The timeout did turn out to be a bad idea, but Billick made a good point in the press conference that he'd be roasted had he not called a timeout even though the Ravens had the wrong personnel for what they thought the Pats were going to run. They got lucky on the stop, but the timeout (which was probably the smart thing to do) canceled out that luck. It still doesn't excuse the horrific "holding" penalty the refs handed to the Pats. Saw a replay on SportsCenter where they showed a view from behind the Pats line of the play and the Pats WR did appear to be held after the 5-yard limit. It was holding. possibly, but that type of "holding" occurs on just about every play. I understand where you're coming from here. However, the guy was making contact past 5 yards and Watson was visibly held going into the endzone. Maybe they don't call it every time, but if you are going to make obvious contact with a guy going into the endzone and he's thrown the ball, you run a pretty good chance of picking up a holding call. I'll grant that it was a little ticky tack, but not deserving of all the hair pulling and teeth gnashing that I'm seeing. Let's put it this way -- you could probably go to the game tape of every game played in the NFL this year and find a couple plays exactly like it where no flag was thrown. You're right, it could be called. It's kind of like holding along the OLine; it probably only gets called 20% of the time if we want to go right to the rulebook. I think it's sad though that the refs didn't call this all game long and then suddenly whipped out the flag on the most important play of the game. The inconsistency is what bothers me the most. Even Randy Moss said the Ravens were playing like that all game. So if they don't throw the flag earlier, how are the Ravens to know how they need to play? It's like the strikezone in baseball -- consistency is most important. I'm sort of torn on the Pats. I really don't like them, but I think I like the '72 Dolphins less. So I won't be upset if they win out. At least we won't have to hear champagne corks popping from Miami every year anymore.