NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Still interesting as the late TD by the Lions sets things up for the on-side kick.

 

This is a painful loss

 

Damn. Gotta feel for the Lions, so close but can’t finish. So close to their first Super Bowl appearance

 

Now that is hilarious. Talk about watching but not seeing.

 

Okay list the calls you think the refs botched. Rea
Iz9ng of coirse that no game is ever going to be called perfect but lets see what you have got.

 

Love, love, LOVE that the Loins lost that game by 3 points after Coach Meathead chose to go for it twice on 4th down in the second half. Beautiful.

The worst imo was the first one. Turning down the chance at restoring the halftime 3 score lead over halfway thru the 3rd Q was juco level game management. Campbell got exactly what he deserved for that clownmanship.

It is pretty interesting tho the way habitual dice rollers like Campbell and Staley get praised so much for their approach. Is it false praise with the real reason being people just want the excitement/danger of 4th down attempts? Its laughable how many times this season i've seen the tv put a graphic up saying 4th & 4 52% GO. Really? Who makes these analytics? When "the book says" is there really a book or are people just making it up? Cos im sorry but im just not buying it. Maybe its considered old fashioned, maybe its dull. but i dont think these "analytics" take things like situation and game flow into it nearly enough, if at all.

 

Im not talking about O-Line holds, which yes you could totally complain about that most ways and due to the nature of it they prob do even out most of the time.

But right of the bat the endzone pick there is contact with the receiver before the ball gets there. There just is. Dress that up if you want. Furthermore the camera angle behind the goal was pretty much right down the line and the reciever might well have had a play on it. Yes it got undercut and yes it was a terrible decision to throw into triple coverage, but not the point. If the receiver has a legit play on it and he's bumped off the line before the ball gets there.... its PI.

Much more obvious was the deep shot to Beckham down the left where the CB has his right arm almost the entire way. Thats not even a hard call. When the receiver and CB are holding hands all the way down the field its not cos they like each other.

There was a play, 2nd half i believe, where the WR looked like he was showing in-breaker and then turned it into an out and the DB bought it hook line and sinker and basically tackled him. Couldn't quite tell if the ball was in the air at that moment which is the dif between a PI and illegal contact. But either way thats a fresh set off downs they didnt get. That was a flag all day every day.

Chris Jones put a big QB hit on Lamar on one of his throws and came down with all his body weight. Replay showed there was no effort made to take the weight, he just put it all on the QB. Whether you like the rule or not(i don't) that is an easy call.

That's 4 straight off the top of my head. No doubt you'll whine back at me about the endzone pick so call it 3 if you want to be pissy. But there were prob more than that cos the Chiefs DB were getting away with a lot last night imo.

 

Oh and btw, compare that kind of non call i just mentioned, and basically the way the Chiefs DBs were allowed to play so physical all game, compare that with the Defensive Holding on the Ravens DB the first Chiefs drive of the game where it was marginal. I mean i guess you can throw a flag but then if thats how you're calling it the place is going to resemble a chinese laundry. That was a fresh set of downs and the very next play play #15 throws the TD to Kelce.


Also, just for the record. Non of what i said means its rigged or that the Ravens win if this or that. To me the Chiefs had a large degree of control over most of that game. Sure the Offense didnt do much after those first two TD drives, but its Mahomes. If he/they needed to turn it up a notch i totally believe they would've, its how they are. This is why the people fixating on the Bills missed FG last week kinda missed the point. Mahomes would've got the ball back with like 1.40 left. The Chiefs were big favs even if the FG had been made.

 

Nope not going waste my time or yours arguing

 

Steelers working on “key decision” about Najee Harris’ fifth-year option

Steelers owner Art Rooney II covered a lot of topics during a Monday meeting with the media, including the future of running back Najee Harris.

The 2021 first-round pick is moving into his fourth NFL season and that means it is time for the Steelers to decide whether to exercise their option on his contract for a fifth year. Harris ran for over 1,000 yards for the third straight year and posted a career-best average of 4.1 yards per carry, but Rooney would only say that the team is considering all of its options.

“A lot of thought, a lot of analysis goes into making those decisions,” Rooney said, via Tim Benz of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “We’ll be working on that as well as all the other things we have to do in the offseason, but that’ll be a key decision as we get closer to the draft in May.”

Harris’ option is set to come with a salary of $6.66 million and the team has until May 2 to make their call.

NBC
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You see, I don't understand contract stuff. Harris ran for over 1000, increased YPC and every team needs 2 good backs, so why is there a question about this and 6.6M isn't nothing but chump change. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but I don't know.

 

Well you asked didn't you.

Another one i thought of was the catch Kelce made to either equal or break Rice's record. They lined him up wide right and just threw him a little WR screen for like 5yards. But well after the whistle has blown and people are just standing around Rashee Rice comes over and lays out a Ravens DB. Blatant unnecessary roughness/unsportsmanlike conduct. Ok, so they're not gonna call a guy getting flattened after the whistle but they are gonna call an unnecessary roughness on Van Noy for making minimal helmet contact(when Kelce was baiting the F out of him btw)? And you think they're calling the game even??

On the play where Mahomes got sacked and Trey Smith came over to Brent Urban, who was already engaged in a block, and levelled him before proceeding to maul the guy continuously on the ground well after the sack ended. Unnecessary roughness? At the very least that goes in the maybe category.



And you know what, im not giving this one away either. Thats PI. We're looking straight down the line of that throw, Likely is tracking it and actually him tracking it so well is why there's PI. Obvs the contact is way before the ball gets there. The instant before the contact Likely starts to slow down so he can play the ball. The DB's head isnt turned and he cant slow down himself so he naturally runs thru the back of the receiver. This is the exact same concept as a WR being taught to come back to the ball when a DBs head isnt turned. The contact is unavoidable and its automatic PI.

Having looked at the ball placement relative to Likely's position, plus Likely starting his move well before the ball is there, plus the fact Likely is a good jump ball receiver.....every reason to believe he can make a play on that ball without the PI. It probably gets broken up. You cant actually rule out Likely winning that ball. Very least thats 1st & Goal at the 1 with 6.30 left in the game.

 

This was the play i was talking about earlier. Its Likely again(no wonder he was so pissed off after this play).

How much of this was by design i dont know, but he shows a sit down route into zone coverage before breaking upfield and that is a blatant tackle by a DB who is completely beaten on the play. That is as stone cold a penalty in the secondary as you will ever see. Pause the video at 5secs and you will see in the same frame Likely being tackled more than 5yards downfield and Lamar still in the pocket with the ball in his hand looking at him! The throwaway on this play is a direct result of the penalty.

Because the ball isnt in the air it isnt PI, its illegal contact. There was another defender in the general area so its probably unlikely this was a TD saving penalty, but who knows. Bottom line is thats a horrendous blown non-call. Its stuff like this that forms the case for coaches being allowed to challenge re penalties, its that bad.

This was 3rd & 5. After the officials shat the bed the Ravens had to kick the FG. It should be 1st & 10 inside the 20 with about 2.40 left and 2 Ravens TOs. There's a legit chance to get a TD there and then you're forcing the opponent to get at FD to win a game they lead by.


None of all this is to say the Ravens win. Or that the Ravens didnt get a call or two of their own along the way. But its the sheer volume. This wasnt close to evening out, nowhere near. This was a terribly called game.

The real question i have jeanquev is whats your part in all this? Is this just big division rival bias(which happens to the best of us), or do you really go through entire games not noticing this shit?

 

Ive no opinion one way or the other on the ongoing convo, but i would like to say this. When you see these calls just like the 2 Likely ones EvertonBears posted, along with having already watched a season of this stuff, I cant help but think that these Refs/officials need to be full timers since they are such huge contributors to the game and its outcome. They also need to be schooled in a classroom type environment and review these kinds of calls, watch the film and get it right, grade them even, whatever it takes. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar industry, they could easily afford to school/train and pay these guys as they need to protect the integrity of the game in any way shape or form they can. These playoff crews are supposed to be the best or the cream of the crop and from what we all can clearly see, it could use some tweaking. Its a tough job, its a human being out there being human, but the over-all infrastructure of the officials on the field, with the importance of their position, this kinda stuff should be rectified.

 

Sunday night’s NFL Championship between the Lions and 49ers averaged 56.9 million viewers for Fox.

It was a 19-percent increase over last year’s NFC Championship, which became borderline unwatchable after the 49ers ran out of quarterbacks. It’s also a seven-percent bump over the game played in the same window last year, between the Bengals and Chiefs.

Per Fox, it was the fourth most-watched non-Super Bowl NFL game on Fox, and it was the most-viewed NFC Championship since 2012.
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This year’s AFC Championship has become the champion of AFC Championships.

Via CBS, Chiefs-Ravens averaged 55.473 million viewers. It’s the most-watched AFC Championship ever.

It’s a 17-percent increase over last year’s comparable window. Which featured the quarterback-free (eventually) 49ers losing to the Eagles.

Coupled with even higher ratings for the Lions-49ers game on Fox, it bodes well for massive numbers on CBS, when the 49ers and Chiefs get together, again, for the Super Bowl.

 

Well....

There were (12) 1,000 yard rushers in 2023, it Was McCaffery and everyone else
162 yards is what separated #2 rusher and #12 rusher of those 1,000 yard rushers
12 players scored more TDs than Najee
You mentioned, increase in YPC, yet Najee ranked #32 in the NFL for yards per attempt.... So, even if he did increase it, it certainly isn't above standard. Jaylen Warren averaged 1.2 more yards per attempt than Najee... THIS is probably why they are trying to figure out whether to pick up that option. Warren outperformed him on a per carry basis behind the same O-line. He carries a $985,000 salary in 2024.

The short answer is, Harris' production is replaceable, and most likely for less money.

Elevate Warren to starter and draft a RB in the top 5 rounds (they have two 4th round picks)... Done...

 

Hard to argue and this is why big contracts aren't there for RBs. I think Harris is a good RB but if they do what you said, it's cap savings and not a fall off in performance. Likely, performance is better.

 

I think the RB quality is going to start going down even more...

All the way down to high school athletes.. RBs are going to become athletes that can't catch the ball. If they are over 5'9" and can catch... they are going to want to be WRs.

When you have athletes that are less productive, but play WR getting paid more than the most productive RBs, there is bound to be a shift.

 

Najee’s option is 6.6 million. I think the Steelers pay it

 

Zay Flowers fined $10,927 for taunting penalty against Chiefs

Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers is out some money due to a penalty in the AFC Championship Game.

Flowers was tackled by Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed at the end of a 54-yard pass from Lamar Jackson late in the third quarter and pushed off of Sneed, who was holding onto Flowers’ leg. Flowers then flipped the ball toward Sneed and stood over him, which brought a flag for taunting. That moved the Ravens back to the Chiefs’ 25-yard-line and they would not score on the drive as Flowers fumbled while trying to dive into the end zone on another catch.

On Saturday, the NFL announced that Flowers has been fined $10,927 for the infraction.

Ravens defensive tackle Travis Jones also heard from the league. Jones was fined $6,700 for a hit to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ head that drew a flag.

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Im no mathamagician or a rocket surgery guy (i did wreck a holiday inn once), but Flowers gets 10K+ for standing over someone and Jones gets 6K+ for beheading a QB? wtf?

 

Well you're right Will, whatever the block is to getting this fixed its not money. The NFL has an abundance of that. There's a players union, is there an officials union? If so have they told the league behind closed doors if you make them go full time you're gonna lose a lot of people? Cos many of these guys have other careers they might be very invested in. Thats all i've got.

They should've been made full time well over a decade ago. It was a hard enough job 20-30years back when far more contact with receivers down the field was allowed. Then, in order to increase offensive output, the deck got stacked in favour of the passing game, which, argue it whatever way you want but the fact is the officials were now required to make a lot more calls and on far more nuanced contact. Then the holy grail entered the chat. Player Safety!! Which brought in a whole new tier for officials to absorb, in addition to all the rest, in addition to the game also getting faster. I moan about the quality of officiating plenty, but the bottom line is there are probably unrealistic expectations on these guys in general.

That doesnt excuse the real stinkers tho, like some of those non calls from the Ravens - Chiefs game. For those, i dont know what other remedy there is other than allowing coaches to challenge, either once, once a half, unlimited, whatever it is. The upsides to this massively outweigh the downsides imo. One, DUH, you get the correct outcome. Also it probably damps down the "its rigged" crowd. And lets be honest, you're not damaging the authority/reps of the officials with this cos no one holds them in high regard already. They have to do something, but i guess they won't. If they are literally ok with bad calls deciding who goes to the SB(see Rams-Saints 2019), if that pressure won't move them then i guess nothing will. Just so dumb.