When it comes to not getting calls, Joe Burrow needs to act more like Tom Brady. Burrow apparently doesn’t want to do that. His coach has vowed to do it for him.
“They call it like they see it,” Zac Taylor told reporters on Friday, via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “I just got to keep fighting for some of that stuff. You don’t want to lose him on a [hit] that’s well after the play’s over. . . . I’ve got to fight harder for Joe to get some of that. Because he doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t want to disrupt from his flow in the game, but that’s just things I got to talk with him about.”
Brady gladly disrupted from the flow of the game to complain about non-calls. He made it part of the flow of the game. From a strategic perspective, post-whistle lobbying of the officials is no different from pre-snap diagnosis of the defense.
“I feel like I have never gotten those calls,” Burrow said after the game. “So I don’t really expect that. I feel like there were a couple that were close. Again, I don’t expect those.”
Burrow shouldn’t just accept it. He needs to let them know when they mess up, so they’ll be more careful to not mess up in the future.
On last night’s final drive, blowing a gasket after a blown face mask of Burrow might have prompted referee Clete Blakeman to throw a flag for roughing the passer on the failed two-point conversion.
Maybe it’s just not Burrow’s way. Maybe he’s just too nice. But we all know what happens to nice guys.
