s not against the rules.
You’d have a real game because players and rules makers would adjust. That sounds a hell of a lot better than “Break the rules some, and we’ll call it sometimes, possibly at times when it fucks you over, good luck!” Or the alternative, “When it matters, people can break the rules and screw you over, because we won’t call it during high impact plays at the end.” We see both now.
In the words of BG: “It don’t matter”
I mean the very next play was a first down. 0 actual impact on the game.
You can simultaneously have atrocious officiating AND not blame it for McDermott pissing away yet another historic Josh Allen performance in a close game. I wish I could dig through the comment history of all the Bills haters in here because I’m sure the hypocrisy is strong with them.
I’d also say that any smart player is going to gamble on taking a penalty in some situations, so I’m certain Slay knew he could either take a risk on DPI or be almost certain Diggs catches that pass for a long first down. It was a smart play on his part.
How nice of him.
I got stuck with browns/broncos and raider chiefs. How controversial was the reffing in this game? Or was it your usual “team with lots of wins always gets ref help”?
I’m gonna get downvoted by angry Philly cheese steak people but it was an absolute shit show. Pretty much WWE. It was so bad dolphins fans our division rivals were calling out the bad Reffing. That officiating crew is statistically biased towards the eagles and somehow the league doesn’t see an issue with this.
Bills got away with alot less penalties then they should’ve got. Set the record for 1st quarter penalties this season with some of the most braindead penalties I’ve ever seen. Eagles were in their head. They were jumping offsides and tackling before the ball was even snapped. A face mask off the ball in punt protect. And a DT that should’ve been ejected but instead was allowed to commit 7 dirty plays.
I like the eagles and even I gotta admit it was some of the worst officiating I’ve ever seen
Can’t stand the Bills but they got shafted all game. Eagles were constantly false starting (especially Lane Johnson), Allen was flagged for getting horse collared somehow, Eagles O Line getting away with some very massive holds, and more. Definitely was a suspicious game.
Another example where people don’t know the rules for tackles. Every game.
Not calling holds is multiple times a time for both teams in every game. Carter gets held constantly.
Allen was flagged for getting horse collared? Again I assume you don’t know the rules. He was drafted down by the front. Not a horse collar. The brief hold on the back was not how he was brought down. It was a sack and while well in the grasp Allen threw the ball away and it was grounding.
Very suspicious. 🤪
Homie, Lane Johnson did not play. He was out with a groin.
The second thing you said.
It wasn’t especially. As usual calls were missed on both sides.
The eagles fans in the sub will have you think it wasn’t an issue because they got the calls all year. Of course missed calls both ways and at the end of the day the bills lost that game themselves. But if their franchise QB was penalized on a play he was blatantly horse collared on, they would be upset to. According to the all 22, they feel vindicated so good for them.
The latter for sure. The Bills were up deep into the 4th and choked. That’s all that happened. The penalties that are being complained about happened earlier in the game. Buffalo benefits from a non-call on their last TD of the game when an online man (think it was the vent, maybe right guard) was 4 yards different blocking at the goal line. But no one’s bringing that up.
It’s overblown noise like most ref complaints.
The problem is penalties absolutely neutered a historically awful first half form the Eagles which kept the game way closer than it should’ve been.
Good teams overcome penalties. That’s what makes them good teams.
The Bills were up late in the 4th and choked. That’s all there is to it. They had every opportunity to score more points (while still leading) with numerous drives unaffected by penalties but they didn’t because they couldn’t, not because their scores were being taken off the board by penalties. Those are the facts.
Refs miss calls all the time… nobody perfect. But holding an grabbing goes on every play. If they would’ve called it I wouldn’t be mad at all!
Full tweet. Basically what we all know, there could be a flag on every play.
Amazing how it’s totally fine for you in this case lol do you not see how favored you’ve been this year or are you gonna pretend it’s not happening?
I’m not gonna say we haven’t benefited from shitty officiating. But the shit happens every year, and it’s highlighted when it benefits the top teams, ESPECIALLY when two top teams are playing each other because everybody and their mom is watching. We all have learned to deal with it, whether it’s Tom Brady, the Chiefs, and currently the Eagles benefiting from penalties.
People have complained about the Eagles benefiting this year, but gave us shit after the SB for complaining about the holding on Bradberry to end the game. In the end, excuses are excuses, and everyone has them.
Both teams had a chance to put the game away, and the refs had nothing to do with each team’s final play in OT
I’m not gonna say we haven’t benefited from bad officiating.
People have complained about the Eagles benefiting this year, but gave us grief after the SB for complaining about the holding on Bradberry to end the game.
SHOCKER: People don’t like it when one team is constantly benefited by bad reffing. People also don’t like it when fans of that team complain about a CORRECT call just because they didn’t like the timing of it.
Eagles had a great whistle (as in, in their favor) in the bills game. There have also been games theyve had a bad one. That’s literally every team.
The only exception i can think of is the chiefs, and thats only bc it seems mahomes gets a key call in crunch time in every game i watch theyre in. I dont watch every game, and they also beat the eagles in the sb, so could be both wrong and salty given biases.
There should have been a flag on that specific play because Slay was holding the WR.
Should rules be subjective or objective?
No sport will ever be perfectly objective. I think soccer is maybe the only one we can say can really minimize the impact of a ref but even that’s BS.
There needs to be some level of consistency between each ref crew but to think refereeing will ever be completely objective is unrealistic.
Baseball definitely the closest, a balk is probably the only call that can’t be made objectively, but it’s such a minor thing anyway.
There’s still a lot of rules in baseball that the written definition of what is and isn’t rule breaking is left up to the umps judgement. Check swings, turning to second after reaching first, etc. Soccer has a lot less rules and they’re less subjective. Plus MLB umps can just do whatever they want without repercussion.
Agreed, but I think those things are easier to “make objective” in the rulebook than say determining what constitutes a legal/illegal tackle, what behavior deserves a yellow card, etc.
It’s hard to officiate what one person is doing, but when you bring physical contact with another person into the mix, i feel like the complexity increases exponentially .
That isn’t what I asked
Honestly, I think it depends on the rule specifically. There are certain blatantly objective things like lining up past the line of scrimmage, and there are plenty of calls where I do think the refs should have some leeway to interpret such as pass interference.
Why should they have leeway?
Subjective since it’s literally not possible for it to be objective.
Didn’t the eagles just go yet another entire game without having a holding call against them?
Gotta get yourself that momma kelce plot armor if you want to cut back on those.
They’re tied for last in the league in both offensive holding and defensive holding.
4 offensive holding calls and 2 defensive holding. If you’re curious, Dallas has 14 of each.
lmao citing Dallas in comparison is a liiiitle misleading given that they are literally most penalized team in the league for defensive holding, and tied for second most in offensive holding.
The league average for defensive holding this season is 4, compared to the eagles 2. The league average for offensive holding calls is 8, compared to the eagles 4.
that’s kind of how comparisons work bud
Weird how to the best Oline in the league doesn’t hold as often as others.
yeah but what about the Eagles’ oline?
Slay gets away with so much
The Sauce of the NFC.
I mean, of course he says that after the fact and when it isn’t relevant anymore.
They don’t interview players during the game. When else would he get to say it to the media? 🙄
If everyone on that team is anything, they are accountable for their actions. Just like Bradberry admitting he held in the SB after the game. What do you want Slay to do, go tell the ref to call a flag on him?
Breaking: Darius Slay fined $10,000 for tweet about NFL officiating.
I feel like the officiating in this game is blown out of proportion. The horse collar non-call was atrocious, no excuse to miss that one obviously. But for the Bills, this pass interference seems to be the only notable miss otherwise, and the play wound up being inconsequential as the Bills converted the first the very next play, farther up than the spot of the foul.
I don’t see this game as anywhere near the dolphins game, where it was just blatantly one sided.
I’m just happy that some people are finally admitting that it wasn’t a horse collar tackle. Maybe a Bills fan will eventually do the same.
Who’s “admitting it wasn’t a horse collar”? This article doesn’t and NFL network radio hosts all day yesterday and today even their “expert” Dean Blandino said it absolutely was a horse collar and should’ve been flagged.
No ones admitting it besides eagles fans lol
Wait. I know Eagles fans are biased, but you’re unironically trying to say that wasn’t a horse collar? It was blatant. Not even the frontal grab, he got him on the back too.
The frontal grab where the shirt was torn specifically couldn’t be a horse collar tackle by how the rules define it. The pull on the back is the only spot where it could be argued.
The rule word for word from the NFL:
“No player shall grab the inside collar of the back or the side of the shoulder pads or jersey, or grab the jersey at the name plate or above, and pull the runner toward the ground. This does not apply to a runner who is in the tackle box or to a quarterback who is in the pocket.
Note: It is not necessary for a player to pull the runner completely to the ground in order for the act to be illegal. If his knees are buckled by the action, it is a foul, even if the runner is not pulled completely to the ground.”
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His hand was 100% above the name plate on the back. You can make a case he didn’t have much of a grip on it, but you can’t deny that his hand was there as he’s pulling down Allen which seems to fall under this rule IMO.
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The word “side” is pretty ambiguous which is where this is hard to determine if the grab on the front is a classic horse collar. You can absolutely make a case that the front of the jersey is the side, or it’s not the side and I’d listen. Personally it think it’s clear that at least some part of the side of his jersey was grabbed, but the fronts not covered so this falls into a subjective area. The NFL should really clear this up in the rule book and call out if the front office the collar has the same rule as the side or back.
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If you look back, he 1000000% grabs Allen’s facemask as he’s got his jersey. Stop it right when he first grabs the jersey, you can’t miss it. This at least should have been a facemask if the horse collar isn’t your flavor.
I’d be fine with the no call due to subjectivity and the ref being on the other side of the play and not seeing the grab of the back nameplate or facemask. My issue is the intentional grounding was also a subjective call, and one that tends to be pretty lenient for QBs.
Again, all of this doesn’t matter if the Cook doesn’t drop that pass that’s probably a TD or Bass shitting the bed. Also 5 or 6 of the Bills penalties were dumb penalties that Philly didn’t really commit and were procedural that didn’t have subjectivity. But the rest were post snap and called. What grinds my gears was that the only “subjective” calls made during the play almost always seems to be called against the Bills when you had obvious ones not called on Philly. The hit to Kincade was a headshot on the defenseless receiver, the PIs on the Sherfield and Diggs plays (which only one mattered if o remember right) among others.
Again, those shouldn’t have mattered. The refs didn’t make Cook drop that pass, Allen and Gabe miss at the end, or make Phillips be a dumb hot head. But it sure felt like one team was given the benefit of the doubt while the other wasn’t.
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Yeah idk where “people are finally agreeing it wasn’t a horse collar” is coming from lol. After the jersey pull, he clearly grabs Allen by the back of the shoulder pads and pulls him to the ground that way.
I haven’t seen anyone other than Eagles fans saying it wasn’t a horse collar.
Technically that is “some people” though
I mean I’m a Vikings fan and I don’t think it was a horse collar
Look at the posts below OP lol
This is the same Slay and Bradberry that admitted that WR and CB tug and pull all game between each other , ooh btw the miss TD between Allen & Gabe Davis , Davis literally pushed Slay to get separation.
They also had a lineman illegally down field on a touchdown. Missed calls happen for both teams throughout games. Refs call things differently each week. Your hope is they call the game consistently and the same standards for both teams (let both teams get away with the same stuff, etc.). We were mad about the holding at the end of the Super Bowl because they weren’t calling it all game on either team. Defensive players get an understanding during the game of what is okay and what isn’t for the refs. It’s similar to baseball umpire. They don’t always call a perfect strike zone but you want them to be consistent on what is a ball and what is a strike for both teams.
Easy to say that after you win