I don't think anyone can say they have a 'great' defense anymore. The last third of the season showed that. Good, with some great players, but overall, not great. And to tell the truth as the last series unfolded, I was more worried about how much time the Ravens had to come back and very probably get in winning position.

The win over Atlanta kind of had some of the drama in reverse. The Niner defense couldn't stop Ryan till his injury and very well could have been the reason for not winning. And irony of ironies,their fourth down pass was a very similar kind of situation to yesterday. A play where a flag seemed very plausible to cheering for the Falcons. We just shrugged it off by saying that refs shouldn't decide big games on close calls. Yesterday it might have been a bit more of a hold, but in that situation you can see the mindset of the ref acting with a no call. Think he wanted his name as part of the historical discussion? It was a bad play call needing absolute perfect execution in the most tense single play of the biggest sporting event. Like a soccer ref deciding or not to award a penalty in injury time of the World Cup championship game. It would have to be so obvious that it couldn't be avoided.

Being on the losing end makes me realize how the Bengals felt when their four downs were stuffed in the 1981 game. But more in a John Taylor moment with clock making it a last drive with no possible second chances.

And for many of who started following the team in the eighties, 1981 was the end of my ambition, not the beginning. I had already followed the team for more than a decade by then, lived through the anguish of three Dallas playoff playoff losses in a row. And then a ten year wilderness with dysfunction worse than this decade. When they held of Cinci to win, I felt that at least I got to experience that shining moment. I thought that even if they did nothing else,at least I was able to have ridden the ultimate fan football wave. The eighties after we're a bonus.

It's not just the loss yesterday, but how it happened that bothers me. If the lopsided score was maintained, I would have felt they were just flat and unprepared. Embarrassing and humiliating, but decisive and clean. But blowing a chance for back to back historic comebacks partly through self-inflicted mistakes seems like the type of thing that will always carry question marks with it. Small individual things that added up to enough of a losing margin.

The instant it ended I turned it off and have avoided every mention or picture. Time ended when the whistle blew, and as far as I'm concerned there was no winning side. Just the side that couldn't win. As judge Roy Jacques used to say at the end of Magistrates Court (local sixties People's Court predecessor), "circumstances change cases."

Last Edited By: Arnold49 02/04/13 10:27 PM. Edited 2 times.