Today’s AFC Championship Game was another example of teams handing the Patriots a playoff game with ridiculous strategy when the game is basically won, or winning by luck.
- The ridiculous tuck rule gave the Patriots a playoff-game win and resulted in their first Super Bowl victory, starting them on their road to success.
- In the Super Bowl, the Seahawks almost definitely win the game if they run the ball from the 1 at the end, but throw a pass that is intercepted.
- In the Super Bowl, the Falcons were in position to kick a field goal and go up two scores late, and instead of maintaining the field position, called a pass play from the pocket which resulted in them not getting the field goal which would have probably put the game away.
- Today, in the AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs intercept a pass late to basically end the game, but the play was nullified since the Chiefs lined up offsides.
- In the Patriots’ undefeated season, they would have lost to the Ravens, but the Ravens’ coach called a late, ill-advised timeout, nullifying the play that would have won the game for the Ravens.
All of these are unforced errors and complete gifts from the opponents, who had games won, with the exception of the tuck rule, which is a bad rule and resulted in the Patriots getting very lucky.