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December 4, 2007

Blame The Refs

BALTIMORE -- Rather than blaming themselves for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the Ravens blamed the officials.
"The refs were horrible," said cornerback Chris McAlister. "That's the bottom line. They made a lot of bad calls. They'll send in their little report to say that we made a mistake on this one, and this should have been that, and that should have been that -- but it's too late. They need to get it right out there on the field, or don't call it at all."
There were several calls late in the game that upset the Ravens.
One was a defensive holding penalty on a fourth-down pass intended for tight end Ben Watson in the end zone.
"In a game of this magnitude," said cornerback Samari Rolle, "you don't make that kind of call. Let the players decide the outcome of the game. (The Patriots) are a great team. They're not asking the refs to help them. But it's a travesty when you go out there and play that hard and the refs decide the outcome."
The only problem with that tirade is that Watson WAS held during his route, and might have caught the ball for a touchdown otherwise.
That was not the way McAlister saw it, however.
"Winborne jammed (Watson) within five yards," he said, referring to safety Jamaine Winborne, who drew the flag on the play. "He had to run to catch up to the guy. The flag didn't come out until the ball hit the ground."
The worst call of the game was not made by the officials, but by Baltimore coach Brian Billick, who signalled for a timeout from the sidelines just before a fourth down play on which the Ravens stuffed quarterback Tom Brady behind the line of scrimmage.
Instead of getting the ball, and likely running out the clock, the Ravens got a timeout.
"The coaches called timeout," Rolle said. "So that's out of our hands. I can't comment on that. I don't know what happened. The coaches make those decisions."
Billick tried to defend that decision.
"If he'd gotten the first," he told the media attending his post-game press conference, "it would've been you screaming: 'Why didn't you call time out?' Let's make sure we don't have a revisionist history."
Baltimore appeared to stop New England again on the next play, dropping Heath Evans behind the line of scrimmage, but that play didn't count because the Pats were penalized for illegal procedure before the ball was snapped.
Then, on 4th-and-6, Brady scrambled 12 yards for a first down, and another five yards were tacked on the play for a defensive holding call.
Ravens defensive end Terrell Suggs thinks the NFL wants the Patriots to make history by becoming the first team to go 16-0 in the regular season.
"I think the world, everybody is kind of cheering for them to go undefeated, break all the records," he said. "You only get a few times to really get the NFL's poster boys in that type of situation. I don't know. I don't know."

Posted by Jim Donaldson  at 1:26 AM | Permalink