how do you think the officiating was ?

[feltdizz]

If the officials keep up this crusade of theirs of calling all sorts of game stopping bull**** penalties, the fans will be driven to watching soccer.

Soccer wishes that was the case.

NFL viewership is still increasing.

One penalty that stood out was the Talib facemask. I thought that was blatant and could lead to rule changes. Talib admitted to doing it on purpose and it was a dangerous and dirty play.

but like I said earlier, I didn't see any blatant missed calls besides the Cotchery catch that was ruled incomplete. I heard the NFL muted the broadcast on the website for that play.

[Slapstick]

Soccer doesn't need the USA...but, the NFL needs to expand globally...

[Northern_Blitz]

Soccer wishes that was the case.

NFL viewership is still increasing.

One penalty that stood out was the Talib facemask. I thought that was blatant and could lead to rule changes. Talib admitted to doing it on purpose and it was a dangerous and dirty play.

but like I said earlier, I didn't see any blatant missed calls besides the Cotchery catch that was ruled incomplete. I heard the NFL muted the broadcast on the website for that play.

I think that it's worth noting that refs are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Refs can decide games by throwing or not throwing flags. The only thing I want as a fan is consistency. If not game to game, then at least within the same game. I think that the NFL generally does a better job of this than the NHL (the other league that I partially follow).

[feltdizz]

Soccer doesn't need the USA...but, the NFL needs to expand globally...

it doesn't need to..

it's just being greedy.

[SteelerOfDeVille]

I thought the tip of the football hit the ground as he was gaining control the first time. After Cotchery rolled over the ball never touched the ground, but I feel like it hit the ground as he gained control, then it moved around a bit, but never hit the ground the 2nd time. My wife thought the call would get overturned and I thought it stay as called on the field, maybe the evidence was incontrovertible, but I thought it was the right call.

Pappy

never touched the ground. i'm pretty sure that was a function of *if a pass is caught while going to the ground the WR must maintain possession through impact with the ground* We've seen a lot of calls that felt wrong, but, by the letter of the law were correct. I expected that to be ruled incomplete based solely on the wording of that rule.

[SteelerOfDeVille]

how about the carolina players grabbing the denver punt returner way before he caught the ball.
WTF was that?

it's why they let go and he ended up with a HUGE return

[BowCatShot]

[QUOTE=
Refs can decide games by throwing or not throwing flags.[/QUOTE]

They can and they do. And therein lies the problem. Football thus becomes, rather than an athletic competition, but rather just sports entertainment. Fans will get wise to that and become fed up with it.

Baseball took the "fans be damned" arrogant attitude and look at them now.