514-1.... impressive. Sounds like some of the excuses used by others for the Orioles decline. When everything else fails.... Blame the officials.

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Pete's reply: That's why I seldom do, but this was ridiculous.

As an Orange Coast and Edison Alum, we would say that the NFL Officials look like they were trained at the Speedy Castillo School of Officiating.

I've roughed my share of QBs in my day, and that was no roughing--even by todays standards.

Sorry B'More, its an OC Thing

Peter,

I've read all 515 of your blog entries since you began the thing in July, and I've refrained from commenting on your grammatical infractions unless they prove unequivocably to be impactful on the English language, such as it is.

"Unequivocably" is not a word. Neither is "impactful."

The former is a five-yard penalty, the latter a 15-yarder. ("Former" means first in this case, and "latter" means second.)

The NFL's replay system is a form of editing the calls on the field. A long, long time ago, before the rise of online news and advertising competition, newspapers employed copy editors to perform a similar task.

That said, doesn'tt Jim Zorn resemble Johnny U.?

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Pete's reply: This is a blog, you know. If I want to make up a word or two, it's just extra value.

Please you homer. How about the ticky tack P-Foul call on Titans D-Back #31. All penaltites were a wash...The Ravens got out played when it counted. Your rook QB made the rook mistakes when he need not the most...was it just me or did Flacco seem like a super pick throwing machine when he was flushed out of the pocket?

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Pete's reply: You're quite a Titans fan, not knowing your own player's name.

Hey Schmuck.... I like your B.S. email filter. Schmuck =..... ) Dont cry homer boy

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Pete's reply: What filter. You got through, frontrunner boy.

Don't forget about the BAD CALL- 15 yard penalty against Titans Cortland Finnegan in the 1st half , which kept the Ravens drive alive. He hit the Ravens player in the head, but the Ravens player retaliated against him and hit him back on the helmet. That should have been offsetting , instead it was one sided and kept your drive alive. You cant pick and choose which penalties you like. You Lost , get over it!

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Pete's reply: I can do whatever I want. Your guys were cheap-shotting Mason all day long.

Pete,

Was at the game. Still shaking my head over this one. (Will this collection of morons be graded down like Hoculli ?? .. Oh wait no as they are already covering their rears) Although despite this call all we had to do was play defense and stop them. Can't take the TD drive away from the Titan's. Good teams take advantage of these types of things.

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Pete's reply: True.

The NFL should permit head coaches to challenge a flag, just as they permit head coaches to challenge a call (fumble vs. non-fumble; in-bounds vs. out-of-bounds, etc.). If after review, it is clear that the penalty flag should not have been thrown, the penalty should be nullified. Had the referees reviewed the replay today, they would have concluded that Suggs did not commit a personal foul.

Earlier in the game, Mark Clayton got hit as he attempted to catch a pass near the sideline -- the Titan applied what looked like a definite helmet-to-helmet hit, and a flag wasn't thrown.

Agreed it was a bad call, but what about the other 10 penalties, the Ravens willnot win as long as they shoot themselves in the foot. The false start before the missed field goal is just another case of mental mistakes costing the game.

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Pete's reply: Indeed, they have a lot to improve upon.

Agreed bad call. Other points to ponder.
It's over STOVER
QB who is young and dumb with no vet QB to look to
Special team that is special like "special" Olympics
Tired defense
First two games set unrealistic expectations

.

You are conveniently ignoring the fact that after that penalty (which was ticky-tack to be sure), Tennessee STILL had to drive 65 more yards to get a TD. Because there was a false start of the Titans, if the personal foul hadn't been called, the Titans would have had another 3rd down play. Who is to say they wouldn't have converted it anyway? If the Ravens defense had stepped up and stopped the Titans from driving the rest of the way down the field, that call would be irrelevant. Or if the offense had not turned the ball over on the following possession, and scored themselves, that call would have been irrelevant. The Titans had several questionable calls go against them as well in this game. Whining about the refs does no good. Tennessee made plays late -- Baltimore didn't. End of story.

Peter you are absolutley correct! The officials blew this call, Suggs barely touched Kerry Collins and it was accidental contact anyway. The exact same thing happened earlier in the game with the Ravens' offense, the play was called dead for encroachment and Haynesworth dragged Flacco to the ground and NO penalty was given for ruffing the passer seconds after the whistle. The fact is the Titans played a dirty game and a few of their defensive players should be fined and should have been ejected. The NFL probably will not fine them, but will fine Suggs for questioning a referee's call. I hate to start conspiracies, but sometimes I feel the NFL is out to get the Ravens!

The officials are supposed to stop play after a "false start", but they didn't! As bad as the officiating was, it didn't cost the Ravens this game. In fact, the officials contributed to the Ravens' first TD, assessing the Titans at least 40 yards in penalties. This game was lost by the defense allowing Collins to sit back and wait for a receiver to get open and by another stupid "too many men on the field" penalty in "crunch time" and that's a coaching error! Also, somebody better have a talk with the special teams coach because his teams are anything but special!

Absolutely HORRIBLE call, which i feel will come back to haunt us later in the season. And whoever said that the team is more discipline under Harbaugh is simply ignorant. The team is just as thuggish as the days with Billick at the helm, and they're costing us potential wins.

The refs of this game, mainly Bill Carollo, should be in court for sentencing next to OJ in December. They robbed the Ravens of a win. It would had been 4th and 10, then that's when the D puts it in overdrive and closes the door for Tennessee.

It was the second worst call of this season. Jay Cutler's empty hand was the worst by far, but as a Ravens fan, I can't put this one far behind.

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Pete's reply: It would have been third and 15, but who's counting.

Pete,

While the call may have been bogus, the Ravens have earned the reputation of being overly aggressive with plays like Jarret Johnson's last week. Also the defense could have still made a stand and not allowed the go ahead score. Offense is still terrible, can't blame Billick anymore.

How about continuing this discussion until the National Fixed League feels some heat? They want to control the outcome of these games and we sit back and take it quietly - like we get fined or something.

The league is becoming a farce as games are better officiated at the high school level and BELOW. Everyone knows the best refs are invisible....and that is clearly not the league's goal. They'd rather be the WWF and script certain success.

Here is what I read as an explanation

Referee Bill Carollo:

(On why the false start didn’t end the play on the Suggs personal foul penalty)

“On the play with about five minutes left, we had a false start on the offensive tackle number 71. It was right at the snap. We tried to shut it down, and blow the whistle. But the players didn’t hear the whistle, and they continued the play. 55 came in and hit the quarterback on the side of the helmet. If it had been anything other than a personal foul, we would have disregarded a hold or anything else. But a 15 yard penalty-coupled with a false start penalty is enforced from the previous spot. So we went 15 yards from the previous spot, and of course that carries a first down.”

(on the interpretation of LB Terrell Suggs roughing the passer penalty)

“He got him on the side of the helmet, the right side of the quarterback’s helmet. We’re blowing the whistle, blowing the whistle. He may not have heard that-and we’re going to give him that-but he still can’t hit the quarterback on the helmet.”

(On who made the roughing the passer call)

“That was the referee. That was myself.”

Calling the personal foul anytime didn't seem to come into play when Haynesworth threw Flacco down on a deadball offsides. I agree we got hosed,The NFL refs aren't having a very good year,

Shouldn"t the motion flag stop the play? Do the "officials" make up the rules as they go along? The Ravens are going to be a very good team in the near future with this kid at QB

I actually heard a whistle being blown with the ball in mid air,Pete.Did'nt anybody hear the same thing?The stadium was loud but the tv caught the sound of it.

They Refs totaly blew this call on Suggs. They should have someone replay some of these calls upstairs to get them right. Also how do you call a false start and let the play go on!!!!

Ok I agree that was a bad call, but I do not blame that game on the refs it should never get to the point where it is left in their incapable hands.
What I do blame it on ( and I do like him as a player) is Matt Stover. I am not saying this because he missed the kick, but due to the way his range changes the game plan. The Ravens must get inside the 40 to even think of trying a field goal attempt and it really restricts the way the team must play. Matt thanks for the past, but it is time we get a kicker that can have a range or capability to attempt a 50+ yd field goal once in a while. Two weeks in a row this team could have possibly been 4-0. Pipe dreams maybe, but it is a problem that needs to be addressed by the team.
Damn Zebras got em again.

The referee explained that they tried to stop the play and nobody heard them. Has anybody gone back to tape to verify this? I have seen no indication of any official trying to stop any play. When will the NFL competition committee get it right? I've never seen "an arm to the head" end a QB season - but we've now seen enough diving at the knees plays end a few player's seasons. This has to be one of the stupidest rules in the NFL - 15 yards for contact that 9 out of 10 times is the result of something other than a tomahawk chop to the head.

Peter, the shame of everything is, is that had they beat the Steelers (like they should have), and continued to dominate and finally beat the Titans (like they should have)...they'd be 4-0, and the talk of the national media. Now, we're just another 2-2 team.

Bill Carrollo should have officiated his last NFL game ever. He made an error on the Suggs call, and then an error on the rules, specifically, he should have been blowing his whistle and waving his arms along with the entire crew. The call cost the Ravens a game they dominated (look at the stats).

How does the NFL make this right? Declare the Houston game a Houston forfeit, give us back our bye week, make sure the Steelers lose tonight (the NFL refs know how to fix games, and for good measure, make the Titans lose their next three straight (see above). Incessant and repeated holding calls against Indy next week would be nice too.

I may be wrong, but I thought that last week, in the game against the steelers, there was a similar situation where a personal foul and a minor infraction where called on the same play and they called them offsetting penalties. Does anyone recall this? Like I said, I may be wrong about that. But if I am right, where is the consistincey in the referee's calls. Or is it that they only are only consistant when sticking it to the Ravens!

You DA.. The Ravens wouldn't have been ahead except for a PF penalty against 31 of the Titans. You must be blind.

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Pete's reply: I was there and 31 should have been ejected from the game. He was cheap-shotting everybody and even shoved his own teammate.

"Playoffs", You wanna talk about "Playoffs?" Peter we all got goo goo with Flacco and the Ravens "D" going 2-0. Then reality set in hard. The Steelers? Blew it! The Titans? Blew that. Coach Herm Edwards said it best. "You play to win the game!" What I see is Coach Harbaugh looking like a rookie and Flacco looking like a veteran. Stop with the concervative play calling and open it up. I.E. Steelers with a 1:40 and they run it out with no shot down field. Titans with a 1st down and 14 sec. and no shot down field to better field goal range or even better a TD. The defense still with the stupid 15 yard calls. Three words for ya Pete. Anger Management Class. So lets stop using the "P" word with the Ravens since they cant win the games they should be winning. Take away the 15 yrd'rs and bad rookie coaching and they are 4-0.

It was a truly horrible call. On the replay, it was clear that Suggs had turned his head away from Collins to watch the flight of the ball before the flag was thrown. It was a textbook case of incidental contact. I've seen more contact at a spelling bee.

The NFL screwed us. What did you expect. Score some more points Ravens, because the NFL WILL get you if they can. We cannot win close games in this league, and we must score some points or shut these teams down once it is close.

How about that non call holding penalty on 3rd and 10 at the Ravens 20 yard line to set up the winning toughdown, and The Titans have been holding all day because collins had all day to through

Has the game become too fast for a number of these judgement type calls?

Well said Schmuck. I thought the same thing, if there was a false start how did the play even get to the point where Suggs was in Collins' face?

Overall I think the refs were a little flag happy in the game. Sometimes it's just better to keep that yellow flag in your pocket and let the boys play ball.

With no bye week, 4 games against the NFC bEast (yeah I said beast, they all look good) and 3 more games against the AFC's strongest conference the South, there's no chance for playoffs.

Our physical D is fun to watch but in close games it seems that coin always lands on what the other team called.

The officiating in the Ravens game was the epitome of how the calls go against the Ravens. Mason was held at the line of scrimage on a number of plays and no calls were against the Titans. The Raven had a false start and the whistle was blown and our quarterback got tackled after the whistle, no call on the Titans once again. The Titans had a false start and we hit their quarterback"s arm and we get a 15 yard penalty at a crucial time int game. Go figure. I am done watching and supporting football until the referees are held responsible for these bogus calls and the non-calls that hurt the Ravens game after game.

Pete, you are completely right about the false start, when a false start occurs, the play should be dead right away and the officals should blow the whistle to let the players know. That didn't happen........ overall the refs took this one from us on other calls, so i really think we are a 4-0 team after losing two games by 3 points, one in OT. Oh and yeah Stover needs to go.

Flacco was thrown to the ground earlier in the game after the play was whistled dead and there was no flag. Then later, Suggs gets ripped for 15 and the Titans drive is kept alive... I can't explain that at all...

There was no consistency in the officiating at all for both teams. It's sad that the officials felt the need to make the game more about themselves than the two teams playing.

You're exactly right and the worst part is that none of the national media will even mention this in their highlights of the game. They'll simply brush over it. However, if the Ravens were media darlings and supposed favorites for the Super Bowl like San Diego (by the way, nice job with Miami today), everybody would know about it. It is sickening. But the worst part is that along with me, every Ravens fan knew our defense would collapse and allow the Titans to march down the field after playing such a great game.

I think the personal foul penalty needs to be changed. There was a penalty on the titans safety finnegan, where he ripped off a ravens players helmet who subsequently pushed back. The ref called a personal foul penalty twice. On the same drive, finnegan committed a personal foul. Why wasn't he thrown out. Why wasn't albert haynesworth hit with a personal foul during an encroachment penalty. The NFL should change its personal foul rule so that if a player gets two personal fouls, then they should be ejected from the game.

Peter,
I like the consonance: robbed, jobbed, kabobbed. It may be just enough to have people forget about your 30-13 Ravens victory prediction. It was certainly a tough loss, especially since it was eerily similar to last week's loss to Pittsburgh. Two weeks in a row game changing penalties have perhaps altered the outcome. How many weeks in a row make it an "official" trend? You have to admit that the Ravens live and die by the aggressive, hard-hitting, nasty sword. When there were calls being made all day, I am not entirely surprised that the referee had an itchy trigger finger. If we had a twenty point cushion as you predicted, that call would have been a moot point. BTW I started Heap on my one fantasy team and he didn't blow up either. Congrats on the 515, and keep the blogs coming.

I'd just like to point out that if what Suggs did was a 15 yard penalty why wasn't Haynesworth disqualified for throwing Joe Flacco down on the play he charged offsides on. That was only a 5 yard penalty. Where is Roger Goodell when we need him, I guess he was looking around the museum we should have built.

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Pete's reply: I guess you can do whatever you want to the quarterback after the whistle as long as you don't touch his helmet. That play was similar, but there was no continulation there.

Robbed? Please. Here's the numbers that matter today 11 for 91. 11 Penalties for 91 yards!!! There we go again, giving away field position. Oh, and look, here we are at 2-2, a .500 team. Stupid is stupid does all over again. Welcome to mediocrity. Here's what I wrote after our last silly loss. Just insert Titans, or any other good team, instead of the Steelers.

Penalties, Penalties, Penalties! How many chances are you going to give The Steelers to keep drives moving, and improve field position? Big Ben was unbelievable, and after the stupid penalties, he made us pay dearly. Newsflash: If we keep up the penalties, every good team will find a way to make us pay dearly.

With these bonehead penalties, we are nothing better than a 500 team. Our schedule is brutal, and continuously giving up field position in chunks, is a sure recipe to mediocrity.

my heart breaks for this defense. for 10 years now, our defense has been busting their asses and for what? a pathetic offense and now a second coach who believes in getting a small lead than sitting on it, trying not to lose the game instead of putting a dagger in the opponent. if this is indicative of harbaugh's philosophy...we already had nine years of conservative play under billick. either shove the ball down their throats and do whatever it takes to run up the score or hit the road harbaugh.

You can find at least 1 or 2 penalties in every game that are momentum, and possibly game changing. AND, that are questionable at best.
The refs are either generally inept or betting on games, or both.
They too often remind me of the Russian ice skating judges.

My question too you is, Do you ever think those game changing calls will be reveiwable before the game ends and can then be reversed? And is anyone counting the amount of game changing calls against the Ravens per season because we have been penalized by questionable ticky-tac fouls far too long and far too many times. The officials insert themsrelves into almost every game the Ravens play with mostly unfavorable calls. When the league looks at rule changes they should have aleast one reviewable challenge out those three alloted from the upstairs booth with a league umpire/front office to look at call and decide the call. Bias in the form of a zebra mask. It's Holloween for real.

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Pete's reply: No, I don't think they'll ever review penalties, but they already have shown they'll review unreviewable situations -- i.e. that field goal by the Browns last year.

Pete,
The referees in the NFL are the worst officials of any major sport in this country, perhaps the world. These part timers (insurance salesmen the rest of the week) are pathetic and often cange the course of a game. Roger Godell should pay as much attention to them as he does the players. But he won't.

The league has a problem it refuses to address, and it's getting old.

Yea, we was robbed!!

1) But we still have a rep around the league, and we still pay the price.

2) The officials had decided before the game to flag everything that moved, and we were caught on the short end.

Although I will agree the penalty was improper and I felt that this was a poor refereeing crew to begin with, any team that doesn't score enough points so that a referee decision can effect the outcome of the game, deserves what they get. Score enough points and ref decisions become a moot point.

I hope this gets posted.
For the first time this season I thought we were watching Billick ball on defense in the 2nd half. The Ravens looked like they were playing not to loose rather then win. Penaltys & interceptions aside, we didn't rush Collins or try to score.

Sorry to say, we need a kicker and kick returner. Figures is scarred.

Absolutely correct Pete, and the key was the circumstances. Any referee making that call late in the 4th quarter during a crucial drive of a close game has no business being a professional referee. Hopefully the networks will show that ridiculous call numerous times during the week in the various hilight package shows and punish Bill Carollo like they did Ed Hochuli.

Really a flat out terrible call.

Its kinda funny; my roommate watched the first half with us and when we told him there was a bogus call late in the second half he didn't believe us 'cause the whole game was wrought with penalties. A few minutes ago he saw the replay and instantly agreed with us that we'd been ripped off. And he hates the Ravens. A rather pointless anecdote I guess. This is one of those plays that'll probably sit in the back of my mind all season. Like that ridiculous goal call in game 7 of the Caps and Flyers playoff series last year.

I totally agree - the foul was a bogus call - one that seems to happen against the Ravens too often. This makes two weeks in a row - remember my pointing out the holding call at the 10 yard line on the fumble recovery for a touchdown - it was on the replay and would have given the defense a chance to stop the Steelers and holding them to field goal.

I wish the officials would do a better job.

what else is new? the Ravens are the most aggressive defense in history and refs love to thwart that kind of attitude. the problem is thaf this team still makes such stupid penalties they lose the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a questionable call. they should be 4 and 0 right now.

the officials need to keep the game under control,but i think the coach or the owner should be allowed to critize bad officiating without being fined by the the league. these officials act like they are god. so if they could be told how terrible they are from time to time wouldn't hurt

Peter you are absolutley correct. Suggs had accidental contact with Kerry Collins and should have not been flagged. The exact same played happened earlier in the game with the Ravens offense; the Titans defense was flagged for encroachment and 3 seconds after the whistle Hainsworth drilled Flacco to the ground but with no additional penalty. Bill Carollo blew the Suggs call and he should get the same penalty as Ed Hochuli got from the NFL. Some of the Titans players should be fined but I'm sure they won't but you know Terrell Suggs will be fined for questioning an official's call. I hate to start conspiracies, but I feel the NFL has it in for us.

This call stinks, but its another example of just how bad and inconsistent officiating has gotten in the NFL. It's the unending plague of inadvertant flags(.."there was no penalty on the play..")..the increasing number of conferences by officals on the field on penalty calls..calls made by an official who isn't the closest one to the play...ofiicials on pass plays who watch the ball instead of the receivers feet..(ask Derrick Mason) ..or an official making a call on a fumble because they "think it was a fumble or it wasn't( WTG Ed Hoculi)...Fact is, overall college officiating is far better. It's a serious problem that needs immediate attention by the league. That means get used to it and it's gonna get worse.

I've never seen a play where a false start is let go just to see what happens.

The ref's explanation for the call is weak sauce and I hope the league issues an apology for the call and takes Carollo to task on his grading assessment.

You had to break your streak.Do you want alittle cheese with that wine. Questionable(bad) calls are made in every game. (Review tonite's Steelers two point conversation delay of game penalty. Clearly a clock mistake by the ref.) It's interesting that Suggs said he hit his arm, you said his shoulder, and the ref said his head. I guess it all depends what the ref saw in a split second. Collins head is clearly tilted in a way to suggest his head was hit. This call did not cost the ravens the game. The defense allowed a 80 yd TD drive at crunch time and Flacco thew the pic on the 1st play of the comeback with 1.24 left. All the ravens had to do was win the game and that play is long forgotten. It would go down as a great win.

Pete,
Please don't mention this years Ravens and "playoffs" in the same sentence. It's not happening. We're a .500 team at best. Young QB, poor coaching/clock management, one WR that's a deep threat, a VERY suspect secondary (without Landry & Reed @ 100%), McGahee running like a dead horse, I could go on all day. Bottom line, that offense is just bowling-shoe ugly with or without Billick calling the plays. It's going to be a LONG season and we need to do some house cleaning afterwards.

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Pete's reply: With the Steelers banged up, .500 might be good enough.

Not that it made that big of a difference but why wasn't another flag thrown when Hainesworth planted Flacco into the turf 5 seconds after the play was blown dead due to his encroachment?

I never could stand the people who say, "After the flag, the Titans still had to drive down the field". Yes did, but that play occured on third down and they would have punted from inside their own 20. Don't downplay the importance of a penalty at a crucial time. When a penalty happens earlier in a game, you have the rest of the game to overcome the error. When it happens late in the came it is a much tougher feat. Flacco will get better when the Ravens have a true #1 receiver as a deep threat. If the Ravens have a player like Owens, Fitzgerald, Wayne, etc. they do not lose the game to Pittsburgh or Tennesee.

I am not a liberal conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if some of these officials may be crooked and be on some gangster's payroll.

They have too much control over football games unlike baseball umpires have.

This was the best opinion article I've ever seen about the Ravens in the Sun. Finally no nay saying, no BS. The call was completely ridiculous, and everyone with a brain should be able to get that. It LITERALLY made us lose the game, I was there, I saw it happen. Besides that, watch the tape, there's a blatant false start, then Suggs barely gives the statue a love tap. What measures the NFL will go to in order to have more teams with really good records: ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING.

As long as the Ravens retain that Rex Ryan on defense, you can expect much more of the same!

I was infuiated by that stupid time out he called during last year's Patriot game when he called a time out during a Patriot's fourth and short with seconds left in the game.

GET RID OF THIS BOOB!

Stover is history. He missed a 45er and we have to punt on a 54 ydr. Right now he is only good for PATs. A good field goal kicker would have won the game. Hang it up Matt!

Correct me if I'm wrong but how come the 5 15 rule didn't apply in the Steelers game? There were several times where there were 5 and 15 yard penalties and they offset to cancel each other out. How come they didn't this time? Also, the Ravens D seems to be vulnerable in the 10 yard zone just behind the line. They beat us to death with the little 10 yarders. Maybe in those cases, bringing the house against an o line that's already handling our blitzes wasn't such a good idea. Otherwise the D was great. What do you think?

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Pete's reply: I don't remember any 5-15s in the Pittsburgh game. I agree with you that the inability to sack Collins was a big factor, too.

I guess this makes you the Ravens official rep for CRYING & WHINING!! Maybe the Ravens will have a chance to grow up when you do. Baltimore deserves better. Where have you gone Johnny U??

Piss poor call, I'm guessing well see the new millenium before a poor call paves the way to a Raven win. NFL officials are better than WWE officials by the only the slimest of margins.

Question:
If the personal foul call had not been made, would the play have been called dead? My guess is that the Ravens would not have had the opportunity to decline the penalty...resulting in a 3rd and 15, giving the Titans another opportunity to make a play. Please clarify.

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Pete's reply: You are correct. It would have been 3rd and 15.

As I stated on Preston's report card, if the Ravens were efficient on all three sides of the ball, then the game shouldn't come down to a "bad" call. They are still a competitive team and everybody just needs to sit tight. There's still twelve games left.

I call em as I see em, and if I don't see em I make em up.

Just to set the record straight. Both "unequivocably" and "impactful" are words according to Merriam Webster.

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Pete's reply: Thanks for coming to my defense.

I just don't understand these Ravens fans...wait...yes I do. It's the same old excuse after excuse, and not admitting that maybe your team is not as good as you think they are. Good teams...playoff teams overcome bad calls, and calls in general. The Steelers had 3-4 personal foul calls last night that really cost them during the game, and eventually helped the Jags to score. But they stepped up and overcame them to win. That's the stamp of a good team. The Ravens are just not there yet. They are headed in that direction, but they have a ways to go. And continuing to make excuses of bad calls isn't going to help. Nevermind the fact that the Titans still had to drive down the field, nevermind Flacco's 2 (should've been 3) really really bad interceptions. Excuses are like........

Amazing how many crybabies are commenting. It's not as if the Ravens were going to do ANYTHING that far in their own territory...I mean c'mon SNAP OUT OF IT!

100% on the defense for this loss. although that penalty on suggs was absolutely ridiculous, the defense still should have stepped up. with the way they were playing, how do they let collins go down the field? i dont blame flacco, he is a rookie, the defense blew it late.

Attention all Ravens fans: STOP WHINING. You got the benefit of a terrible personal foul call against the Titans in the first half. So don't cry about the call on Suggs, especially when the replays show he hit him in the side of the helmet.

This call wouldn't have been so hard to understand if the refs had called the RTP when Flacco was tackled after the false start on the goal line.

Come on now. Blah-blah-blah about the ref's. We know how it is, but if we had a vertical game and scored more points instead of relying on Stover this would all be a non issue. Throw the ball downfield!

The call was horrible, lets move on. The defense still had an opportunity to stop them and didn't. I'm also concerned with Harbaugh's clock management ability or lack thereof. The way the first half ended was ridiculous.

WHINING. How about speaking the truth. That was a "drive" defining moment, not a game defining moment. Game defining is when they had 1st and 10 at the 36, with 34 seconds left and they failed to spike the ball. They had time to score a TD with 1 timeout remaining. As was the case last week with their failure to challenge the TD catch, coaching, coaching, coaching!

Pete,

There is a golden rule in the NFL. Never give any team a second chance. And that is what the referees did yesterday and the Ravens just did not respond to the challenge. But they should not have been challenged in the first place.

I hope they correct Flacco's "flinging motion". He needs to throw the ball, and pull his arm through the throw - not flip it out there. His throws are coming up short or floating beyond his target.

Gotta agree with Steeler Fan Amongst Morons, although I'm no moron- just for the record. I'm a diehard Raven fan alllll the way. But he is right. The Steelers made bonehead plays/ got called for personal fouls and got a bad call right before their 2-point conversion. However, they were good enough (mostly due to #7) to overcome those mistakes and snatch a W on the road against a tough Jacksonville team. Ravens, as a team, should take a look at that game and try to learn how to do the same thing. Bad officiating abounds. Great players and teams overcome them. Sorry, Peter, but that's the truth and I say that as I am still bummin' over another tough Raven loss. It SUCKS to be a Raven fan today. But gotta move forward and see how the team responds in Indy. Sure hope #41 Frank Walker doesn't get torched by Peyton Manning.

Seriously, if you guys can't see that he was hit on the head in the replay, take off your homer glasses and give it another look. The personal foul call on Finnegan was stupid on two levels. He left DMase get in his head and after the offsetting personal fouls, the ref was probably looking for a reason to flag either one of them. People get tackled every game as they're going out of bounds. It looked like your Defense was exhausted and KC beat them. You'll get over it.

I agree the call of roughing the passer was pretty weak. I have to say though that Albert Haynesworth did not throw Flacco down. Albert did however pull Flacco down on top of him. Maybe that's why there was no roughing call then.

Cheap-shotting Mason all day? Dude get over it. Let go. Masons big mouth had everything coming. Love Mason when he was with Titans and still do. The guy just runs his mouth way too much and he got smacked in it.

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Pete's reply: Thanks for making my point.

I'm an Oriole fan and a Titan fan, so while I am usually on the home team for this blog, my allegiances are switched on this one. Still, here's a few things I see on this:

(a) bad call on Suggs. The refs overprotect the QBs in this league and I've seen Vandenbosch of the Titans called for a lot of questionable calls like this. No excuse in either case. Unless we're playing ballet, let 'em play.
(b) given four down territory, I think it's strong to say this was the deciding play given it would've been 3rd and 15 and the drive would still be alive, albeit 20 yards further back. Critical? Yes. But as someone mentioned earlier, the Titans still needed to come down the field and score.
(c) #31 is Courtland Finnegan, widely considered one of the best up and coming DBs in the game. Might as well call him out by name as most of the posts above focused on his #.
(d) sorry Pete, but Finnegan didn't shove his teammate. His teammate (Keith Bulluck, #53 and Titan captain) shoved him. I've seen the tape 100 times. Frankly, he probably deserved as he lost his cool and he was guilty of yelling at Bulluck, but it was definitely Bulluck that did the shoving, so let's not dump that on Finnegan as well.
(e) Don't just assess the blame on Finnegan. Mason is just as bad at that tic tac stuff. I should know--I watched him do it for years as a Titan. Ask McAllister or some of the Raven backs from the day--they will tell you Mason has always pulled those stunts.

The Ravens have a helluva defense. And I agree the call stunk. And for the most part, the Titans didn't deserve to win as they were pretty much outplayed throughout. But in addition to the refs, I'd also award game balls to Ray Lewis for biting on the play that left Crumpler open for the TD, and Flacco for thinking he was Brett Favre and jamming balls into places they don't belong, including a time when there was plenty of time left on the clock for a game-tying FG. Well after the flawed penalty, there's no reason the Ravens should have lost. That's a lot different than the call in the Broncos-Chargers game where the ball should've gone to the Chargers and the game would've been over.

Anyway, my $.02 and hopefully done more respectfully than some of the other posts above. I may not agree with you on everything in this post, but I still love your blog and appreciate your work (especially the O's stuff). Good luck to the Ravens for the rest of the season, including taking out the Colts next week.

And see you on Opening Day 2009. Go O's!

The reason he was flagged is because the officials DID blow the whistle. Suggs didn't hear it, hit the QB in the head. Very questionable still, but I believe the official threw the flag because he blew the whistle.

hey the fact is Baltimore didn't step up. the titans dealt with the same issue when vandenbosh hit ferrotte. that put the vikings back in the game. Titans finished. baltimore didn't as simple as that.

I agree, i have played football for the past 23 yrs and i haven't seen games called this bad in a long time. The officials should have stepped in and stopped the play if their was a fall start, this was the same thing last year against the Pat's when they had tthe play stopped and then stated that the team called a time out after the play had already been played. A lot of people are blaming the coaching staff, the yound quarter back, but you still have to understand that it takes 11 people to play a down, not the coaching staff, or one player, things are going to happen every week but as players you must play though the disappointments and do what you have to do to win games.

I agree, i have played football for the past 23 yrs and i haven't seen games called this bad in a long time. The officials should have stepped in and stopped the play if their was a fall start, this was the same thing last year against the Pat's when they had tthe play stopped and then stated that the team called a time out after the play had already been played. A lot of people are blaming the coaching staff, the yound quarter back, but you still have to understand that it takes 11 people to play a down, not the coaching staff, or one player, things are going to happen every week but as players you must play though the disappointments and do what you have to do to win games.

I see alot of people out here putting down the Ravens, and saying how our defense sucks. Um Hello? We are #1 in many things when it comes to defense. And they said Ray Lewis is too old? (media), hahaha I say he's got a few good years left. As for Harbaugh I think he's doing a hell of a job, I love him. You guys HAVE to keep in mind Flacco is a Rookie, he's gonna make mistakes, there are alot of things he needs to work on (throw the ball away, not throw interceptions), but to all you Raven haters out there, Dont come jumping on the Bandwagon when it happens, b/c we have the best defense, and Mcgahee is a dead horse?? Wow you are some kind of idiot! We weren't supposed to win the first 2! I admit we need to work on penalty's and etc. But their still our Ravens, and I support them no matter what. Ref's are always out to get us, also, does anyone notice how ESPN and the NFL channel never says much about us? or cover us much? Soon they won't be able to ignore us. Prediction: Next year, we're in the Playoffs, Superbowl winners? Very good chance!