Fats vs. Pats game thread

Interesting.

I'll have to watch for that in the future.

You often see back shoulder throws near the sideline where the defender pushes the WR slightly backwards and OOB and the ref winds his arm to keep the clock running. I didn't realize it was the contact with the defender that made the difference.

As long as Gronkowski and Brady are healthy they'll be productive on offense.

It's difficult to overstate how important Gronk is to that team. The guy is 6'6" 270 pounds and runs about a 4.6 40. He also adjusts well to the ball in the air. He's almost unguardable in a one on one situation. He's basically Julius Peppers if Peppers would have played TE.

Gronk is a match up nightmare. Buffalo did a great job on him last night and gave him nothing. I think where Gronk just kills teams is the coverage he attracts so Amendola and Edelman can just buzz the middle the field to shreds on crossing routes / rubs / stick routes. Those two become damn near uncoverable with Gronk. 

Buffalo solved Gronk and watched Amandola just bludgeon them. 

Agree with everything you say about Gronk.

However, with so many injuries elsewhere, Brady is going to get hit more frequently and have fewer options. That makes it easier to double Gronk, like Buffalo did last night in limiting him to 2 catches for 37 yards.

Edelman was a big loss. If Amendola is out as well, the Pats are vulnerable.

Pats are completely out of smurfy little white guys... unless Don Beebe wants to come back to the NFL, they're now toast.

Never underestimate the power of the Gronk.

Wow, I just assumed he had been driven back by a defender to "stop his forward progress". Saw a replay this morning....unreal. 

It's not just the NFL, the NCAA is as bad or worse.  I just saw Carmello Anthony take about 6 steps with no whistle.  This needs to get fixed across the board.  Other than making the right call at the time I have no solutions.

Full time NFL refs. This part time stuff isn't cutting it. Rule book is too vast and full of BS for weekend warriors to roll up on Sunday and get everything wrong. 

Evaluate refs constantly. If a ref has a pattern of screwing up calls. Gone. Next man up. Works for players and coaches. Works to thin out the incompetent stripes too. 

Anything and and everything should be reviewable. Scrap the "inside of two minute" nonsense. Makes zero sense anyways. Problem with selective replay is it takes focus away from the stripes just enough that they relax thinking they have a safety net. Then the botch something that isn't actually reviewable. 

Finally. What's a catch? It's become a flaming grease fire. No one knows. Right now it's 1 person deciding. And 1 person is probably going to have a different opinion than the next guy. And that's the problem. Wild ass interpretations of a cloudy rule. Only solution I have is get a team of 3 individuals and have them watch and decide. 2 catch/no catch votes takes it. If theres a way it should be the same 3 ruling on every questionable call for consistency. Should be doable if they're based in NYC. Should take 60 seconds. 

Sounds good,what would be reviewable? Penalty calls?  Non calls?  Every play?

Penalties aren't reviewable. Part of the ref review process each week. If a penalty should or shouldn't have been a penalty. Grade accordingly. Look for patterns. Tendencies. Mistakes. Thin the non talent repeat offenders. 

Almost forgot. Fire VP of Officiating Dean Blandino. That guy shouldn't GM a bake sale. 

Chili, are you prepared to move to NYT and take over?  You da man

I look horrible in stripes. And I hate NY. 

This isn't hard to fix. Have to start with full time dedicated refs that count on the job as primary income. Forces them to take it seriously. Then let them know repeated mistakes have a severe penalty. Do that and the mistakes come down dramatically. 

Never going to not have blown calls. Human element will see to that. Fast game with too many rules regarding hitting high, low, crown of the helmet, defenseless receiver, late, blow to the head. It's not an easy job. But it's not as hard as the current crop is making it look like either. 

Like clockwork.