I play the race card a lot with Cam because it has unfortunately been played on him countless times. Do you want to go back through, and review these incidents? You challenged me on this so I'm assuming you might. Let me know.
When did I say that Cams pick six was because he's black? I'm pretty sure I never said that. I also never said Cam didn't make mistakes. That was clearly one of the mistakes last night that falls totally on him. If you see the angle though, from his perspective, it actually was a pretty good attempt to Olsen. Still a fuck up, but not hardly as terrible as it seemed.
Other than that, I think he played well under the circumstances. Our offensive line was terrible.
Pit's first TD was clean. Never said otherwise. The "elite d" thing, again, you are being a little trollish. When I used that term, it was to make the overall point that coming into this game (and in general for the past few years) our defense has been seen as elite to many. You can agree or disagree, but it's factually true that has been the consensus. By bringing up a bad defensive play in this one singular game, then repeating my "elite d" comment, it doesn't really make sense contextually.
the AB offensive pass interference TD. No. Donte Jackson didn't "just fall down". You either didn't see the play well enough, or you don't know what you're talking about. He grabbed his arm, held on to it, and pushed off. There were no flags, despite the ref being right there on the sideline, because no one had the balls to throw it. To take that huge play away from Ben and AB in front of that crowd. Joe and Troy basically admitted as much.
The incomplete pass ruled a TD...you say "definitely a catch". PFT and common sense
disagrees with you. As well as both commentators as it happened. As well as the official on call, Mike Periera or whichever one it was. It was not a catch. There are dozens of examples of plays less obvious than this being overturned upon review.
I'm glad you agree on the Eric Reid ejection. Do you also agree on the atrocious non call on Watt who lowered his helmet and targeted Cams injured shoulder? That was a dirty, dirty play and SVP interviewed him on Sportcenter like he was a Boy Scout.
Good teams have bad nights. That's true. Maybe if every single terrible call had been called correctly, maybe the Panthers still lose. Definitely a possibility. Unfortunately, we will never know. Because the calls / no calls were so plentiful, and so extremely bad, they started to affect Carolina's morale. Cam was getting beat up. That affected his performance. There's no way to accurately predict how a fair game would have played out.
I think the NFL has plenty of reasons to want Pitt to do well over Carolina. The most obvious being our new owner is supportive of Reid who has an open grievance against the League. He hired him and is not pushing back against his demonstrations. Every football game ever played has had a few bad calls. That's to be expected. However, the quantity and severity of the bad calls. The blatant disregard for reality, the underutilization of replay, etc, etc, etc. I think I've made a much better supported argument than you.
edit : but seriously Ali, thanks for your input. I really do enjoy reading your takes on things
