hepcat

If we could have just skipped numbers 2-4 it would have been a normal cycle of an NFL team at the end of an era. Firing Rivera when he did was not a bad decision, everything after that was unimaginably awful.

I think just the sheer fact they aren’t running a college scheme like they did from 2020-2022 is a big improvement

They have put in half the draft capital in building the defense compared to the offense

Evero

https://x.com/josephperson/status/2001377591975199215?s=46&t=04sKNnhiiGcTDblLYKGiJQ Canales prepping for DPI. They are also probably holding Icky out of the game because he will be penalized a lot

I think the same thing, they don’t have any better options especially since Christiansen is out for the year

Quickly compiles researched sources and generates text saving me a lot of time and effort. I still read and verify it so there's a human in the loop

They have had a lot more prime time exposure in the last 5 years. The Panthers have had almost none.

Would you like specific examples?

They kinda did, they said if it was ruled a catch on the field it would have stood.

That is what I thought was going to happen but the very suspect referee assignment makes me think otherwise. Tampa was already going to be the heavy moneyline favorite and the NFL assigned a referee crew that is going to slow down the Panthers offense. The only other angle is that the NFL is setting up a situation that is the reverse of what the Panthers dealt with in the New Orleans game last week. The Panthers had the lead for all of the game against the Saints last week and were heavy moneyline favorites before and during the game. The NFL managed the game towards a Saints victory allowing a large swing of money and creating more intruige in the NFC South race.

Consider it from the lens that the NFL is an entertainment product, whose goal is to keep users engaged for a long as possible. Also take into account sports betting spreads for a reason managing games towards desired outcomes. Blowout results are not good for user engagement or for any of the NFL's partners. The league appears to "nudge" games, not necessarily to decide a winner, but to maximize engagement, revenue, and narrative intrigue. The primary lever the NFL uses to "nudge" games towards a desired outcome is crew assignment. A "rigged" game doesn't require a backroom bribe, it simply requires assigning a referee crew whose known statistical biases align with the league's desired outcome. By analyzing data from the 2023-2025 seasons, we can categorize specific officials into "profiles" that sophisticated bettors, and likely the league itself, use to predict game flow. When the league needs a game to be an exciting shootout, they can assign crews that historically "swallow the whistle," allowing offenses to operate without rhythm-killing flags. Conversely, if the league needs to slow down a runaway offense or keep a game close to the spread, they can assign "flag-happy" crews that disrupt game flow. Certain referees show a statistical deviation that heavily favors the home team, often attributed to being influenced by crowd noise, or perhaps a tendency to support the "house" advantage. Lastly, the league might want to introduce chaos into a matchup that looks like a guaranteed blowout on paper. The league would assign a referee with high-variance penalties. A high volume of highly varied penalties is ideal for "trap games" where referees have an outsized impact on the result.

Exactly. Tampa will bring higher viewership numbers. The only time the Panthers were considered a worthly primetime team was because of Cam Newton, who had his own individual following.

The NFL assigns the referee whose natural tendencies make the desired outcome statistically probable.

Gemini but thanks