Dallas vs Detroit

[TLG]

Looks like Detroit is motoring on ,,,,,
they keep this up and it's gonna get ugly for the Cowboys

[TLG]

They deserve it ,, Good game for the defense

[Mr Hanky]

He who laffs last.....

[TLG]

Laughs the loudest? LOL

[Condor]

Even though Detroit was robbed good win anyway... But this is where it ends for them Cowboys...lol....

[hedley]

looks like Jerry spent good money on those Refs

[steven charles]

I wonder how much was the refs payout from jones,but there going down in greenbay no doubt,any takers,lol,,

[TLG]

I know we talked about this in an earlier thread ....


Fans throw conspiracy flag at NFL


The shock transcended the sports world.

“Can Anybody other than a Cowboy fan explain that call?!” actor Samuel L. Jackson barked on Twitter.

And the outrage spanned all genres.

“If I was a Detroit Lions fan, I’d be screaming for referee blood about that,” George R.R. Martin, noted author of the Game of Thrones series, wrote on his blog.

After the yellow flag was tucked away and the final score of the weekend’s wildest first-round game was in the books — Dallas 24, Detroit 20, thanks in part to the penalty that wasn’t — the NFL’s integrity was suddenly under attack.

The play in question came late in Sunday’s game with the Lions trying to build on a 20-17 lead. Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens drew a flag for interfering with Brandon Pettigrew on a Detroit pass play. An automatic first down seemed inevitable, more time to bleed off the clock and possibly more points as the Lions inched their way closer to the franchise’s first playoff win in 24 years.
Instead, referee Pete Morelli conferred with his fellow officials, picked up the flag and declared there had been no infractions on the play.

Social media immediately began shaking with tremors of outrage and confusion. “How do u pick up that flag?????” former quarterback Kurt Warner asked via Twitter. “Home cooking,” Hall of Famer Warren Sapp noted, implying the Cowboys’ home-field advantage had suddenly become particularly advantageous.

In today’s NFL, conspiracy theorists need not hide behind computer monitors and screen names, though.

“I guess you can leave the possibility out there,” said Lions wide receiver Golden Tate, asked whether the Cowboys’ stature as America’s Team might have influenced the game’s decision-makers. “But how are we ever going to prove that or not?”
“What do you expect when you come to Dallas?” Lions safety Glover Quin said. “Ain’t gonna speculate that. But the league likes the story lines and headlines.”

Fans, too, exploded, throwing verbal flags from their couches. They saw pass interference, defensive holding and maybe even a face-mask penalty by the Cowboys’ linebacker. Then, when Dallas wide receiver Dez Bryant came onto the field without his helmet on — a violation of league rules — to argue his team’s case, many felt an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was also in order.
Without the flag, the Lions faced fourth down instead of first. They punted, and the Cowboys scored the game-winning touchdown on their next drive.

Despite the magnified attention on the rescinded penalty, the game didn’t hinge on a single play. The Lions still blew a lead, turned the ball over three times, shanked a punt and allowed Dallas quarterback Tony Romo and his offense to find the end zone late. None of that made the non-call call any easier to digest, though.

“I don’t know what to say,” Lions center Dominic Raiola said in the visiting team locker room. “I really don’t. You can formulate your own whatever.”

Fox Sports analyst Mike Pereira, the NFL’s former vice president of officiating, said the referee shouldn’t have picked up the flag and should have penalized the Cowboys for pass interference and holding on the play. But he doesn’t see any conspiracy.

“They have 126th of a second to make a call, to make a decision in their mind,” he said. “Any time you have to do something that quickly, when it happens that fast, there’s probably always some element of doubt in your mind.”

Pereira said there’s simply not time for the pressure of the situation — a boisterous home crowd, the postseason stakes, the dreams of TV executives — to even subconsciously weigh on officials. While he says social media has given a platform to conspiracy theorists, he also blames Tim Donaghy, the disgraced former NBA official who served 15 months in prison for gambling on basketball games and making calls that impacted the outcomes.
“He threw every official under the bus,” Pereira said.

When reports first surfaced that the FBI was looking into Donaghy in 2007, Pereira remembers NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell approaching him. “He came to me saying, ‘It didn’t happen to us, but let’s pretend like it did and look at all of our methods: background checks, how frequently we do them, how we release our assignments and everything,’ ” Pereira said.

The league did not offer an official response to Sunday’s action, though Dean Blandino, the NFL’s head of officiating, told the league-owned NFL Network that Hitchens should have been called for defensive holding. He said the pass interference infraction was “a tight judgment call” and Bryant also could have been subjected to a penalty for running onto the field.
However, Blandino’s name provides only more fuel for conspiracy theorists. The gossip Web site TMZ posted video in August that showed Blandino exiting the Cowboys’ party bus in California, leading many to connect dots and question objectivity. Blandino addressed the summer bus ride during an interview Monday with ProFootballTalk Live on NBC Sports Radio: “I understand why some people might look at that. But it’s just something that has nothing to do with how the game was officiated.”

While the Lions lick their wounds and the NFL brass endures its latest controversy, many league observers have taken issue with the way officiating crews are assembled for the postseason. For 19 straight games — four preseason and 15 in the regular season — officials work on the same crew and are judged weekly. The top performing officials then earn postseason assignments, working with a newly created playoff crew, at times alongside unfamiliar faces, which creates potential chemistry and communication problems.

League spokesman Michael Signora said the current system is a byproduct of the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association. In the past, the league has retained regular season crews for the postseason, some years in just the early rounds before assembling an “all-star” crew for the later rounds.

Pereira said the current system “defies logic.”
“It sounds rude to say but I don’t care about the best officials; I care about the best officiating,” he said. “Think about it, the best teams advance to the playoffs. I think the best teams of officials should be in the playoffs.”

[The Cobra]

That game cost me a freakin` TV.......I hope they cut off the heat to Jerry`s box in Green Bay. NFL apologies don`t mean squat, they should be ashamed of themselves.

[KIDWCKED]

let me guess..u stomped your tv?...lol..

[The Cobra]

let me guess..u stomped your tv?...lol..

At least I didn`t have glass in the garage to clean up this time.............screen just cracked and spidered out. what good is an outdoor TV if it can`t take a hammer from 10' anyway?.

[The Cobra]

You coming next year???????..............................BYO...TV, we`re running short LOL

[KIDWCKED]

At least I didn`t have glass in the garage to clean up this time.............screen just cracked and spidered out. what good is an outdoor TV if it can`t take a hammer from 10' anyway?.

lmao....lol....