February 14, 2022: Papa Says So

Did everyone like that Hollywood Ending to the Super Bowl yesterday? Look, if you’re going to be mad about a blatant bad call at the most critical juncture of the game, I got news for you. I get it though… I still get pissed about it, and I didn’t even have a horse in the race. But, this is the same old story; nothing has changed. Nothing will change either. It’s not quite as bad as WWE, but the NFL really needs to be careful with how they work this stuff out…

You have two weeks to plan this out perfectly. In this case, a Rams straight up win & a Bengals cover; it had to happen that way because Papa says so. Papa is Papa Vegas for those of you who aren’t in the know… That face mask by Tee Higgins on his TD catch really helped this one… When people start bitching about this bad call against the Bengals, first response is… well, it’s even for that missed call earlier in the game. They’re good man, really good. Riddle me this though: why didn’t the Rams challenge that play earlier in the game? It’s one thing if the contact was incidental, or could have gone either way, like I thought when the play initially happened. But after replay, after seeing a clear face mask penalty against the offensive player… why no challenge? Heck, the broadcasters didn’t even mention it; why? Isn’t this exactly why they put the challenge in place, because of a play like this that went the Rams’ way against the Saints in the NFC Championship game a few years back. If something is THIS obvious, you have a challenge to instantly rectify it. But… the Rams didn’t challenge… Things that make you go hmmmmm…

Of course, this was their “Ace in the Hole” come end of the game time. For a game with so few penalties, which was a good thing, to change up at the end of the game with that phantom holding call that gave the Rams 4 more chances from the 2 yard line… I saw something this morning where the whole Rams line jumped on the play too… No call there; no replay. No broadcasters calling it out; they’re in on it too FYI. I was ready for something like this to happen. I had started taking notes during the game of questionable stuff. The first one was the early 4th down miss by the Bengals; after replay though, the defensive PI wasn’t valid because of the tipped ball; OK. I noticed a very strange inbounds call late in the 2nd quarter, that kept the clock running, when the WR clearly ran out of bounds. No biggie right? Well, that depends on the first half line. Of course, the missed PI call on the Bengals; I had noted at the time “why was it not reviewed?” Aren’t all scoring plays reviewed? There was a late what appeared to be roughing the kicker on the Rams that wasn’t called; didn’t get any replay on that unfortunately, and wasn’t going to rewind to throw us behind, because, you know, the commercials and all. Overall, relatively clean game until, of course, the most critical point of the game, when the Rams were thrown a bone. Hey, they did capitalize on it… 4 chances from the 2 yard line should be money, but we have seen the Bears botch that… Nobody is going to confuse the Rams for an all time great team or anything like that, but they were able to get it to the best WR in the league for the game winning TD pass from the long suffering ex-Lions QB… hollywod ending no?

I know, not one play should decide a game; another fact that helps this all work out. The Bengals DID make some bad offensive play calls, fact; why though? Did Matt Nagy call in those running plays? And the refs are always inconsistent… yada, yada. Look, this NFL train is not stopping, for anything, any controversy, COVID, any questionable officiating, any possible “fixing” of games. They know this; we should know this too by now. Unless your team is so much better than the other, you will be in this predicament as well, hoping to be on the right side of things. The Bengals were not; it was the Rams turn. I just hope it’s the Bears turn soon… But hey, the Halftime Show was good…