What a difference, when calls go OUR way

[im4bflo]

Those game changing calls, that usually kill us, finally went our way.
Mostly the negated safety, and the fumble turnover, that Haddad got to redeem himself.
Those were huge, and here's to hoping that fate may have finally turned our way. GO BILLS!

[BuffaloRanger]

Exactly!

Whiners: "But refs can't effect the outcome of a game!"

Yes. They can actually. In big games hope the NFL front office wants your team to win. Is it so hard to think that a ref may "miss" a call or look at one team "closer".

NFL to ref: "Nothing earthshattering or too obvious. Just look at Team A closer and look the other way a couple times for Team B. They'll always be fans that say bad calls are a part of the game. They'll tell the suspicious ones to stop whining. Do this and we'll let you ref the SuperBowl."

[ParanoidAndroid]

I think that is what comes when you are playing mostly mistake-free football while the opposite is true for the opponent. If you recall, the penalties under Williams were a serious problem and it followed that "the calls just didn't go our way." Now that Mularkey has the team playing tighter, more "bounces" are going our way. Buffalo had only 2 penalties for -15 yards at the half. That's pretty decent for a pre-season game.

[MTBillsFan]

Finally, someone else thinks the refs F#@k things up in favor of the other teams!

[LifetimeBillsFan]

There is no doubt in my mind that the refs can and do impact the outcome of games in the favor of certain teams and have been doing so for years.

Those who would deny this will point to the fact that many times the number of penalties and yardage assessed is roughly equal in a big game, but it isn't just the number of penalties and amount of yardage that impacts the outcome: the most important factor is WHEN a call is made! (Also, there are other ways that the refs can control the outcome of a game, like where the ball is spotted, how quickly the clock is stopped, and whether a replay is upheld or overturned.)

I can't tell you how many times I have seen a penalty called that changed the momentum of a game that was not called earlier in the game. A holding call on third down that pushes a team out of the red zone or field goal range in the 2nd quarter when a game is close can be more important than a holding call on first down from the penalized team's 40 in the third quarter.

While instant replay has cut down on the number of egregious calls that I have seen called against the Bills, for many years the Bills have had more than their fair share of bad calls by the refs go against them. When I first told this to my best friend who was born and raised in NYC and grew up a Giants and, to a lesser extent, Jets fan, he thought my complaints were just "sour grapes". But, after watching every Bills game that we could get over the five years when he was living in an apartment in my house, he was so infuriated by all of the bad calls that he saw going against the Bills that he not only changed his opinion and agrees with me on this now, but has begun rooting for the Bills more than the Jets (his main team is still the NYG).

A lot has to do with who is on the NFL committee that oversees the referees. While D.Shula was a great coach and his teams were very good, IMHO there is no coincidence that by far and away the fewest penalties called against them in the many years when Shula and their GM (Thomas, I seem to recall) were on that committee. Or, that the number of critical calls going against the Bills dropped during the 3 years that B.Polian was on that committee. Let's face it, the refs aren't going to make that many calls against the guys who are in charge of hiring and evaluating their performance every week....

And, that's the weakness of and stupidest thing about the current replay system: the head ref on the field is being asked to overturn a call made by someone that he has to work with every week! Replays should be upheld or overturned by a separate replay official who does not work with the same crew and answers to a different immediate supervisor. But, that would make too much sense now, wouldn't it?

Let's just hope that the honchos in the NFL front office want to see Ralph Wilson get a chance to hoist the Super Bowl trophy soon and the Bills get some of the breaks that we have all seen some of their opponents get over the years.