Thursday, November 30, 2006

Ravens-Bengals

A couple of notes on tonight's game in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati successfully "iced the kicker". Last play of the first half, Ravens snap the ball, kick is good, but there are whistles. Time out, Cincinnati. No play. Ravens redo the kick, wide left. I read that the statistics show that icing the kicker is meaningless at best. Still, everyone does it. I wonder if they've studied it's effect on basketball players' free throws.

On Baltimore's (meaningless) touchdown late in the 4th, Derrick Mason, the Ravens' receiver, ran into the DB, which the commentator correctly said was not pass interference. What he failed to notice was that, along with running into the DB and pushing him, Mason also noticeably FOLLOWED THROUGH on his push. How this escaped both the refs and the commentators is beyond me. The commentator even went as far as to say "That's not pass interference. Good no-call."