Referees "Botch" Seahawks vs. Cardinals Sunday Night Football Game

To say that the officiating this season in the National Football League has been atrocious is an understatement. I get it though, it is difficult for human beings to spot everything on the field as the game is very fast. However, with the rulebook being so complex, officials not being sure what is a catch or what is a fumble, and finally the fact that NFL officials executives never fault the referees for horrible calls gives the league very little credibility. However, nobody should be allowed to merely excuse the officiating on two different field goal attempts on last weeks Sunday Night Football Game at University of Phoenix Stadium between the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks.

Now let me say that these games are the kinds of games that I like, low scoring, defense, punting, a chess match. The Arizona Cardinals had more total yards in the game and despite the fact that the Seahawks had their defense on the field for almost fifty minutes of the game, they were still losing 3-0, seconds before the end of the game. Arizona had a chance to be up 6-0 in the game with a Chandler Catanzoro field goal in the second quarter, but Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner timed the snap and jumped over the line, clearly touching the long snapper with his feet before landing, and blocking the kick. Originally an official threw a flag for it for "unsportsmanlike conduct", but after a meeting, the officials picked the flag up and head official Terry McCoughly announced that there was no penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Now the rule for "leaping" is simply stated in the NFL rulebook that on a field goal or an extra point, if a defensive player leaps over the line to block a kick and they contact a player on the line while leaping, then they are assessed a 15 yard penalty. Not to mention, you also cannot use your own players as leverage to block said kicks. Now if you can make it over the line by not contacting anyone and you block the kick, then that would be legal, but the rule was mostly put in place to protect linemen who might get their neck crushed after the ball is snapped by a defensive player. The Seahawks should have been penalized, but for whatever reason, they weren't. But at least one of the officials saw the play instead of what happened later in the game.

So the game goes into overtime and both the Cardinals and Seahawks trade field goals to make the score 6-6. Arizona drove down the field and had a chance to kick the game winning field goal. However, instead of going for the touchdown with the ball inside the five yard line, Bruce Arians, Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals, decided to instead kick a field goal. So Bobby Wagner again, times the snap, jumps over the line, and barely grazes the kick and the field goal sailed wide left. You could clearly see on the play that he touches the center and uses a teammate to boost himself over the line, both of which would be considered "unsportsmanlike conduct" and "leaping" penalties. However this time, no flag was thrown and the Seahawks gained possession with a chance to win. Now, it was a poor decision by Arians for not trying to get a touchdown, but an even worse decision by the officials for not throwing a flag.

Now, the game ended in a tie because Pete Carroll made a similar coaching mistake by not trying to score a touchdown, but in all forms, the Seahawks are lucky that game only ended in a tie. The head of the officials committee, Dean Blandino came out and said that the call was correct both times for no "unsportsmanlike conduct", which doesn't surprise me because he always claims that his officials are right, even when they aren't. Right now there is very little credibility for the referees in the National Football League. I can at least give college football credit for suspending a whole team of referees without pay for completely botching the end of an Oklahoma State versus Central Michigan game earlier in the year where with four seconds to go and on fourth down, Oklahoma State committed an intentional grounding penalty and Central Michigan was given an un-timed down in order to win the game. The Quarterback threw a Hail Mary-hook and ladder and Central Michigan won off of the walk-off touchdown. The thing is that the game should have ended after the fourth down play and the officials were suspended for it. This will likely never happen at the NFL level because the people who manage the officials are too inept and let their employees get away with whatever they want.

Bobby Wagner "illegally" jumps over the line to block kick

Did New York Giants and NFL Cover Up Physical Assault?

About a month ago, Josh Brown, Pro Bowl kicker for the New York Giants, was convicted by his ex Wife for assaulting her over twenty times. Now while there were some people who called him the worst man in the world for doing what he did, but for the most part, people were skeptical and merely claimed that she was likely trying to gain attention, despite the police showing up to their house multiple times. However, it has come to light recently that the NFL and the New York Giants botched the investigation into whether or not he did abuse his wife.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. Back in the summer of 2014, the NFL found out that former running back of the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Rice, dragged his sleeping fiancee out of an elevator. However, it was found out that he assaulted her at some point in the elevator, so he got slapped on the wrist with a two game suspension. However, when TMZ released video of him sucker punching her in the elevator, the NFL claimed that they had no idea that anything happened and they suspended Ray Rice for the rest of the regular season and he hasn't played since week 17 of the 2013 NFL season because the Ravens released Rice. However, it is hard to believe that the NFL had never seen the tape especially when it was likely seen by the police and they were likely trying to hide everything in order to not get Ray Rice in trouble.

During the 2014 season, a commercial was aired during NFL season showing current and former NFL players like Eli Manning and former NFL players like Cris Carter, Troy Vincent, and James Thrash talking about how abusing women was unacceptable. However, it is of my opinion that the NFL actually doesn't care that much about domestic abuse, they just made those statements to make people believe that they were making an effort to be ambassadors against it. As it stands, in the NFL, you can get suspended for four games for taking steroids, you can get suspended four games for smoking weed, and you can get suspended for four games for deflating the air out of footballs, but you get suspended for one game if you beat your girlfriend, wife, or significant others.

After the monkeys at the NFL investigated this case like they usually do by poking at it with a stick to see if it moves, it has come out that Josh Brown wrote multiple times in a journal about how he abused his wife Molly and that he has been abusing women and girls since he was seven years old. Not only this, but the NFL had to give his wife and family refuge from him because he was abusing her in Hawaii at the Pro Bowl. The NFL has lost all credibility because most of this could have been completely avoided if the NFL had done a proper investigation. Now, even though all of these admissions have come to light, Brown is on the exempt list, meaning that he can practice and get contracted money, but he cannot play until more comes to light. This even though the guy literally made admissions through his own journal.

This not only makes the NFL look bad, but also the New York Giants, whose owner Jon Mara has literally backed his abusive kicker despite knowing that the guy was doing it. Eli Manning was on those "Never Again" domestic abuse commercials, but he also backed the kicker too. If Josh Brown had been a practice squad player, he would have been released, but because he is actually a decent kicker, his case was ignored which brings even more credence to the fact that the NFL does not care if players beat their significant others. So while Colin Kaepernick continues to kneel during the national anthem and get ridiculed for it, these football players still beat their spouses and very few people care. Very sad that this has not been resolved by the league and even sadder that people turn the other cheek to abusers who help out their team.

Josh Brown, kicker for the New York Giants

Should the Cowboys Start Prescott or Romo?

For the past nine years, Tony Romo has been one of the most talented yet cursed Quarterbacks in the National Football League. Tony was originally brought in during the 2003 offseason to the Dallas Cowboys as a rookie free agent. The guy sat behind Quincy Carter, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Henson, and Drew Bledsoe before coming in as a reserve in the 2006 NFL season. And while Romo's career has been marred with great success, he will always be remembered for botching the snap in a playoff game, throwing an end zone interception in another playoff game, and the long list of collarbone, back, and rib injuries he has accumulated over his years. His choking reputation might change if he finally wins a Super Bowl, but there is no way to tell.

After suffering two collar bone injuries in the 2015 NFL season during week 2 against the Eagles and on Thanksgiving against the Panthers, the Cowboys ended the season 4-12 after horrendous Quarterback play. One would think, "well they have a great offensive line and they always have a good running game, they should be fine." However, after playing Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassell, and rookie Kellen Moore, the Cowboys only accumulated one single win. This basically forced the Cowboys to try to grab a good future prospect in the 2016 NFL draft.

After Carson Wentz and Jared Goff were picked up in the first round, the Cowboys selected Ezekiel Elliot and in the fourth round selected Dak Prescott from Mississippi State. It isn't known exactly why Prescott fell that low but it was likely because he was charged and found not guilty for a DUI he had while still in college. Either way, Dak was expected to sit behind both Romo and backup Kellen Moore. This was until Moore was sidelined in the summer after breaking his ankle, so Prescott started week one of the preseason against the Rams.

Dak actually played really well and ended his first two drives with touchdown passes. Unfortunately for the Cowboys though, Tony Romo suffered yet another back injury after sliding to the ground against the Seattle Seahawks. Since then, Prescott has started the last five regular season games and he has looked pretty impressive. He has thrown and ran a total of 7 touchdowns and has worked well in the Cowboys run first and short pass offense. So well that the Cowboys are looking like geniuses for drafting him.

However, Tony Romo is on pace to get healthy in two weeks when the Cowboys play the Eagles during their yearly Sunday Night Football matchup. The Cowboys have a decision to make, ride with Prescott, a Quarterback that will have at least four wins up to that point, or start Tony Romo, the guy that has brought the Cowboys back to relevance. "Coach" Jerry Jones has wanted Romo to be the starter but has waffled since last week. My opinion, you are paying Romo more, but the Cowboys are on a roll with Prescott. I say you need to start the hot hand because while Romo does give the Cowboys their best chance to win, he is still injury prone and would do better as a mentor. I know the Cowboys have a Quarterback controversy, but there is no right or wrong answer here. The Cowboys could be generous to Romo or they could look toward the future in favor of the hot hand.

Dak Prescott and Tony Romo

Why Chip Kelly Will Consistently Fail

Despite being of the biggest Chip Kelly detractors out there, I am not coming on here to gloat in any way. While I might not have liked the guy back from his days as Head Coach of the Oregon Ducks, I do not really take much pleasure in seeing friends who are 49ers fans get upset about losing, but I need to reiterate why he has lacked success in the 2016 NFL season and why I basically predicted it would happen. My largest gripe about the way that Chip Kelly coached the Philadelphia Eagles was the fact that he refused to adapt to the National Football League. For some reason, he doesn't understand that a coach cannot continue to call the game the same way over a four year span and get the same results. That might fly in the college game, but it will not fly with the pros.

The first reason why the 49ers haven't been winning recently is the most important position on the offense, the Quarterback position. While he might have had slim pickings with Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert, he isn't doing them any favors at all. Blaine Gabbert might be the "smarter" of the two quarterbacks when it comes to making reads and watching film, but he lacks the accuracy to succeed in this league. Two examples from this season pop out at me as instances where Gabbert could have made a play, but didn't because of his lack of accuracy. One occurred when the 49ers hosted the Rams in Santa Clara where Gabbert had a wide open receiver over the middle of the field and he sailed the pass right over the guy's head and another was in the red zone against the Cowboys on Sunday where he threw a dart right to the receiver's feet, which lead to a Phil Dawson field goal.

Not to mention the play calling that Gabbert has been given was completely awful as well. I counted around six or seven times on Sunday, Gabbert running that same read option play. Now the guy has good mobility, but there were like four times in which he should have given the ball to Carlos Hyde as it was a better decision. The play was basically the same as kneeling the ball as he would always lose around a yard or two. The Cowboys obviously picked up on what the 49ers were trying to do on this play, but they kept doing it. It was a huge head scratcher, but I wasn't surprised as Chip Kelly only has around 10 to 15 total plays in his playbook.

Which brings me to the next reason why Chip Kelly will constantly fail, the fact that he continues to call running plays to Carlos Hyde out of the shotgun. This wouldn't be a terrible thing because of the offense that Hyde played in during his college days at Ohio State, but he rarely is ever running up the middle, which is where he should be most effective. Now, he did have a 32 yard scamper last Sunday against the Cowboys, but that is far too rare for him this season. Carlos Hyde is supposed to be a bruiser, he shouldn't be running east and west, that is what his backup, Shaun Draughn should be doing. The 49ers with their lack of Quarterback talent should also be giving Hyde the rock 25 times a game instead of the 15 times he had versus the Cowboys. He would do better if he had a fullback in front of him to lead block or in an offense that doesn't allow him to get a running start before he gets the ball.

Now I am not a huge football mind, I never played the game at any legitimate level, but these are the biggest reasons why Chip will consistently fail in this league. The season is fairly early and the NFC West is still fairly up for grabs, but if he doesn't adapt, he will see himself getting fired again and likely taking another college job because NFL General Managers and Owners will not hire him. In a closing opinion, I think that Chip skipped a step before becoming a Head Coach and that step was being a coordinator. I know that this would have never flown with him because he needs to be the guy in control at all times, but it would have helped him to see how real head coaches manage a team at the professional level. The reason being is that, and I am going to be honest here, he isn't cutting it and teams are starting to catch on to how to stop him. If this is true, the players are going to start to turn on him and he will have nowhere else to go.

Chip Kelly plotting next weeks game plan?