When even the calm and amenable Tony Dungy is calling out NFL officiating and criticizing big-time mistakes it’s time to start paying attention.
Every single week in the NFL there are multiple calls that alter the outcome of games. As Florio pointed out it’s not just the Vikings. With so much money and time invested from so many people it seems insane that the league continues to not come up with a better system to make sure these egregious mistakes don’t continue. The Minnesota Vikings should be 3-1 were it not for a horrible fumble call against the Bengals and the numerous mistakes against Cleveland. JUshM85z8BĪlthough it’s true that no singular call is the reason you lose a football game, bad calls can absolutely be part of the reason you lose a football game. Also, by no means am I suggesting the #Vikings win if they throw the flag. In Week 13, he meets a Chargers defense that has allowed 15 TDs to RBs this season, the third-highest total in the league. Mixon has scored at least once in 8 of 11 games this season, scoring twice in four consecutive games. Suppose debate is whether the ball was catchable. The only player with a higher TD dependency (41.14) than Taylor on more than 200 carries is our man Mixon. Hard to deny that Williams grabbed Thielen early. Here is our ( view of the last play yesterday. Without a mechanism for helping people understand why decisions were made (with something more than perfunctory language that fails to delve into the details of each call and non-call), people will believe the fix is in. Without accountability, people will believe the fix is in. The Colts had to weather another Carson Wentz storm on Sunday, with the Colts quarterback giving up two untimely turnovers in a loss to the Jaguars that left Indianapolis out of the playoffs. Without transparency, people will believe that the fix is in. By keeping their heads low and their mouths shut, the NFL also doesn’t draw attention to a situation that otherwise could be ignored, or at least minimized. ET games, minimizing the attention given to any specific blunders. The league benefits from bad calls that happen in the cluster of 1:00 p.m. The team was one or two breaks from being 3-2 instead of 1-4, so confidence was still high. Despite the losing record, there was still confidence that the team could figure things out and get back on track. They began the season losing four of their first five games. The NFL has taken a zero transparency approach to officiating controversies, with no one from the league office ever being made available to publicly explain the reasons for close calls and, when necessary, to admit that mistakes were made. The Indianapolis Colts’ season was a roller coaster of emotions. Browns defensive back Greedy Williams mugged Vikings receiver Adam Thielen in the end zone, keeping him from making a player on the ball. Last week, officials missed a blatant instance of pass interference (actually, two of them) in the win by the Chargers over the Chiefs. Back in those bygone days of … uhh … November, the Vikings had an inside track to a playoff berth and Cousins’ strong play indicated he was due for another deal.I am anxiously awaiting to explain why this is not Defensive Pass Interference on the last play of the Browns-Vikings game? /HdBzxHlVuH That includes Cousins, who as recently as two weeks ago seemed he was primed for another contract extension. Without that, significant changes could be on the horizon. Both offenses struggled to find consistent success, as the game’s only touchdown came on a Troy Dye pick-six. The unspoken mandate is a playoff appearance, which suddenly seems like a tall task for a team that sits at 5-7 after its most humiliating loss in years. The Indianapolis Colts rode their kicking game to victory Saturday night, defeating the Minnesota Vikings 12-10 behind four field goals.
But despite that approach, there’s no escaping all that’s on the line in these final five Vikings games, both for him and the franchise.
“You just stay the course, get back to work and fix what needs to be fixed,” Cousins said Sunday, echoing a line that feels like one he’s issued a dozen times since arriving in Minnesota. He often calls games their own entity, so he doesn’t want to paint in broad strokes as he’s asked to assess the Vikings. He tries in these weekly addresses to be even-keeled, regardless of whether he’s coming off one of the biggest wins of his Vikings tenure, like two weeks ago against the Packers, or one of the worst losses, like Sunday’s 29-27 defeat in Detroit. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins wore a dark suit and maintained his typical monotone analysis in the moments after Sunday’s loss to the Lions.