Hell of a game. That Aaron Rodgers is the best in the business. He just hasn't had the supporting cast Brady had. My suffering is over for this football season.
I'm not sure if the scheme was bad so much as #31 just lackadaisically covered nobody. There was only one WR in his area and he didn't put much effort to be near him. I do think Dallas blundered spiking the ball with 50 seconds left. Wasted a down and ended up giving Green Bay more time at the end.
There are more of us than you think. I for one love the fact that the Texans won more playoff games this year than the Cowboys did.
Exactly what I noticed. How did he let that receiver get behind him. You keep everything on front of you.
There were much more blown coaches calls that that. What about those 12 men on the field. No 19 called for going into and out of the game. A 37 yard penalty. The Dallas coaches lost that game.
That said, it seems ridiculous to me that the substitution error is a 15-yard penalty instead of a 5-yarder. Not the first rule or procedure that's come up this post-season that's made no sense to me. Are you Green Bay fans? If there weren't first round byes, this would be an accomplishment to celebrate. Not a bad spin to put on getting knocked out of the same round though. It would be like Texas A&M saying to Washington "You guys had the same bowl record we did this year!", technically true yet devoid of context.
I don't think Brady has had any better supporting cast. He did have Gromp, but he is out again. There are no real super stars in NE except Brady. and Gromp.
Actually that penalty was Dak's fault if it was a penalty at all. It looked like Dak had not closed the huddle yet. He was about five yards away but was too close to give the officials the idea that he had. The QB is never supposed to close the huddle until he counts and knows his personnel. Obviously, the coaches should have been on this as well and should have either called a TO or left 19 on the field. I guess it was not reviewable but it did look to me like the huddle had not been closed. It was just not the Cowboys night. All of the "inches" plays went against them. The first TD pass over Sean's shoulder pretty much set up the rest of the night.
Didn't GB have like 2 more TO left at that point though they would have stopped the clock if Dallas didn't.
And the PI's, 2 that weren't even called, and spiking the ball too soon. Cowgirls beat themselves. They looked and played like a Charlie Strong coached team.
Been a Packer fan forever. The first game I saw in person, as a boy, featured Tobin Rote as the Green Bay QB. Buddy Young was a 5'4" HB for Baltimore and Clayton Tonamaker LB was my favorite Packer player other than Rote. It was November 13, 1954 in Milwaukee County Stadium and I burnt my tongue on some hot chocolate.
So it is fair to say the Cowboys did not make it any farther in the playoffs or do any better in the playoffs this year than the Houston Texans. Also, I guess we can work in that they both won their division then finished in the same round of the playoffs.
Dallas extended 2 of those TD drives with penalties. The PI was a PI, but didn't need to happen. On one of the few times Dallas gets pressure, Claiborne has to hold. He was holding all night. Green Bay held Witten big time on that 3rd down in the red zone as well. Dallas penalties were the difference in the game. GB played a more error free game and that was it. If you don't want to get PI, don't grab a guys jersey.
This is what drives me crazy. It's subjective if he's too close or not to the huddle. All this rule does is give the refs more power to throw flags. I wouldn't care if a team had 20 in the huddle as long as there are only 11 when the ball is snapped. These kind of rules are like excessive regulations done by our Government.
The refs influenced the outcome of both games yesterday. Nothing new especially when helping the Pittsburgh Squealers.
The rule is in place so the defense has a chance to react to the player groupings. Defenses matching the offensive player package has become a significant part of effective defense these days. For example, if an offense goes heavy with a 22 personnel (2RB, 2TE) and the defense is in dime the offense has the major advantage.
So? Advantage offense. Draft better players that can be on the field in any situation then. I'm for anything that keeps the refs from having to be more subjective and having less chances to throw flags.
Here's another option, how about the teams follow the rules? That will keep the refs from influencing the game. Players need to know what is going on and keep their head in the game.
Combining a hurry-up offense with changing personnel is unfair, and shouldn't be allowed. Why should the defense be obligated to draft players who can handle any situation, but the offense can substitute freely and deceptively? If you put a premium on eliminating referee subjectivity, any change should be in the direction of preventing substitution, not permitting more of it. One possible resolution: Before a possession starts, the offense chooses its personnel. Anyone who sets foot on the field, ever so briefly, is part of your 11. If you want to switch personnel for a subsequent play, fine -- but you have to get everyone off and on the field by a set time (play clock at 30? 25?) and you can't snap the ball until the play clock is at a set time (15? 10?).
The big question is why this was an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty rather than simply a substitution penalty. That seems a little odd based on how it's normally called. Still, it was Dallas' job to know the rules. It was a penalty regardless.
I get it, it's just how only this one specific set of circumstances makes the penalty 15 yards instead of 5. Since it already wipes out all possibility of a successful play anyway, the 15 is way too stiff and doesn't fit the crime. Fair enough. I can respect the actual fans, just not all the people who spend all year saying "Cowboys fans are all bandwagoners" and then jumped on the GB bandwagon in the playoffs to celebrate them beating Dallas. Dallas got away with (at least) two blatant holds in the first half where they didn't just momentarily tugged, they grabbed on and held on for a while. And yeah Witten got practically tackled at the goal line. Dallas definitely committed holding (probably holding not PI but the net result was almost identical) on that last interception, which was incredibly dumb in hindsight as Heath probably gets that pick anyway (since Rogers overthrew it b/c of the pressure and just turned and chucked it to nowhere). Right call, but odd that they'd been letting it go for both teams all game long. The refs certainly didn't lose Dallas the game. They didn't lose KC the game either, Kelce's whining tirade notwithstanding. Again, a clear correct call made only slightly odd by the fact they'd been letting it go earlier in the game. Seriously, I like KC, but Kelce makes it tough sometimes. He drops a key pass, commits an unprovoked 15 yard late hit penalty to hurt his team, and then cusses out a ref for making the right call. What a punk. I mean he hasn't often had superstar WRs and backs but those aren't often what wins titles anyway. Look at how many Super Bowls LaDanian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander, Priest Holmes, Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, and Randy Moss won. Heck, the Pats had Randy Moss and Wes Welker at the same time for several years, which should have been criminally unfair, and that was the stretch of time where they didn't win any Super Bowls. But besides QB, it's OL and defenses that win Super Bowls, and the Pats have generally been solid to great in those departments - that and of course Belichick who regularly outcoaches nearly everybody.
He is not simply an actual fan, he is an "owner". He's one of those suckers, oops, I mean shrewd investors, who paid $250 for a share of the team that they can never actually sell or really do anything with, except maybe frame it and hang it on a wall.
