That game was fixed, and it was a bad fix...

Phinsguy said:

Again....who?.......So, you're saying not only were one or more refs paid off but someone in the league office/replay review was also to find a way to screw the dolphins out of the safety call and others. And.....if that were the case, why would they purposely use that non-safety call to be the lynchpin when it could be so clearly looked back at (despite some complaints of non replays of several plays they did replay that one over and over and you had both booth guys AND Mike Pereria saying it was a safety)? Also, there was no way to ensure that would have affected the outcome since, if our D could play at all and stop them, we could've easily got the ball back with enough time for us to go down and score or kick a FG to win it.

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So the safety call was so awful that it must have been unintentionally awful because they would have never intentionally called it that awfully? Combined with the clear pattern of biased calls against the dolphins?

BobDole said:

Man, I missed the boat on a sweet NFL ref side gig. I didn't know the only job requirement was being inept. Maybe I can send some film into the NFL league office of me making stupid decisions so I can get my foot in the door. My future just got way brighter.

Honestly, hopefully you're right and all of this bad refereeing nonsense is just a coincidence. It won't be helpful for those that like football on Sundays. How many more horribly officiated games do I have to watch before I can safely assume something ****ed up is happening? Been consistently happening since those assholes came back from the strike ... which is suspicious enough as it is.

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I'm just not buying into the fix is all. The two bad calls, safety and opi, were made by two different people. Don't see how you can make a sinister betting operation there.

Daytona Fin said:

I'm just not buying into the fix is all. The two bad calls, safety and opi, were made by two different people. Don't see how you can make a sinister betting operation there.

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It's not like this is the first game that has been blatantly and heavily called against the Dolphins.

And there are also games clearly called in our favor. Oddly enough, that usually happens against even less popular teams than the Dolphins. Hmmm.

It's a pattern and the NFL refuses to acknowledge that there could be anything wrong with their zebras.

Daytona Fin said:

I'm just not buying into the fix is all. The two bad calls, safety and opi, were made by two different people. Don't see how you can make a sinister betting operation there.

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Hopefully you're right. I just want to go back to enjoying football on Sundays. Me hating the Dolphins and Goodell is enough as it is ... throw the refs in there and it's too much. Three's a crowd.

randomname said:

So the safety call was so awful that it must have been unintentionally awful because they would have never intentionally called it that awfully? Combined with the clear pattern of biased calls against the dolphins?

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No....I think the real problem is with all these refs being "rules guys" (the most guilty being Ed Hochuli.....no surprise since he's a lawyer) overthink everything and lose the ability to call a duck a duck, finding miniscule factors or idiotic adaptations from what's in the rulebook instead of using common sense and what's plainly visible.....they "could see the forest if not for the trees".

Phinsguy said:

No....I think the real problem is with all these refs being "rules guys" (the most guilty being Ed Hochuli.....no surprise since he's a lawyer) overthink everything and lose the ability to call a duck a duck, finding miniscule factors or idiotic adaptations from what's in the rulebook instead of using common sense and what's plainly visible.....they "could see the forest if not for the trees".

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And I wouldn't mind that, as long as they are consistent. If you are going to call something a hold in the first quarter for one team, you need to call that same way the whole day through, for both teams. And that doesnt happen.

Arbitrary enforcement of the rules is the problem.

I think we are looking at this from an incorrect perspective. Is there a grand conspiracy to fix games so that the Dolphins lose? No, probably not.

Are the Dolphins currently a fairly downtrodden franchise? Yes. Do you think refs are influenced by the quality of the teams & coaches involved in the games being played? I certainly do.

I mentioned yesterday that the Patriots were not called for any penalties until there were 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and the game outcome was already decided. Is anyone willing to argue that not a single Pats offensive linemen held on any play to the same degree that Bushrod “held” on the long pass from Cutler to Landry? Impossible. But yet there was a penalty called on Miami which significantly impacted the outcome of the game, while the Pats marched up & down the field on the Raiders without a single penalty being called.

Realistically, the Patriots just get away with penalties because the refs clearly understand that Belicheck is the best coach in football and his team performs every week. There were numerous instances where the Pats d-backs held Raiders receivers, but the calls were not made. There was a play late in the game where Crabtree ran a short route into the end zone. Gilmore literally put both hands on Crabtree’s chest and stopped his route. The ball landed at the back of the end zone. Romo actually commented that it was “good coaching” that taught Gilmore to cover in that fashion.

Any long-time fan will remember that when Shula was head coach, the Dolphins were consistently the least penalized (or one of the least penalized) teams in the NFL. The rumblings then were “well, Shula is on the competition committee”.

Let’s face it, the Pats passing game is almost based on the illegal pick. The Dolphins have actually lost multiple TDs this season because picks were called as offensive PI, yet the Pats run the same activity on a constant basis every week...and get away with it.

It’s down to refs having something of an unconscious bias (although I’d argue it is “conscious” in the Pats case).

I mean, c’mon, Khalil Mack gets called for hitting Brady low when he tackled him around his thighs. Yet Alonso yesterday was called for unnecessary roughness when Fitzpatrick was out of the pocket, throwing on the run, and Alonso barely made contact.

Refs expect the Dolphins to play sloppy, so are inclined to call borderline penalties. Refs expect the Pats to be perfect and so avoid calling penalties against them.

Does this mean games are fixed?? No. But it does mean it is easier for the Pats to win games. They are rarely required overcome penalties. Drives are rarely killed by penalties. Opponents drives are rarely extended by penalties. And on and on...

That offensive pi call was on fasano not Thomas. They just gave wrong number. Fasano ran a pick more than a yard downfield hipped the db

Sometimes it gets called sometimes it doesn’t.

It’s a man beater pick call.

Does anyone have a video of the safety? Want to show it to a friend but I can’t find a video of it anywhere.

Well it's definitely not the lack of talent that's causing ratings to drop. Penalties are killing the flow of the game. Refs won that game for tbay yesterday. The calls were awful, no replays. I swear we were facing Brady.

The punt foul it looked like that guy ran directly through our punter who for once actually boomed one.

And why no replay of that? Live it looked like he got planted

I can’t imagine them refs wanted a 3 and 6 Tampa team to win.

What’s the gain?

hoops said:

The punt foul it looked like that guy ran directly through our punter who for once actually boomed one.

And why no replay of that? Live it looked like he got planted

I can’t imagine them refs wanted a 3 and 6 Tampa team to win.

What’s the gain?

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We were all complaining about that in chat, as well. The punter got straight up drilled. No replay.

J. David Wannyheimer said:

We were all complaining about that in chat, as well. The punter got straight up drilled. No replay.

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Not to mention, admittedly senile Dick Stockton yelled immediately “oh, the Dolphins are going to have a first down here” for roughing the kicker.

And then, Fox never showed what actually happened.

J. David Wannyheimer said:

We were all complaining about that in chat, as well. The punter got straight up drilled. No replay.

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There were a number of times during the game that there was no replay of a penalty or play that would have been helpful. Probably as much a symptom of having the "B" announcing team as anything else.

I'm guessing, but only guessing, that because the call on the field was that it was NOT a safety, they didn't feel they could reverse it without a down the line shot of the play. If so, they could have at least said that.....but from my vantage point (on TV) it was clear as could be that he was in the end zone when contacted by a fins player. This was a huge swing....as not only did it cost us 2 points, but just as importantly the timeout was taken away which hurt us on the final drive.

I also question why they didn't rule Doug Martin out of bounds and stop the clock on that last series.....but why am I not surprised.

Miami 13 said:

Maybe but our game yesterday would be one of the best games to essentially rig if there was money behind the scenes. Nobody cared about the Fins-Bucs game. Tons of awful calls would go unnoticed by the sports media. When we complain the next day people laugh because we are Dolphin fans. No talk of the safety by any highlight shows because it’s a very low interest game. A game like that would be the best to rig because of the low appeal. I’m not saying it WAS rigged, but who knows anymore with this league.

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The game wasn't rigged. Fitzpatrick beat the Dolphins and that's all there is to it. Miami is who Miami is. Real teams would've won easily vs. Tampa yesterday.