Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I kind of had a feeling of "ick" this morning after reflecting on the Championship round. I think the best team won in each game, but the product was somewhat poor (especially in the NFC game), the officiating was bizarre and the broadcasts just added to the nonsense.

NFC Championship - if I had to do a "worst power ranking", here it is:

Worst = Mike Pereira - always thought to be a corporate shill, it seemed like he wasn't even watching the game. His comments had nothing to do with what was being shown on the TV. His 'analysis' of the roughing the kicker penalty was atrocious...at best its running into the kicker because the plant let was not contacted....in reality, the Eagles blocker arms-extended shoved the Niner guy into the punter so it should not have been a penalty at all....yet Pereira 'agreed with the call' due to the 'egregiousness' of the contact. Does he just make it up as he goes along?

2nd worst = Greg Olsen & replays - Olsen also agreed with every call. There was a PI on Jimmie Ward when AJ Brown collided with him within 5 yards of the LOS, and Olsen 'agreed' with the call even though at best it could have been called defensive holding; PI was an incorrect application of the rules. The after-the-fact replay of Smith's 4th down drop was funny because Olsen and Pereira had gone on and on about what a great catch it was.

3rd worst = officials - Most of the calls were legit. It seemed like Shanahan and the Niners lost their minds as the game went on. Shanahan should have challenged the Smith 4th down drop if just because of the importance of the play. It seemed like the rules enforcement on the Niners was harsher than on the Eagles. The Eagles didn't do a whole lot themselves, but they did get 7 first downs due to penalty. The Niners weren't going to win with Johnson at QB (I thought the big play of the game was Johnson somehow fumbling a snap twice in 5 seconds and gifting the Eagles a score at the end fo the half), but the game digressed into mayhem due to the officiating.

Niners defense got frustrated and lost their cool. Johnson was unprepared to back up Purdy and Shanahan was again outcoached ...

This game was unique. 49ers set a record for fewest pass attempts in a championship game by a losing team.

I suppose the 1976 AFC Championship comes to mind, with one team having multiple injuries at the same position that made winning more or less impossible.

The game was awkward and not exactly great, but it was interesting and I couldn't look away.

That fourth down play early in the game -- that was pretty easy to see that there was a good chance the ball hit the ground. They kept saying what a great catch it was and I was like, "Is it physically possible to have your hand up like that to catch it and then get your hand under the ball on the way down? Without at least some of the ball hitting the ground?" It just didn't seem very likely to make a one-handed catch from the position Smith was in to falling down. Great effort, though.

Bottom line though, from my vantage point, Eagles just took over the LOS as the game progressed. More and more. Despite the QB injury, the line didn't play that well IMO

I was annoyed, too.

1. Smith catch, immediately thought he didn't catch it and then a split second later with how he reacted it confirmed he knew he didn't catch it and should have signaled to everyone else, too. So the officials missed it, which happens. People keep forgetting 'New York' could have chimed in and reviewed that themselves (they have all the camera angles so any excuse they didn't get any that showed it clearly wasn't a catch is invalid as an excuse) so that should have happened on that side, and last mistake was Shanahan not challenging it, which also should have happened. Basically, this beginning to the game felt like a massive gift to the Eagles so from the start it had that; "oh great, this game is already controversial & basically tainted by something that shouldn't have happened" feel to it.

2. Purdy fumble, officials called incomplete so missed that, too. Eagles were smart enough to challenge and clear recovery/got the ball. So now I was thinking: great, the two biggest moments of the game so far are basically down to one wasn't reviewed and the other was. Nice sporting competition.

3. Eagles punt seemed obvious it hit the skycam wire, though the video shown wasn't clear, but the, to that point even though in the end it didn't matter, the first three big moments of the game were: incomplete pass on 4th down ruled a reception/not reviewed/not challenged, fumble officials got wrong/challenged to correct it & a punt that more-likely-than-not hit a skycam wire. So replay/challenge, replay/challenge & skycam were determining things and the big moments of the game. "Football."

Until of course became obvious Purdy was really injured and once he was none of the rest really mattered since the Eagles would have won anyway. Not a what-if type but can say had all things been equal and Purdy not been injured, then the officiating that was poor both ways but clearly more going against the 49ers would have been much more similar to but still not as egregious as the AFC Championship.

Looking at the game, you could tell Hurts was injured as well. He toughed it through but he and Mahomes are going to spend a lot of time with medical staff preparing for the SB.

A shout-out also to former GB receiver, Scantling for KC ... he balled out and made a Paul Warfield-esque catch that got the crowd on its feet. Like Reddick for Philly, huge plays from a pair of free agents ...