As a Packer fan all I can say is, grumble, grumble, grumble. If I said anything else I'm sure I'd get a violation. Bleeping zebra's.
Borris,
My team won, but I have to agree that I thought this was one of the most poorly officiated NFL games I've ever seen. Among the incorrect calls which directly effected the outcome of the game were:
The ruffing the passer call against the Packers on third down (how do you pull up when you are blitzing full speed and the throw is literally a split second before the hit?) -result Giants touchdown (just for the record the earlier illegal contact call on the prior 3rd down which negated the interception was correct, the Packer cornerback clearly made contact with Burress more than five yards from the line of scrimmage).
The unnecessary roughness penalty called on Giant's DB Sam Madison after the third-down tip completion at the 25 yard line brought up 4th and five. If any flag is thrown on that play, it should be off setting penalties after the play was over - result Packers touchdown.
Holding penalty on Ahmad Bradshaw touchdown run at 2 minute warning. The replay clearly showed that was a clean pancake block, not a hold. Worse "holding" occurs on every single play which is never called, especially as the "hold" in question occurred five yards behind the play - result Giants lost a touchdown.
Missed offside call on third down sack of Eli Manning. The Packer's end clearly moved into the neutral zone in advance of the snap, no call was made - result punt on drive into Packer's territory instead of first down at packers 37 yard line.
Those are the blown calls that jumped out at me which had a direct effect on the final score of the game. I'm sure there were several more, as the ref's seemed to throw a flag on almost every play.
For years it seemed to me that NBA ref's were having too great an impact on the outcome of the game, and now it has come out that several NBA ref's were gambling and fixing games. I wonder if similar evidence will eventually come out about NFL ref's, as they also can completely change the outcome of a game with 3 or 4 bad calls.
