Man, I am so glad we won that game! You have no idea... And it's not because it made us 9-0, or helped us get home field advantage. It's because if the Patriots had lost, I would have looked like a total whiner for what I'm about to say...
That was, without question, the worst officiated NFL game I have EVER seen!
I don't care what you say, there was an obvious agenda on the part of the referees. The Patriots were clearly playing 11 on 18 out there. 10 penalties for 146 yards - a franchise record and 17 short of the NFL record - you have to be kidding me!!!
The pass interference calls were simply ridiculous. Both of Indy's field goals were set up off of loooooong pass interference calls against us, where our corners were the ones in position to make a play on the ball, were playing the ball, and didn't touch the receivers at all. Completely bogus. Then in the second half the Patriots twice had their receivers' arms held without a pass interference call. Miraculously, they did call pass interference on the Colts on a Randy Moss bomb - after he'd already caught the ball. (Thanks a lot) And then there was the completely ridiculous offensive pass interference call on Moss, where not only did he not hold or push off in the least, but happened to get clocked across the face from behind by the defender. Five horrific, potentially game-altering calls. Even the announcers were saying they were horrible. Believe me, I'm not a homer when it comes to making calls. These were plain awful.
The one that really killed me, which no one will probably ever mention is that right before Addai reeled off the big play at the end of the first half, the Colts were given a phantom first down.
Colts had the ball 1st and 10 from like the 3 or something. They ran for like 3 yards. 2nd and 7, they run the ball again, Addai is stopped at LEAST 2 yards short of the first down before being pushed backwards. Cut to commercial.
When they come back, it's miraculously 1st and 10. Simms and Nance are confused and say, oh I guess they gave Addai a first down off of forward progress. WHAT????????
I watched the first half live at my fiance's and then watched the second half off the TiVo at my house, so I didn't catch this the first time around. I had no idea the Colts were given the first down and just assumed it was 3rd down because they stopped him so far behind the line. I saw the Colts throw an incomplete after the commercial and assumed it was now 4th down. When they kept going, I was extremely confused. And then when this whole ordeal set up the Addia 73 yard monster play, I definitely wanted to get to the bottom of things.
Went back on the TiVo, replayed it multiple times, and Addai was NOWHERE near a first down on that last play. At least two yards were tacked onto the end of the play. Yeah, the Patriots are responsible to make the play and tackle Addai so he doesn't go 73 yards for a score, but that situation should've never even come to pass. The refs were clearly manipulating the line of scrimmage.
This was a classic hose-job if I've ever seen one. I said that I don't believe any team will be able to stop the Patriots this year. Turns out that not even the 2nd best team in the league with the refs clearly gunning for us can take us down either. I don't know what's going on, but somebody, the mafia, the commish, somebody, didn't want the Patriots to either cover or win that game. This one made the NBA look good. It was the stink'n WWFL out there. I've never seen anything like it.
Like I said, had I come on the board and complained like this after a loss, you'd all be telling me to take a ride on the whaaaaaambulance. But we won, and I'm stinking PO'ed and what happened on this field. Brady was apparently livid as well. He was totally chewing out the refs at the end of the game, up in their face.
Unbelievable. Only 7 of the Colts 20 points came off of non-tainted situations. And even that one was off an interception with 15 yards tacked on by one of the multiple, multiple unsportsmanlike/unneccesary roughness calls, so the Colts had to go 30 yards to the end zone.
Disgusting.
