NFL Divisional Round Recap and That Dez Bryant Non-Catch

As it's done so many years before, the NFL Divisional Round delivered this weekend with some of the most exciting, competitive games we've seen this season and--you guessed it--another officiating controversy to break down with the Cowboys. 

The Best of Divisional Weekend 2015

Second Half Tom Brady - First Half Joe Flacco was something to behold with 3 TDs, no picks, and a clutch TD to close out the second quarter after an ugly Tom Brady interception.  I'll admit I was feeling pretty smug about picking the Ravens to win after they went ahead by 14 for the second time in the third quarter.  But then Tom Brady came alive (with a little help from Julian Edelman) and absolutely shredded Baltimore's suspect secondary to come away with the win.  It was as good as he's looked in the playoffs since the last time the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl, and it's hard to imagine anyone being able to stop New England's passing attack when Brady is able to get the ball out of his hands in less than 2 seconds on a consistent basis.  In postseasons past, we've seen Brady get rattled to the point of dysfunction at times when he gets hit and when receivers drop passes the way they did early on in this game, but that didn't matter one bit once he started slinging fire in the third quarter.  With Edelman, Amendola and Gronkowski all getting excellent separation and making big plays when the Pats needed them, Brady showed us that no lead is safe against this team.  Kudos for one of his most impressive wins on a long resume.

Kam Chancellor, The Quiet Beatle - On any other team, Kam Chancellor would be a defensive star, but he's probably the third or fourth name that comes to fans' minds for Seattle's Legion of Boom.  No matter, his impact on opposing offenses cannot be overstated.  Chancellor most memorably sealed the win for Seattle with a 90-yard interception return for a touchdown, but he also led the team in tackles and found ways to break up passes and running routes every time the Panthers seemed like they were starting to find a rhythm.  The interception marked his third in as many games.  As we saw in last year's Super Bowl, the guy hits receivers so hard and fast sometimes that he takes away any semblance of yards after contact and makes them reluctant to stretch out in the open field as the game wears on.  Randall Cobb & co. beware.

The Packers' Front Lines - Save for that late controversial reversed call on Dez Bryant, Packers-v.-Cowboys was everything it was cracked up to be, an instant classic between two very good teams with competing styles and spectacular offensive lines.  Dallas's line had great moments and allowed DeMarco Murray to have another great day on the ground, but Green Bay's linemen on both sides of the ball were even better.  On offense, they had the unenviable task of protecting a limping Aaron Rodgers, whose ability to scramble out of the pocket to buy time is essential to his usual success.  Not only did the Packers' line limit the Cowboys to one sack on Rodgers, they also led the way for Eddie Lacy on the ground to the tune of four yards per carry to give Green Bay much-needed balance and keep the ball out of Tony Romo's hands at the end of the game.  On defense, the Packers sacked Romo four times and knocked him down a whole lot more than that for some key stops and long downs [i.e., non-DeMarco Murray downs] late in the game.  In a matchup that embodied the "game of inches," the Packers' linemen really made a difference.

Vontae Davis, A Better Aquib Talib - No doubt the Colts' upset over the Broncos on Sunday night will be remembered more for Peyton Manning's shortcomings than anything that Indianapolis did well.  Interestingly, Manning's passer rating and completion rate for the day were almost identical to Andrew Luck's, but I'm sure CB Vontae Davis will be in his nightmares for a long time.  Davis played the part of shutdown corner with five pass breakups and eight tackles against the Broncos' receiving arsenal and was generally a huge factor in thwarting Denver from ever catching up with the Colts.  To watch it, his coverage was just exceptional - even when Manning's throws were on the money, he had a way of altering routes and timing plays on the ball that were otherworldly, especially on third down. He'll have quite the test in Foxboro next week against Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, but the Colts have Davis to thank for their next business trip.

The Worst of Divisional Weekend 2015

Baltimore's Play-Calling - On a weekend where almost every team competing had a pretty good game, it's hard to nit-pick the losers too much.  The Ravens played well enough to win until their defense collapsed late, and they still might have pulled it off if just one of those Patriots fumbles had gone their way.  But if there's one area that Baltimore will be thinking about for a while when they're watching the rest of the playoffs at home, it has to be that play-calling on the final drive of the game.  At the two-minute warning, the Ravens were trailing by four at the Patriots' 36 yard-line and had a 1st-and-5 after an offsides penalty.  For the casual fan, that means a lot of time and a lot of options to march to the goal line and leaving as little time as possible left on the clock for Tom Brady to get the ball back.  So when your running back is averaging five yards per carry and you can get a new set of downs with 5 yards, why on Earth would you go for the kill shot to Torrey Smith in double coverage?!?!  Even if you're going to pass, why not work the sidelines or the screen game to get yourself closer to the end zone and run some time off the clock since you're only 30 yards out?  Baltimore often lives and dies by Joe Flacco's gambles, and they've paid off in many previous playoff games, but this was just a bizarre and disappointing way to end an otherwise inspired performance. 

The Panthers, Kind Of - As much as I usually enjoy railing on divisional rivals, I don't really have a lot of beef with the Panthers from Saturday except for their ball security, which really cost them in a game that was closer than the final score would suggest.  They managed to outgain the Seahawks on the ground, which is no easy task, and also had an advantage in first downs and time of possession.  Of course, some of that was inflated by Seattle's offensive efficiency and Carolina's bad luck with turnovers.  Cam Newton threw a couple of awful interceptions, one of which was Chancellor's 90-yard pick six, and Jonathan Stewart fumbled early in the game deep in Panthers territory to set up Seattle for an easy score.  It's hard for anyone to win in Seattle, much less a flawed 7-8-1 team, but given that Newton's pick six could have been a 14-point swing and that Stewart's fumble added another 7 points for the Seahawks, the Panthers could have easily had a shot to win at the end of the game if they had been able to hold onto the ball.

Cris Shillingsworth - And now for a non-game-related complaint about the National Football League and the shills who have to pretend that it's the best thing ever.  One of the most stilted, disingenuous moments of the weekend happened during the Ravens-Patriots games when Al Michaels had to read an obviously planted statement about the Mueller Report. If you haven't heard much about the report, it summarizes the findings from the NFL's internal investigation into its own handling of the Ray Rice case last year.  Yep, the NFL asked an investigator it already employs to determine whether or not the league was culpable for mishandling Rice's investigation and subsequent punishment for domestic assault.  It might not be surprising to you then to hear that Mueller found that while the NFL was incompetent and negligent at the very least in handling the case, the organization and Roger Goodell are absolved of wrongdoing because they didn't see the tape until you did... and they deserve more power to mitigate future cases, obviously.

You already know how I feel about this, so I'll just reinforce that the "did they/didn't they see the tape" argument is a red herring and should have no bearing on whether or not the league acted with integrity or demonstrated any genuine concern for domestic violence until they were publicly embarrassed.  But anyway, Michaels and co-anchor Cris Collinsworth got the short end of the early broadcast stick and had to read an NFL-issued statement about the report underscoring that the NFL is a totally great and ethical organization while panning in on Goodell "The Everyman" in the stands with his wife.  Their awkward color commenting afterwards about "the national conversation" and Goodell's integrity left an especially bad taste in my mouth.  I guess it wasn't surprising, but it just reinforces how deep the NFL's PR reach is in every broadcaster's talking points and how little true discourse we can expect to get from the most influential figures on the sidelines.

Reftroversy Part II: A Non-Catch to Remember

Hey, look!  I hardly had to change the header above for this week's playoffs recap.  There were a lot more good things than bad things to take away from this weekend's divisional games, but here we are again, most likely to remember a controversial officiating decision that changed the complexion of a game.  To the karmically-oriented, you might say what goes around comes around.  Whereas the Cowboys benefited from the referees reversing an interference call that would have put the Lions deep in scoring territory last week, this week Dallas fell victim to a reversed call that would have set them up for the go-ahead touchdown late against Green Bay.  Down by 5 on fourth down with four minutes to go, Tony Romo threw a deep pass to Dez Bryant that was initially ruled a catch--and it was an amazing catch at that.  It would have given the Cowboys a new set of downs at the goal line, but then Mike McCarthy challenged the play.  I have to admit that I thought this was by far the worst of many awful challenges McCarthy has been guilty of over the years since the catch seemed obvious and Green Bay would be out of timeouts and in need of a quick score.  But when the deluge of slo-mo replays began, I saw where he was going. As Dez Bryant fell to the ground, the ball bobbled in his arm at the end of the tackle, evoking the much-hated, controversial "Calvin Johnson rule" that states a receiver must complete the process of a catch all the way to the ground or it is ruled incomplete.

It's harder to make an argument that this wasn't the deciding call in this game compared to what happened with Detroit last week.  Whereas the interference reversal happened with eight minutes left while the Lions were in the lead, this one happened with four minutes left when the Cowboys needed a touchdown to win.  Still, had Dallas scored a touchdown at the end of that series, the Packers would have only needed a field goal to win (or tie if the Cowboys converted two points) and at least three minutes with Aaron Rodgers to do so.  He and Eddie Lacy essentially drove the Packers into field goal range to run out the clock at the end of the game anyhow and most win-probability calculations showed Dallas having about a 50% chance of winning had they scored a TD.  Moreover, when you look at the game as a whole, there were areas where the Packers gained a clear edge that put them in a better position to win, though both teams played a great game.  They outgained the Cowboys by over 100 yards on the day and protected Rodgers better than Dallas protected Romo to take the lead before this play. 

As for whether or not the call was legitimate, it's certainly been called before with Calvin Johnson's example being the most prominent, and I think the rules were applied reasonably in this situation since the ball moved as Bryant hit the ground.  Having said that, I don't think the original call should have been overturned given that the evidence was too ambiguous to justify a clear reversal. In a late-game situation like this, you would hope that calls and reversals would be pretty conservative to avoid interfering with the outcome beyond necessary.  Nonetheless, it was technically the right call for a bad rule that is nearly impossible to enforce consistently and almost certain to change before next season.  Props to Bryant for one of the best non-catches I've ever seen and for whatever truckload of money awaits him in free agency.