Some Less Discussed Observations From The Super Bowl

[Assassin27]

I now know, without a reasonable doubt, that Vinovich is.......a NE fan.

You got that right!!!!!!!

[Assassin27]

No matter how anyone slices it up that was the worse play call I have ever seen.... And it has nothing to do with hindsight, everyone I was watching with said there's no way lynch will get stopped here and we couldn't believe he didn't get the ball.

The pats hadn't stopped him all game, there is zero chance they stop him making one yard in 2 plays.

If lynch gets the ball Seattle win... Its that simple.... And that will go down as the worse play call in SB history

Maybe even sports history

[dizzolve]

Vinovich is one that the NFL has control over. How else does he get these big games? Not as a result of good statistics -surely

[CanDB]

Is it true that Winnipeg is the coldest city in the world with more than 1m people

Actually we're between 700,000 - 800,000, but it's nice to hear that others think we're that big.

I don't think that would be true, even if they compared cities of our size and larger. Sure, winters can be quite cold, but our summers can get hot, even if not for long periods. And we typically enjoy nice springs and early autumns. In fact, I love the change of seasons, minus some of the cold!

Then again, you will see plane after plane after plane heading south in winter, therefore many of us think winters are cold except for the annual "really warm part", when we go on vacation.

[fallforward3y+]

I hate this rule more than any other rule. I'm glad it was only 5 even though it should have been 15. There was no possible way for him to avoid the punter.

I don't even think it should be a 5 yard penalty, unless there was some clear blatant intent to hit the punter as opposed to running into them trying to block the kick.

However, I don't like a lot of PI rules either. My main point was that in case people started talking about the refs bailing out the Patriots, I had that play in mind.

[fallforward3y+]

No matter how anyone slices it up that was the worse play call I have ever seen.... And it has nothing to do with hindsight, everyone I was watching with said there's no way lynch will get stopped here and we couldn't believe he didn't get the ball.

The pats hadn't stopped him all game, there is zero chance they stop him making one yard in 2 plays.

If lynch gets the ball Seattle win... Its that simple.... And that will go down as the worse play call in SB history

Saying 'zero chance of stopping them' about a goal line is a joke imo, and it seems to consist with my opinion that people are blowing a call way out of proportion. I've seen all sorts of goal line stands, if I did a search I bet I could find several instances of a bad run defense stopping a beast of a back with more than 1 shot at a goal line.

Goal line running is tough, guys crowd up near the LOS, and the playing field becomes largely leveled, both sides have a good chance at the stop, with apparent over matches not being as big of over matches as they may seem in that situation.

Pats have Vince Wilfork, one of the beastliest D-lineman in the NFL. He would have probably been tough to move and made it a struggle. There would have been the time that it took to hand it off to Lynch after snapping the ball which would give Pats defenders time to get a push. Wilfork may have been difficult to move, and if someone knifes underneath and gets to Lynch's legs or gets penetration, they could have been stopped.

And why do people keep saying he ran all over them that game? He played fairly well, but people are acting like they got completely gashed, it was only 4.2 yards a carry.

There is also a big difference in short yardage running and running in other situations, so comparing them seems pretty ridiculous to me. The Pats stopped Lynch in a short yardage situation earlier in the game.

[Rastic]

I don't even think it should be a 5 yard penalty, unless there was some clear blatant intent to hit the punter as opposed to running into them trying to block the kick.

I disagree. Intent should not be a factor in that situation. A punter is particularly exposed during his kick, especially on his plant leg. In that position he has little to no chance of defending himself, let alone avoid, a hit. Somebody could intend only to try and block and misjudge, get pushed, whatever, and he could blow out the punters plant leg.

The chance for major injury is too big to even want to consider intent which is why the rule is the way it is (except for Vinovich who just didn't know better).

[fallforward3y+]

I disagree. Intent should not be a factor in that situation. A punter is particularly exposed during his kick, especially on his plant leg. In that position he has little to no chance of defending himself, let alone avoid, a hit. Somebody could intend only to try and block and misjudge, get pushed, whatever, and he could blow out the punters plant leg.

The chance for major injury is too big to even want to consider intent which is why the rule is the way it is (except for Vinovich who just didn't know better).

I didn't think of it that way, you may be right. I guess it seems kind of 'lame' to get a free first down off of a guy barely running into a kicker without any mal intent, plus it could be hard to determine what was blatant and what was accidental so for practical purposes it may be best to simply keep it the way it is.

One thing that I don't think should be a penalty though, is if a blocker accidentally pushes the guy trying to block the punt into the punter, because then it was forced by the blocker.

The rule may make it tougher on guys trying to block punts, but I'm not really too concerned with that because imo it should be difficult to block a punt or a field goal.

I'm glad to see an attitude from you of it being about Vinovitch at times poorly judging calls over it being some pro Pats conspiracy. Bad calls commonly happen probably in every game, however when they happen in favor of the Pats there seems to be more of an idea of it being about pro Pats conspiracies. I had a feeling some bad call in NE's favor would be brought up, so I was actually glad that they got that call wrong, and also that the announcers highlighted that it was the incorrect call.