Reaper Skins

Thanks for the link Riggo there's a lot of good info in that article. Myself and several others definitely anticipated Norman being targeted this season after that interview he gave where he called the refs "The Mob". The ending section is also particularly interesting: Biggest revelation no one seems to care about Three times in 12 months, Pereira has gone on record to accuse NFL referees of circumventing league policy by accepting illicit help from replay officials via their wireless headsets. The league allows discussion between the parties only in cases of official reviews or certain administrative issues. But Pereira said he sees it occur much more often than that. In essence, he is calling out clandestine discussions that arbitrate games in a way that can't be accounted for. I've noticed very little recognition of this revelation, which the NFL has not commented on, but to me, it is a big deal. The intent might be noble, and the end result productive, but there seems to be something inherently wrong with the process. As Pereira noted, everyone involved in the game -- players, coaches and fans -- should know how games are being officiated and who is making the decisions. Are the conversations equal and fair to both teams? Is an agenda being followed? These are among the questions raised when stated policies are disregarded.

Can't believe I forgot about this one! So shady!!

Gave myself 24 hours to decompress before writing this up. I’m going to preface this post by saying that there were plenty of opportunities for the Redskins to win this game. The coaches idiotically decided to feature a vanilla run game with an injured back, ensuring a predictable, one dimensional offense. Cousins played his worst game of the season and consistently missed throws and receivers. The lack of situational awareness on the part of the coaching staff with timeouts was also mind boggling. The main point to note before reading below is this: getting beaten by a better team and getting fair treatment from the refs are not, and SHOULD NOT, be viewed as mutually exclusive events. Yes, we had plenty of time and opportunities to win this game. But that does not mean there I didn’t see a ton of calls that gave the Giants a competitive edge and helped keep the Redskins stuck in first gear all night. Good teams are able to overcome referee bias, and its quite clear that we are not there yet. With that being said, in my mind this entire game was decided within the first two minutes. Whenever we play the Giants, the Redskins always seem to have a momentum shifting play called back early on in the game due to a questionable call. It deflates their momentum, and gives them a "victim mentality" distraction towards the refs for the rest of the game instead of focusing on the Giants - 2 years ago it was when RG3 “didn’t get in the endzone.” The play happened before halftime, but the team took it as an excuse to say “well the refs are against us, we can’t win this game.” They showed that they weren’t mentally tough enough to shake off a bad play, a bad call, and move forward. - Last year it was a 33 yard play that was negated due to a pass interference call on Jordan Reed. No replay of the infraction was shown. Contact is allowed within 1 yard of the line of scrimmage. In his post game presser, Gruden says that “We had some bad thing happen to us early and were never able to recover. Watch his reaction when asked about the Reed holding call https://youtu.be/LpSCbRwqu5o?t=6m - Last night, I saw the exact same thing happen, and again it happened within the first few minutes of the game. Q1 11:10 - A SUPER late flag is thrown that negates J. Crowder's 25 yard punt return. The penalty is enforced DURING a commercial break ( at this point I have still not seen a replay of the foul, but the timing and delay of the flag throw is questionable at best). Once again a shady call against us killed our momentum and we spent the rest of the game getting in our own way. We proceed to let the refs and the Giants kill our momentum every single time we tried to get something going. The very next play Cousins is sacked for a 10 yard loss. Momentum gone. Other plays in the game that I found extremely one-sided: Q1 7:03 - Josh Norman goes for a probable interception after undercutting a route. The Giants receiver grabs him by the facemask in clear view of the official, twisting his head around to prevent the pick. No flag is thrown. Ryan Kerrigan is also held on the play. Commentators remark that they are surprised no facemask was called. (For the record, number of holding penalties against Giants linemen for the whole game? 1) Q1 3:04 - Eli Manning commits intentional grounding. The refs wait SUUUPER long and it is only due to Gruden's complaints and the super strong reaction from the crowd that they are forced to throw the flag. Commentators notice and seem surprised that it wasn't immediately noticed by officials. Q1 1:30 - Garcon hauls in a 23 yard catch along the sideline. The Redskins run up to the line to try and get the next play off. The referee CLEARLY tries to keep Cousins from running a play to give the Giants a chance to throw a challenge flag (i could not find any video footage of this but any would be greatly appreciated. The commentators laugh about it) Next play Desean Jackson is absolutley MAULED along the sideline and no pass interference is called. The play after that, Garcon is called for a false start penalty. Next play, Cousins is sacked. Momentum gone. Q2 10:05 - Josh Norman is called for unnecessary roughness against Odell Beckham. Puts Giants on the goal line and they score 2 plays later. During the replay, it clearly shows OBJ grabbing Norman's facemask prior to the play ending. At the very least this could have been offsetting penalties. (For the record, number of penalties against OBJ for the whole game? 0) Again, there were plenty of opportunities for the Redskins to win this game. Numerous times during the broadcast the commentators mentioned about how the Redskins were only down by 10 points, but that it seemed like much more, an almost insurmountable challenge. The team's body language was that of defeat before the second half even began. The storyline from last night was once again an offense that could not get into a rhythm. When he is forced to overcome everything else on the field and try to “save the day” Cousins over exerts himself and our coach abandons the run. I absolutely think the Giants front office and hometown refs used this knowledge to their advantage and stacked the deck against us. They used an uneven level of enforcement early in the game to stall our offense and allow the Giants to take a lead. Once New York had a multi score lead, they faded into the background . Anytime we began to get anything going offensively, the refs became involved. Ideally a good team should be able to overcome this. But we’re not there yet. So while I don’t blame this loss soley on the referees, I absolutely do think that their uneven penalties took a mental toll on our offense and quarterback and ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back for this week’s loss. You cannot run your playbook effectively and go for the jugular if you’re worried about the refs checking you at every turn. Similarly, on defense, you cannot play effectively if you are worried about getting called for infractions that are not being called against your opponent. The loss is on the Redskins, but the lack of energy, mental confusion, and the “playing scared” attitude we saw from our players was definitely aided by the referees. It’s much easier to “out physical” the other team when you’re not worried about penalties, and this was the gameplan that New York employed this week. It happens EVERY TIME we play them. At this point, whether it is fair or not, the coaching staff needs to anticipate it and figure out a way to gameplan for it if they want to have any level of success against this divisional rival going forward.

In other news: Ezekiel Elliot WON"T be fined for his Salvation Army celebration. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/19/nfl-wont-fine-ezekiel-elliott-for-salvation-army-celebration/ I'll bet Vernon Davis is wishing he shot the ball into a pot instead of the goalpost. Totally consistent enforcement from team to team right?

From that same article aREDSKIN: "It’s somewhat surprising that the league won’t come down harder on the Giants. When former Browns G.M. Ray Farmer violated an in-game communications rule by texting the coaching staff during a game, he was suspended for four games. It’s odd that one in-game communication violation results in a suspension, but another one doesn’t. There’s no word on how much the fine will be, but suffice to say it’s not going to be an amount of money that really hurts McAdoo, who’s a millionaire, or the Giants’ owners, who are billionaires. If using walkie-talkies helped the Giants beat the Cowboys in a crucial divisional game, it will be money well spent"

Giants cheating to gain advantage over a divisional rival? Where have I heard this story before? What a model franchise. Perfectly qualified to be in charge of competitive fairness for the entire league, definitely not shady at all... http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18287921/nfl-investigating-new-york-giants-possible-illegal-use-walkie-talkie-dallas-cowboys

The only thing that really stuck out to me about the Dallas game as unfair was the sun shining in out offense's eyes during ONLY the 2nd quarter. the rest of the game seemed like the refs were letting EVERYTHING slide, both teams got away with calls.

As mentioned on the post game coverage, Norman got tested AGAIN after the Packers game. By my count that makes 4 "random" tests conducted on him so far this season. Right before a division rivalry game on Thanksgiving. This does not seem "random" to me at all. It seems like Mara and Coughlin hedging the odds in Dallas' favor in order to ensure that the Giants remain in 2nd place and secure a playoff berth.

Redskins' Gruden not happy with schedule-makers for extra-short week http://www.espn.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/28546/redskins-coach-jay-gruden-schedule-makers-did-us-no-favors "We've already done a lot of work on them," Gruden said. "That's a good thing. But we're talking about possibly playing a 9-1 team that we'll get about 10 hours to work on." http://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/1159552?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

New helmets for our matchup with the Vikings?! Didn't we get in trouble in 2012 for using different helmets? They're pretty sweet looking though

You mean the team that played against Mara and the Giants? Yeah funny how that works....

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/11/05/josh-norman-appeal-will-be-heard-by-commissioner-or-his-designee/ "Despite the language of the policy, the NFL previously has said (including last Sunday, after Norman said what he said) that players are fined for criticizing officials only if they question their integrity. That didn’t happen in Norman’s case, but that didn’t stop the Commissioner from implementing the plain language of a rule that, if strictly applied, allows the fine to be imposed. Since it will be the Commissioner or someone he designates who will hear the appeal, it likely will be hard to get the hearing officer to exonerate Norman based on the reality that the league has said on the record that rule is only invoked if the criticism from a player crosses into suggestions of, for example, rigging the game, betting on the game, or otherwise making bad calls based not on incompetence but corruption. Ultimately, this specific punishment falls squarely into the “we’ll do what we want” bucket, and in this case the Commissioner wanted to fine Norman — even if other players who have criticized officials haven’t been fined." This fine seems especially hypocritical when you realize that the league has basically admitted the officials did a terrible job by shelling out fines for Bengals players from that game on personal fouls that didn't get called.

http://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/1147347-report-norman-fined-25k-for-criticizing-officials Josh Norman's fined 25k for criticism of officials. Cam Newton, Carson Palmer receive no fine. And just like that our team's national image has shifted from on field NFL football back to off field MTV drama. I can feel the season slipping away

The ref also had to made that call on the fly though. he didn't have the benefit of seeing it on replay. Action after the whistle, Bengals player not letting go. Kelley definitely overacted, but its still the correct call to make. Even if it wasn't, us getting a favorable call and them hedging the game in the Bengals favor are not mutually exclusive.

Here's a link to NFL.com's highlights of the game. Pretty sure the play your talking about is the first one shown if anyone wants to look at it. Hard to see a clear view of it, I definitely didn't notice it in real time. Shows another look at that Reed catch along the sideline though. Still don't know how they don't rule it a first down. He was clearly over the line. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap3000000730325/Redskins-vs-Bengals-highlights

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/0ap3000000732454/Official-Review-Was-Josh-Norman-penalized-correctly Another example of the leagues use of misdirection to skew public opinion of the team. The video above shows Blandino explaining that Norman was actually correctly penalized for the hands to the face. Except that wasn't what he was arguing in the first place. He was arguing that he was being called for fouls while no one on the Bengals was being called for FAR worse violations. they convenienty neglect to mention anything about Crowder, Jackson, or the Bengals in the entire video. End result - Norman looks like a sore loser while the non calls against Cincinnati get completely swept under the rug

Not questioning the sentence. Only the timing of the announcement. Only took the NFL 2 days to redirect public opinion of the Redskins from "victims of unfair officiating" to "undisciplined team that can't control their players". Pretty impressive damage control. How many times was Norman tested this season again? Odds were pretty high the competition commitee was gonna find someone eventually to pop. Countdown is on until Gruden starts getting criticized for giving his players too much leeway. The national audience likes us better as the fall guys, not in the hero role. What's next, "unnamed source" articles claiming DeSean is unhappy with his role here? "Anonymous players" criticizing our coaches playcalling?

Two days after Norman criticizes the league, and one day after Gruden agrees with him and says Norman IS being targeted, its announced that Trent Williams, our best offensive player, gets busted for a substance abuse violation and can't play for a month. Not condoning Trent's actions at all. And I know the investigatiom has apparently been ongoing for awhile, but even the most skeptical of fans would be hard pressed to look at that time line of events and say the timing of them wasn't related.

Regarding the penalties getting into our players heads and affecting their style of play.... Out of the three dropped interceptions Norman had yesterday, how many of them came right after one of these penalties? Think they caused him to second guess where he was positioning himself on those routes at all?

Phantom flags. Basically the ref will throw it but then allow the play to continue and see what the end result is before having to say what the penalty was for. Then they can determine what the penalty is based on the outcome of the play and how they want it to go. These happen ALOT when we play the Giants

Here's another point from yesterday that bugged me - The way Norman kept getting called for the same penalty yesterday made me think that the refs were looking specifically for that to happen. Either the opposing team told them he has a tendency to hit the helmet or it was something that refs noticed from his past game film. So basically, based on his game film, the refs knew to look for that kind of play from him and really focused on nipping it early on. Now look at the other side of the coin. What is Cincinnati's defense absolutely KNOWN for? What do they have a reputation for around the league? What frequently causes them to lose games (including their playoff game last season)? Cheap dirty hits to players and defenseless receivers. So you would THINK that if the refs studied Norman's game film in order to prepare for the game, that they would also know the tendencies of Bengals players and look for them specifically on game day. And yet they didn't call them on it ONCE, despite 2 OBVIOUS examples, plus several other facemasks that weren't called either. Looking at their penalty numbers for the rest of the year, the Bengals have always been fairly even with their opponents (biggest difference was 4). And yet on Sunday, our team had more than twice the penalties they had (7 vs. 15). And that was before the make up calls thrown in at the end of the game. At one point late in the 3rd quarter I believe the numbers were skewed 12 to 4 in their favor. So we have a notoriously undisciplined team with a history of cheap shots. Did they magically fix their style of play for just this week and play defense TWICE as clean as their opponent? Or, as the evidence suggests, did they play exactly the way they always do, and just not get penalized for it, despite the refs knowing their tendencies? The fact that these hits should be expected from the Bengals but weren't called, while something Norman was known for was clearly on the refs radar, makes it hard for me to say that it was not intentional. Norman has a tendency to hit the helmet? Ok we'll look for it during the game. Bengals have a tendancy to hit recieivers late? Oh I didn't see ANY examples of that on Sunday did you? '

Some Other Highlights from The Bengals Game: 1. At the end of the first half. The refs moved the first down chains, signaling a first down. Then decided to move them BACK into position (changing the spot) in order to measure for the first again. Not only did they bleed almost 20 seconds of game clock, but they ruled Jordan Reed was short AND didn't go out of bounds. Complete sabotage and deliberate attempt to keep us out of the endzone before halftime. They also did not show a replay of where Reed actually went down. 2. The holding call on Breeland that negated Will Blackmon's fumble recovery 3. 2nd quarter - Crowder fields a punt at the 21 yard line and returns it 15 yards, flags thrown, broadcast goes to commercial. When they return, they say that the penalties were offsetting. However they start the drive at the Redskins 21, negating Crowder's return. 4. Garcon's terrible OPI call that effectively ends our momentum in overtime 5. The BS defensive holding penalty called on Ziggy Hood in the 3rd quarter. Again, my biggest problem was the inconsistency of enforcements. You couldn't even say "Well the refs were just calling everything today, ticky tack fouls all around". They were calling fouls on the Redskins for slight and barely there penalties all day, but chose not call the 2 blatantly dangerous hits (Crowder and Desean) against the Bengals. Completely one sided, deliberate attempt to keep one team in the game and shut down any momentum the Redskins were able to build up.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/washington-redskins/0ap3000000730398/Josh-Norman-sounds-off-on-referees-following-London-game (For some reason it's not letting me embed the video, definitely worth watching though)

The most egregious example for me of the double standard: Josh Norman's amount of contact warranted 5 flags, Neither the hit on DeSean or the face mask on Crowder were deemed bad enough to throw a flag Sure doesn't seem like even enforcement