dave mcbride

Oh yeah — completely agree about home field.

That is a good question. I think the hands to the face rule called against Ford was terrible because it happens all of the time in the o-line/d-line scrum. It has to be a clear grab, head slap, or neck push. He did none of that. It cost the Bills a possession. PI rules are INCREDIBLY flexible. i just think the intent on this was so completely clear, and given the league’s stated intent to reduce kick returns given that they are by far and away the most dangerous plays in the game, you use your freaking brain and call that a touchback.

https://mobile.twitter.com/MikePereira/status/1213640136120053761

To be fair, the Bills failed. If Morse makes a block on the qb sweep, if they don’t play behind the sticks on 3rd and 18, if williams catches a perfectly thrown td pass ... they had their chances. I am just suspicious of the hype surrounding Watt and the annoucing love fest. Felt like an NBA game to me.

Hey, I am the one who started the thread about the suspicious officiating (no in-play penalties called on Houston in a five-quarter game), and I fully agree about the 3rd and 18 play. This call was just dumb, though. It’s clear as day that the league views that sort of situation as a touch back, and they don’t want returns anyway given how dangerous they are. That was touch back, plain and simple, and the ref screwed up. I mean christ, steratore, who is actually smart and knows the rules better than any of us clowns here, said that this sort of thing happens and that it should never been ruled a td for the bills.

Tannehill did it on the road against the best pass defense in the league. Houston’s is one of the worst. Not exploiting Beasley vs a team that can’t cover slot guys was a huge miss by Allen.

I can’t recall when and where, but I watch a lot of games and a I guess you’ll have to take it on faith. Gene Steratore said essentially the same. Again, this is about the stupidest hill to die on I could ever imagine.

Plus, he flipped the ball to the ref! That is both intent and a clear action.

I have seriously seen this happen multiple times in other games. It is common. Trust me.

It was deep in the end zone, he hadn’t returned it all game, and it was clear that he wasn’t going to return it on this one. It was just a dumb call by the ref, who sadly created moon landing material for Bills fans that’ll likely plague this board for the next decade. Advice — this is a very bad hill to die on.

Worst I have ever been subjected too, and it wasn’t close. And how about MacFarland’s idiotic playcalling advice — saying the Bills should run a draw with 15 seconds to go In the game and no timeouts on third down and then spiking it.

But it wasn’t “called.” As soon as it happened, the sub refs ran out and basically said, “you’re mad, bro,” and the call was corrected. No review, no replay, just a a conference in which the refs applied common sense. No one is saying that the Bills didn't screw up. They probably deserved to lose. In close games, though, refereeing tilts can matter.

It’s ambiguous, but a rule-of-reason interpretation would find that that amounted to a touchback. Kneeling isn’t required, as far as I can tell. If a ball gets to the end zone and touches the ground, it’s an automatic touchback. There’s no need for a player to pick it up and kneel, or even catch a ball if it’s headed for the end zone and they don’t intend to return it. This is a small time saver, but the goal is to blow a play dead earlier so that unnecessary collisions don’t happen. Under the previous rules, a player could take their time gathering a ball and kneeling while the coverage team and return team blockers still careened toward each other for no reason.

Um ... that wasn’t actually called. And it wasn’t a penalty anyways.

I am telling you - I have seen this multiple times throughout the league, and gene steratore said this too. It’s always treated as a touch back.

The first penalty on ford was really ticky tack too. A lot of helmets get grazed on most plays in the the battle between o-lines and d-lines. It’s never called unless delberate/blatant. It was a big play that killed a drive.

Given the truly dreadful over-the-top pro-Texans announcing last night and the Watt love fest, I have my suspicions.

It actually happens all of the time. That is the new way to signal “I’m not returning”, and I’ve seen it numerous times throughout the league. More to the point, this is a disaster of a thread and basically moon landing stuff for the nuttiest of Bills fans.

There were five called in all: 2 on Tunsil for false starts, 2 deliberate delay of game penalties on punts, and the offsetting post-play PFs after the Hopkins fumble and recovery by the Bills (and I don’t know why Hughes was called for anything; he seemed to be on the periphery of that scrum). Given the offset, they were penalized only 4 times for 20 yards. Only 2 - the false starts upon Tunsil - negatively affected them. Anyway, the Texans racked up zero in-play penalties in a really long game filled with crazy plays. Zero in a what was essentially a five-quarter game. Call me suspicious. The Bills had a garden-variety 7 penalties called for 64 yards (6 penalties were called in regulation, I think, which is normal). Ford was flagged twice, and both were very ticky tack. The hands to the face call only seems to get called when the facemask is clearly held or the hand pushes the chin up hard and deliberately. Ford barely grazed The defender, and it wasn’t intentional.

Um ... the play did stop the clock, which the Bills needed ...

I get this, but it is a terrible glitch in the rules. Basically, people pay watch a sporting event, and 1/29 of that sporting event that we pay to watch or attend evaporates into a non-sports activity because the league didn’t anticipate this problem. It’s not sports. I am too. I wanted Hyde to take a knee on that Offside kick he recovered, not run it in. Make it a sure thing. The pats had their heavy personnel in on that play and Lynch had been bad all season long on 4th and goal fro around the one. Don’t be so sure he would have scored.

Allowing the clock to run on those plays has to stop. That is terrible for the game —burning off time via non-sports non-activities in a competitive sporting event. The league has to fix that. It is a glitch in the rules and terrible for the game.

It was weird but not alligator arms

“Alligator arms” refers to when a player doesn’t extend his arms in order to avoid a hit. That’s not what happened.

It was late.