Refs Steal The Show On Championship Sunday
Image: usatoday.com
By Clayton Kilgore
I hate that there’s only one more NFL game this season, but that’s life. Championship Sunday was a fun one and now we get to start looking ahead to February the 9th in New Orleans.
Here are my favorite bets for the Super Bowl:
Chiefs ML -120
Don’t care, I’m betting on the three-peat. I’m putting my mortgage* on the Chiefs to find a way.
Kareem Hunt ATTD +140
Hunt is Andy Reid’s rotten soldier in the redzone.
Saquon Barkley 3+ Receptions +134
I think Spagnuolo and the Chiefs zero in and find a way to slow him down on the ground to some degree (<100 rushing yards), so I’m foreseeing several Hurts check-down’s his way.
*Exaggeration
After watching BOTH games yesterday despite being a father of three, here’s what’s on my mind:
My goal isn’t to rile a bunch of people up. My goal is transparency and TRUTH.
The referees punishing the Commanders for trying to stop the Tush Push was the lamest thing I’ve ever seen.
Maybe Frankie Luvu jumping over the line “Troy Polamalu” style was a bit much, but threatening to give the Eagles a free six points was incredibly weak. They should be able to try and stop the play as many times as they want, plain and simple.
Of course, the Eagles were on the 1-inch line and likely would’ve scored anyway, but the Commanders were trying to jump the snap. That’s really the only way to have a chance to stop that dumb ass play. By announcing that they have the authority to gift the Eagles a touchdown if they want, the refs more or less took away Commanders’ ability to potentially time it up just right and get a negative play.
Let’s be clear: the refs didn’t decide the game, nowhere close. This was just a call that I’d never heard before. The Commanders defense got gashed for seven rushing touchdowns and the Eagles converted for touchdowns on all three Washington turnovers, so it wasn’t exactly a recipe for success, but I thought that was a dumb thing for the crew chief to say out loud.
There was a lot of talk about penalties leading up to the Chiefs vs. Bills last night, and I’m fine with that. It’s common knowledge that the Chiefs get more calls than anyone else, and last night was no different.
Before anyone from Chiefs Kingdom comes for my throat, I’m not saying this is why they’re good or solely why they win as much as they do, but I think it’s something we can all acknowledge at this point.
I’ve talked about Patrick Mahomes and his on-field behavior, knowing that refs treat him a certain way, and his ability to exploit that. It’s equal parts annoying and crafty.
Watching the best quarterback of all time do tacky shit to help his team puts my brain into a blender - I hate it AND respect it. He knows how and when to embellish to get calls and ultimately put his offense in advantageous situations.
This wasn’t much of an issue last night, I’m just pointing out that he’s done a lot of that this season.
The bigger trend, in my mind, is that the Chiefs tend to get the favorable side of almost every 50-50 call on the field.
The Xavier Worthy “catch” was a dogfight with two guys battling for possession as they went to the ground. It’s important to note that there was a holding call on the play and it would’ve been a first down anyway, so I’m just pointing out the officiating to drill home my point.
It was impossible to make an accurate decision in real time on that play, but the referee sure as hell did. It was immediately ruled a catch by Worthy, even though the defensive back flew in and appeared to intercept it.
From there they reviewed, it was 50-50 at best, and the call on the field held up.
Never mind the fact that the ball hit the ground and it should’ve been incomplete, there wasn’t enough there (I guess) to make a ruling that would’ve been unpopular for the home crowd.
The same goes for the Josh Allen run when he seemingly made it to the yard line to gain, but it was called short. The referees ran up, one with a first down spot, the other a half yard short.
As if there was ever a doubt, the shorter spot was used.
Of course it was.
Again they reviewed it, and the call on the field stood. Sure looks like he got to the 40, but you be the judge.
That resulted in a late turnover and put the ball back in Patrick Mahomes’ hands around the 50-yard line.
I don’t have a dog in the fight at this point and I don’t really care all that much. This is more of an observation, an outsider NFL fan’s opinion, but you’d have to have your head buried in the sand if you don’t see it.
The Chiefs get special treatment. They’re at a point where they command a certain amount of respect because of how good they are and have been for years now. It’s not lost on me that they do tend to position themselves perfectly all the time, but it’s a tough narrative to break away from when game-changing consequences come from the refs’ propensity to give Chiefs every benefit of the doubt time and time again.
Now we wait to see if Jalen Hurts can exact his revenge in two weeks.
I don’t know about you guys, but I love football.