By Jack Healey
Yes the officiating was terrible and every team that played in the Conference championship games was victimized, not just the teams that lost so pump the brakes a little bit.
The officiating doesn’t take away from the two games as they were both classics!
Remember a couple of years ago when the regular officials were on strike and fans were screaming about the replacement officials? I seem to recall saying several times that I didn’t think they were any worse than the regular officials. Be careful what you wish for.
First let’s take a look at the NFC game:
Yes the non call on the apparent pass interference against the LA Rams was huge, but there was a face mask against Rams’ quarterback Jared Goff earlier in the game that would’ve given the Rams a first and goal, but because of the non call the Rams had to settle for a field goal instead of getting a touchdown.
By the way Greg Zuerlein hit a 48 yard field goal to tie the game with 15 seconds left in regulation and hit a 57 yard field goal in overtime to win it. Not exactly chip shots.
In the AFC game:
Yes the roughing the passer call against Kansas City was bogus and a terrible call, but Julian Edelman was interfered with on the same play and it wasn’t called. By the way it would still have been 3rd and 10 and not 4th down.
The muffed punt by Edelman that was overturned was a moot point because Kansas City came up with an interception a play or two later anyway.
Yes the Patriots and Rams got some breaks, but so did Kansas City and New Orleans which is my point. A couple of pass interference calls against the Patriots were bad calls.
The Patriots got a big break when Kansas City was called for offside on a play that it had an interception that would’ve sealed the game. The Kansas City player was offside by the way. It wasn’t a bogus call. He was lined up about a yard offside.
It should be a great Super Bowl, but it will be hard to top the drama of the two conference championship games.
I went 0-2 and my record is now 160-90. I went with the two home teams because I said it’s really hard for the road team to win in the NFL playoffs especially in the championship games. All the more reason to give credit to the two winners! They both deserve to be in the Super Bowl!