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This website will enlighten you as to what really happens in sports events--how bad coaching and officiating determine the outcome of many games.

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Packers Remain Unbeaten–Continue 16-Game Winning Streak

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The Packers, by virtue of beating Dallas, are not only on a 16-game winning streak, but now have a 2-game lead on Dallas with the tiebreaker with 4 games to go, for homefield advantage in the playoffs.   Despite the fact that since 1993 only 2 of the 8 regular-season Packer-Cowboy games were at Lambeau, the Packers are now close to clinching homefield advantage.

I now know why the NFL restricted the viewers on NFL Network and made sure this game was on the network–they wanted to minimize the number of people who saw the game, as they knew in advance there would be a public outcry based on the officiating if the masses were able to see it.

Let’s take a look at the officiating in tonight’s game:

  1. On the Packers’ first drive, the Packers had a third-and-two and threw a pass to Driver in the endzone for a potential TD and a 7-0 lead.  Since the defender was beaten, he ran the last 5 yards by putting a hand up in Driver’s face, without turning around, which is interference.  It prevented Driver from making the catch, and should have resulted in a first down at the Dallas 1, costing the Packers a touchdown.  They did kick the FG.
  2. On Dallas’ first drive, after what should have been a Packer TD (see above), Terrell Owens caught a pass, and Al Harris immediately ripped it out of his hands and had clear possession before going out of bounds.  The ref right there immediately called it Packer ball, but another ref who had no view of the play overruled this.  McCarthy asked for a review, and replays clearly showed it was the Packers’ ball at their 37, but the refs said Owens’ progress was stopped.  This was ridiculous, as Owens had the ball for less than half a second before Harris took it away.  Last Sunday, Adrian Peterson of the bears was stopped at the Denver 2, but they let him continue for 10 seconds so he could score.  His progress was not stopped after all this time, but Owens’ progress was stopped after a half second.  This was an incredibly terrible call, and instead of it being Packer ball with what should have been a 7-0 lead, Dallas kicked a field goal to tie the game at 3.
  3. In the first 5 minutes of the game, the refs set the tone by giving Dallas a lot of momentum.  They took away a Packer TD, gave Dallas a field goal, and changed the momentum from the Packers to Dallas.  Considering this was a 3-point game midway through the 4th quarter, these calls were huge difference makers.
  4. Midway through the 4th quarter, with Dallas up by 3 thanks to the refs, Dallas threw a 42-yard pass to the Packer 5, which was incomplete.  The receiver and defender got their legs tangled, and the ref right there immediately gave that signal and said no interference.  A long time after the play, for the second time, a ref from far away came over and overruled the ref that was right on top of the play and called it interference.  This gave Dallas a first down at the 5, they scored a TD, and went up 10.  This effectively ended the game.  Dallas had not scored in the second half up to this point, so again, this changed the momentum.  The announcers continuously during the game and continuously on the postgame show talked about this being a horrible call, and one that had a major effect upon the outcome.
  5. With 5:03 left and the Packers down 10 due to these calls, they ran for a first down at the Dallas 34.  The refs gave the Packers a bad spot, so instead of having a first down and a chance for a TD, it was 4th and inches and they kicked a long FG to pull within 7.  The Packers would normally have challenged this call, but they were out of challenges due to the bad calls earlier in the game.  This is another rule I’ve complained about for years.  How can you limit a coach’s challenges when one team continuously gets bad calls?  The way things are going, in some future game, McCarthy will be out of challenges before the national anthem is over.

This game was given to the Cowboys by the refs, which might affect the location and thus outcome of a future playoff game.  Despite McCarthy’s ridiculous early gameplan of throwing bombs instead of high-percentage passes (which were successful all game and season and which can set up occasional bombs), which the announcers also questioned a number of times, the Packers had an excellent chance to win, which the refs took away.