I could care less about the Patriots. Haven't watched a single game of theirs all year. Never been a Pats fan. Never going to be a Pats fan. Though from what I gather the Bengals would do well to emulate them.
Exactly. I've got no rooting interest here, but I can tell you that back when I cared about football, if the Redskins had let the Bucs travel those last 25 yards into the end zone, I'd have been furious at the Redskins, not the officials.Originally Posted by Caveat Emporer
All I'm hearing is the rationale that the Bengals are such a tenuous enterprise that one bad call can pretty much undo them. Folks can complain till they're blue in the face over the call, but the larger problem is that the team pulled an el foldo after the call. If the Bengals stop the Bucs, like a good team should have, then no one cares about the call.
If the Bengals, like you, slipped into the trap of thinking they'd done enough to win when clearly they hadn't (fair or not, Tampa Bay had the ball on the Bengals' 25 yard line and needed a touchdown to win), then that's a football team in need of a "you play all sixty minutes like it's life and death" refresher course. My guess is the Bengals got read the riot act after that game just like every team from the NFL to Pop Warner would have in similar circumstances.