Let’s be honest. This isn’t sour grapes — the Green Bay Packers got completely screwed by the pretend officials in a 14-12 loss to the Seattle Seahawks Monday night.
Let’s recount this officiating fiasco.
The winning touchdown was scored on an interception by M.D. Jennings on the Seahawks’ last-second hail mary. How is that possible? Well, several players went up for the football, Jennings caught it and brought it into his body. Meanwhile, Seattle receiver Golden Tate got his hands (or hand) on it while Jennings was going to the ground. The players fought for it on the ground. One official came in and ruled touchdown, while another was waving his arms to stop the clock for a touchback.
After review, the officials upheld the play.
Not that it matters, but both guys calling the game and the ex-official in the booth all said interception. That’s not to mention that Tate also blatantly shoved Sam Shields in the back, pushing him out of the play, prior to going up for the ball.
That’s not all, either.
The Seahawks received two gifts from the officials prior to that.
On a 2nd-and-28, Shields got called for pass interference on a deep route by Sidney Rice, even though he was looking for the ball and made a great play to knock it away. On the replay (and during live action, for that matter), you could clearly see it was offensive interference. Rice blatantly tried to hold Shields down while he was going up for the ball.
And how about the phantom roughing-the-passer call on Erik Walden? On the play, Walden was pursuing Russell Wilson and dove at him while the ball was still in his hands. Walden’s natural momentum carried him into Wilson, while the ball was picked by Jerron McMillian on a tip.
Had the Packers kept that interception, they could have cemented the game. Instead, Seattle gets a gift first down.
Should it have come down to this?
No. No one will suggest the Packers offense played well on Monday night.
Aaron Rodgers didn’t produce a touchdown on the evening. His offensive line gave up an atrocious eight sacks, even though they typically only faced four rushers. What’s going on here? Well, an idiotic game plan, at least in the first half.
Despite his swiss cheese offensive line, Mike McCarthy refused to run the ball in the first half. Instead, he decided to pass on every down and his quarterback nearly got killed, since Seattle obviously knew what was coming every time the Packers offense lined up.
When that buffoon decided the change things up and hand the ball to Cedric Benson in the second half, the Packers actually sustained some drives and put up some points. Benson wasn’t great (17 for 45 and a touch), but that’s at last partially because of the offensive line’s complete and utter refusal to block anyone.
These assholes should be tarred and feathered behind the woodshed for their performance Monday night.
What is clear, however, is the Packers offense is much more effective when they actually run the ball. When will McCarthy understand that?
We’re still waiting to find out.
The good news, if there is any, is the Packers defense continued their solid start. They gave up a meager 238 yards on the night, even though they only produced one sack and no picks (except the one that was negated by that idiotic penalty call).
Unfortunately, the Packers offense only produced 268 yards.
That’s not enough to overcome a complete rape job by the officials.
So what do we really think about the game?
Fuck you NFL. Fuck you NFL owners. Fuck you Roger Goodell. Fuck you and your fake fucking officials and this fucking charade you’re trying to pawn off as NFL football.
This is a colossal failure.