no ... some of us are waiting for spring training and think the NFL is over-rated at best

I agree, that was definitely overblown too.

There little way to give "parody" back to the Patriots after colluding with Kraft on the Jimmy G trade. That still does not make any sense.

Not at all. I think every game has missed calls. If they break in your teams favor, you don't see the issue; when they go against your team, you cry conspiracy. NE always going deep into the playoffs means they play more important games where both teams are really good and one or two "blown" calls can decide the difference. The Myles Jack call was huge. That doesn't mean Jacksonville didn't play too conservatively down the stretch and basically allow Tom Brady to do what he does best.

Overblow-pun intended??

I agree that the Saints penalty was way out of line.

I expect Belichick von Raschke to take the padding off of the top turnbuckle

But player safety was the reasoning

Kind of ironic given they didn't care about concussions until the last couple years.

I am sure that they would have if they have know... that the lack of effort would minimize the bottom line.

I assume you mean that if they knew they would pay a truckload of money into a concussion settlement that they would have paid attention to it sooner?

you got it

Two developments undoubtedly have driven the awareness of concussion dangers. First, there is the recent research linking sports-related concussions with long-term brain damage, with ALS, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, Parkinson's disease, or severe cognitive impairment. Second, and related to the first, is the players' class-action suit, which resulted in a costly settlement for the NFL. Teams that don't take the concussion protocols seriously can be heavily sanctioned. It's serious enough that there has to be a neutral neurological physician in attendance at league games to administer the protocols.

and yet, there are still teams that skirt the issue and face sanctions each year...one of the Saint's opponents didn't follow protocol earlier this season and the team is under investigation. makes no sense to me...

Oh my gosh! You know, I just realized - Bortles also shook Brady’s hand after the game, and Bortles threw some incomplete passes. I bet Bortles was in on the fix too.

Why was Bortles responsible for not calling obvious penalties/improper stoppage of play?

It was the refs that made Coach Marone turtle up at the end of the first half and continue during the second half.

officiating is both ruining and delaying the game, inconsistent calls, too many conferences after flags thrown, too many booth reviews, too many challenges by coaches, inability to determine what is or isn't a catch (no one even has a clear understanding of what a "football move" is), ground can't cause a fumble unless it was on a catch but never on a run, and on and on...

then you see things such as the past weekend where there is a huge disparity in penalties called in a critical game, with glaring inconsistencies...replay clearly shows uncalled penalties against both teams. and the NFL wonders why they lose more followers every year.

I agree with Happys comments about the officiating. There will always be some human error, but there are a lot of ticky tack calls, neverending reviews, etc that can slow the game down.

That said, those that blame the refs for the Jags losing, in my opinion, are just making excuses.

This. My fellow UGA fans have had a solid two weeks of crying about penalties. If UGA makes just one or two plays differently in that game, nothing the refs did would have mattered. Same thing with Jacksonville. Preventing Danny Amendola from making one or two catches would have turned that game, but instead it was like Jacksonville couldn't even see him.

So what do Pats fans say is the cause of the discrepancy in the number of penalties in almost all of their games? Cleaner play?
Or that there is the possibility of ref favoritism?

I am sure there were holding penalties not called-happens all the time. I didn't see an obvious non call on the Pats. As for the Jags, the ref did blow it on the Jack fumble recovery-whistling it dead too soon. The PI on Bouyea (sp?) could have gone either way. PI and "is it a catch" are probably the most inconsistent calls made.

Again-the Jags had the lead and the momentum until they tightened up and were too afraid to keep playing aggressively. They became very predictable and got away from what worked for most of the first half. It blows my mind how some teams do not play 60 minutes. Take the Pats/Steelers game a few weeks ago. The game was delayed 4-5 minutes as the refs reviewed the Jessie James catch/no catch. Did the Steelers take that time to come up with a plan if it was overturned? No-Rothlisberger said he was praying on the sideline during that time. Then what happens? The Steelers have no clue what to do coming out of that call being overturned. Confusion-the OC makes one call-Big Ben decides to do something else. Most of them think Ben is going to spike it and he barfs all over himself.

:crickets:

after Jacksonville went up early I said to myself, 'self, they better keep their foot on the gas"

they didn't, they should have