Close Call!

The Pats had another close call. They lost the game against the Ravens like 3 times before winning it at the end. They got stuffed on 4-Th and 1 only to see the play get erased by a Baltimore time-out. They got stuffed again, but the play was void because of a Pats false start. This might have been the best false start ever for an offense! They got a third shot at 4-Th down and now Brady converted on a QB run. They faced a 4-Th and change again a few plays later and Brady's pass fell incomplete. But wait. Holding penalty on the defense. First down Pats. This penalty was a killer. Sometimes you got to let the kids play when the game is on the line like that. I hate it when refs do more than their job. Just an hour after this game, I was watching the end of the Magic-Warriors game and they called a T on Dwight Howard for punching the hoop-support with just a few seconds to go. I had to make sure D-Stern had not let Tim Donaghy back in to ref this game. That was a ridiculous call since Howard was not even protesting against a call. He was just frustrated with himself. What are these refs thinking with just a few ticks to go in the game? This holding call was not quite that bad, but still a game-changing one. Since it was on a TE and not a WR I would say let the extra contact go.

Pats scored soon after and the game was over. Even the TD looked suspect with the receiver kinda bobbling the ball though both his feet were inbounds. To make matters even worse for the Ravens, they threw a hail-marry at the end that the receiver actually caught, but he was 2 yards short of the end zone. That should have been a fun game for the Ravens fan. I wish I had tuned into those calls on their post-game show. As for the Pats, the cheaters are still undefeated. They almost seem destined to go undefeated, but they have looked VERY shaky the last 2 weeks. Both Phily and Baltimore have made them look shaky and interestingly, those 2 teams have not made too many other teams look bad this season. I was watching this game in a gym and it was interesting how many people were rooting against the Pats! Not sure if it was an underdog thing or a spy-gate thing or just guys being jealous of Brady, but people outside of New England don't dig this unbeaten Pats team and I like it that way. I don't like Pittsburgh either, but I would be their biggest fan for 3 hours next week when they play the Pats.

Speaking of the Steelers, they were very lucky this weekend as well. It appeared like Willie Parker was fumbling the ball every other carry, but just like the Pats and their 4-Th downs, each fumble was reviewed or erased by something or the other. Either his knee was down a milli-second before he fumbled or his butt hit the ground before the ball popped out or something like that. Grandpa Madden was pining for the good old days when a fumble was a fumble and nobody cared about whether the butt hit the heel before the tongue licked your nose while the ball was rolling out! I guess good teams make their own break.

In other news, the McCown brothers were good on Sunday with Luke winning a game for Tamba Bay and Josh guiding the lowly Raiders against the hated Broncos. I think the Mike Shanahan era in Denver is winding to an end. Not sure what's up with that team. The Raiders used their rookie QB JaMarcus Russell for a few plays though it's running back Justin Fargas who gashed the Broncos. In Washington, Joe Gibbs got a penalty for back-to-back timeouts and pretty much gave the game away to the Bills. They went from a difficult 51 yard field goal to a friendly 36 yarder to win the game. That wraps up an interesting week for the Skins to say the least. The best clips from the NFL weekend was the moves that Adrian Peterson put on a couple of hapless defenders on his way to pay-dirt. This guy is an awesome running back.