Poor John Fox

All Bokolis was able to watch of this weekend's games was very little of Ravens-Pats, the last 30 seconds of the first half of Cowboys-Packers and much of both Panthers-Seahawks and Colts-Broncos.

Bokolis was 4-1 this weekend.  I want to crow and say that I made good on my promise of traction this week but, let's face it, in three of those situations, the game fell on either side of the number, and fell kindly in two of the three cases.  The Colts whupping the Broncos was serendipitous.

Bokolis had written off the Pats game when Brady threw the pick- which I saw- just before half.  I didn't watch the rest of the game.

I did get into the Seahawks, mainly because of laying 7-1 on the money line.  I never had any worries that they would lose, but the number was in play.  While trying to enjoy my beverage, I had to endure a band of mongoloids and their football malaprop.

At least they were laying on the Seahawks; at one point when Carolina was driving while trailing 24-10, threatening the number, Bokolis had to (quietly) interject when the worry-warts had gotten particularly loud, relax, the pick-six is coming.  I had to lower myself to call it a pick-six.  On that fateful play, I saw the receiver (Benjamin?) up top slip...ding.  Cam Newton desperately turns the other way, where Cam Chancellor was squatting, to look for a valve.  Before the frat boys saw it coming, I had my left hand pointing.

Bokolis didn't watch the Cowboys either.  For the eagle-eyed who caught the typo in the previous post, that is supposed to read Cowboys (+5.5)...  I'm very glad that the Packers went for two, as I didn't want to have to explain that I actually got +6 (a lot of times, I'll just put up whatever the line is at the time on any given site, which isn't the line that I necessarily get).  Either way, Cowboys paid on the missed conversion.

Of course, the talking point remains the Dez Bryant catch/non-catch on 4th and 2, with many (and those many are from Detroit) saying that it was just desserts for being on the right side of a dubious call the previous week.  Bokolis is very much a cookie-crumbles type- given that the game ended with the Packers well into Cowboys territory, the Cowboys can't really whinge about it costing them the game- but it won't stop me from telling what really happened.

Bryant caught that ball, and the officials- the NFL, really- fucked that call to high hell.  First, Bokolis will undress the NFL's commie rulemaking by telling y'all that I didn't see any replay that shows the ball hitting the ground.  It is presumed the ball hit the ground to make the ball pop out of Bryant's hand, which I may or may not buy.  Regardless, presumed does not equate with clear and indisputable.

update:  I've now seen a replay that shows the ball on the ground...given that it took until Monday evening for the NFL Network to show it- maybe showing Deion Sanders and Michael Ivrin clowning around was more of a contrived diversion than I'd thought- I gather they didn't have this angle on the live broadcast.  It doesn't change what follows.

Then there's the other part of this, the part that the geeks made up, the part that says he has to make a move common to the game of football after getting two feet down or control the ball throughout the process of going to ground.

Again, Bokolis didn't see it live.  I heard it on the radio and subsequently listened to various calls, yet didn't hear the FOX jibber-jabber in the interim between the call and the reversal.  The part of this that (I imagine) NO ONE brought up- not the announcers, not the league, not the refs, not the geek reporters, not even Dez, because he is not very articulate- is that he gets two hands on the ball and taps it into his chest; anything that he does after that is a football move.

The NFL doesn't see it that way.  Because they'll tell YOU what a catch is, it dictates that, if the receiver is in the process of going to ground, be it by opponent's contact or not, before he gets control and two feet, the required period of control is extended until he has hit the ground and he is effectively disqualified from making a football move while going to ground...they may as well require him to spot the ball for the next play.  In this case, process wins out over pragmatism- as if the tuck rule wasn't bad enough, they've made the receiving corollary to it- making for a shittier game.  To further show you how stupid they think you are, during the game, they probably ran a commercial of Larry Fitzgerald ordering jerseys while catching footballs (or, is that catching footballs while ordering jerseys?).

Why Poor John Fox?  Because Bokolis preemptively blamed him for why the Colts would cover.  After feeling so lucky to cover the Cowboys, I'd've happily backed out of Colts-Broncos.  When I finally got in front of a monitor and saw P. Manning doing his impression of Mike Tomczak- way back when, Tomczak used to throw these balloons for passes- I was like, oh dear, the Broncos had no shot...and, they didn't. another update:  John Fox was promptly canned on Monday by Elway, who apparently sees nothing wrong with his own arm likely being stronger than P.Manning's.