Wild Card Weekend
Pro football’s Wild Card Weekend is in the books and twelve teams have been pared down to eight. Here’s what we have learned.
We know that The Carolina Panthers beat the Arizona Cardinals, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Detroit Lions, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Indy Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, with those four winners set to meet up with the four bye teams, the Patriots, the Broncos, the Packers and the Seahawks.
And we know that three out of four home teams won their games at home, with only the Pittsburgh Steelers not winning, while, as usual in the betting world, two of the favorites covered the point spread, while two out of the other favorites did not. Two out of four of the games ended UNDER the point totals predicted in the over/unders and two of the games were OVERS. (Note – Really late in the game, the Steelers trailed 30 to 15. They blocked a punt and got a two point safety, making the score 30 to 17. The over/under number on the game was 46 1/2. These guys – the oddsmakers – are GOOD.)
We know that “really good quarterbacks matter.” Of course, the four bye week QB’s were already going to be pro football royalty Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, Super Bowl winners all. Joining them in football’s “Final Eight” are Cam Newton, Tony Romo, Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco, who are all considered to be solid “franchise quarterbacks” and “good enough to win a Super Bowl.” If teams don’t think that there is a correlation between having an elite quarterback and having a team that can do something in the playoffs, they are either pulling the wool over the eyes of their fans, or are just plain stupid.
We know that the Carolina Panthers are playing more like a team that has won five games in a row (a type of unbeatable you’d like to be at this playoffs time of the year) and less like the team that was at one time 3 – 8 and 1 tie. They may have been one of “The Four Stooges,” but they are right now a very dangerous team in the playoffs.
We know that the pretenders/frauds are gone and we fans are getting a better feel for who will be there when the field narrows to four next weekend. A team needs to be playing well to survive any more games at this stage of the season. You play lousy, you go home, because the teams that are remaining are NOW pretty much the best eight teams in football and anybody remaining can probably beat any of their opponents under the right circumstances.
And we learned that the teams are closely enough matched that one referee’s call can sometimes be the difference between a team winning and losing a game. And sometimes, if the referees make a call in a questionable way, the entire sports world can be talking about how THAT CALL decided the game, instead of how the game was actually decided on the playing field.
We are talking of course about the Dallas vs. Detroit game and the fourth quarter reversal of a pass interference penalty that had a dramatic effect on the close game. When it happened, the score was 20 – 17 Lions, and the Lions were near midfield and moving into Cowboy territory trying to score and take control of the game. The pass interference play in question was at first called P.I., and then, after one referee overruled another, was “uncalled” and turned into a non foul.
A Dallas player was beaten on the play by a Lion tight end, so he grabbed the Lion to try to slow him down, then just before the pass arrived, he flailed his arms at the Lion, contacting him before the ball got there. In other words, he cheated and tried to gain an unfair advantage by his actions. It SHOULD have been a penalty for at the minimum illegal contact or defensive holding. But referee #2 decided to overrule referee #1, and 25 million fans watching on TV immediately smelled a proverbial rotten fish. The play ended up being what fans talked about the next day. And a lot of that talk the next day was people questioning the integrity of the officiating. And that should NOT happen in a pro football game.
It gave fans the impression that the officiating was the determining factor of the game. It gave fuel for a lot of fans to question the integrity of football itself. Was there a gambling influence that affected this game? Was there a ref that took a bribe? It has happened in high levels of soccer. It has happened in the NBA (the idea of officials who are not beyond reproach), and THAT referee’s decision to override another made this call look just as suspicious.
The game went on to be won by the Cowboys. There were still eight or so minutes of play remaining for both teams to do what they needed to do to win the game. After this call, Dallas made more plays to make them win the game than the Lions. The penalty did not make the Lion punter shank a punt ten yards (when he needed it to be 40.) Dallas DID convert on a 4th down play to keep their game winning drive alive. Dallas DID score a touchdown with their late in the game possession to go ahead in the game 24 to 20. Dallas DID make defensive plays when they needed to make a stop.
The Lions did NOTHING on offense when they got the ball with over two minutes to play (championships are won by teams that successfully score touchdowns in the last two minutes). Just as Dallas made the plays on both offense and defense, Detroit did NOT make the plays. The game really did boil down to Dallas making more plays at the end of the game than Detroit. And even if Detroit had gotten that pass interference call, there is nothing to suggest that Detroit would have gone in for a touchdown (Say, they got a field goal on that drive and went up 23 to 17). Dallas would have still scored their touchdown and won the game 24 to 23.
Detroit fans and Cowboy hating fans can cry foul about the poor officiating and they would be correct. But the evidence suggests that the Cowboys won the game legitimately with their late drive and their even later in the game defensive stop of Detroit. Detroit can only blame themselves for not doing what it took to win the game.
And the officiating? It needs to be better. It needs to not appear to be anything but fair and honest to both teams at all times. Period.
(Author’s note – The NFL came out and admitted that the pass interference call was bad and that it SHOULD have been a penalty. For that, they are smart for doing what it takes to make the people who watch their games think that the games are being called fairly and honestly.)
