the refs

I saw the clip. It was clear in slo-mo that the ball hit Peppers and changed direction. They blew that call.

As to Smith, yes they had cause to throw him out. With that said, someone is gonna have to explain to me how Ronde Barber can punch an official in the face and not get thrown out while Smith gets thrown out for grabbing a guy by the arm to get his attention.

 

sorry Collin...but why does Carolina deserve the flag when Cundiff FALLS DOWN ON TOP OF THE PLAYERS? Peppers and Lucas did not initiate the contact....PLUS Lucas GOT HIS HAND ON THE BALL, negating any contact penalties anyway.

Carolina couldn't stop the run to sae their lives and in spite of that, they had the lead.

Sorry, but seeing the views our cameras had, plus the TV views, Panthers got hosed. Period.

 

the guy (Mark Steinkershner or something) was WAY too quick on the ejection. Only way it's justifiable is if Smitty said something derogatory about his mother, and even then, it would have to be false to warrant being tossed.

Smitty being bounced didn't affect the game that much--they had him blanketed the whole time he was out there, save for 1 or 2 plays where he had a little bit of room to breathe.

 

What happened during the fight where someone on Dallas tackled one of our players like 5 seconds after the whistle blew?

 

It's justifiable if you grab an official during a conflict. What was said? Who knows. But I'm sure it was something that Smitty should have kept to himself. They actually could have thrown a flag on Newman, and I'm probably more pissed of about that no-call.



BTW, Solarte, I think I spotted you before the game in the parking lot. Lookin' sharpe, my man.

 

Stop being stupid. First off, Lucas made contact with Cundiff's plant leg. But more importantly, human beings can't hover in the air or magically change direction and avoid someone beneath them. It is dangerous for the kicker and it obviously should be a penalty.

But yeah, if the ball was tipped then it's not a penalty, but the replays still don't show that. I think it may have been grazed, but you don't win games on "may have"s.

 

That was horrible. No way he should not have thrown that flag then. There was a scuffle before, then that slamming Smitty down OB; the guy HAS to take control of the game right there. I'm as pissed about that as I am about 194 yards from Jones and the roughing the kicker.

 

The replay clearly shows that the ball was tipped. You can see the ball change its tragectory after it is touched by Lucas. It was a BS call.

Sure we let them run on us and all that but you have to expect that Dallas was going to give us their best game. They had to win. I did not expect to shut them down and blow them out. The fact is though that we did enough to win the game and some bad calls took it away.

 

Watch the football...

I Tivo'ed the game and I have watched this a few times. When I watch the players I cannot tell if Peppers got the ball or not because Lucas is in the way, but watch the football, its rotating one way then it rotates the other so it hit something... low flying housefly.. Santa's sled... or maybe just maybe Julius Peppers or Ken Lucas...

So yes, I do think they made contact with the ball and it was a bad call.

Just my two cents...

 

I've seen the replay a couple of times on ESPN and I still can't tell. Whether or not it's worth anything, I haven't seen any non-Panthers fans look at the replay and say it was definitely tipped.

Edit:
Note also that Peppers came clean and yet whiffed. He had an awesome game, but had he gotten his hands on the ball, the point would have been moot.