NFL officiating is for the birds

FOR THE BIRDS: The Ravens lost to the Cardinals on Monday night, as most people predicted. The game was officiated poorly, so poorly that Steve Smith gave the refs a two-star Yelp review. The most egregious mistake was when the refs missed Ravens lineman John Urschel reporting as an eligible receiver.

MISSED TACKLES: The Cardinals were helped when the Ravens failed to properly tackle Chris Johnson who turned a short run into a 62-yard gain. Missed tackles were kind of a theme for the Ravens. One positive for Baltimore is that they played as well as they have all season, so maybe things are close to turning around.

CARDINAL PICKS: For the Cardinals, the win keeps them ahead of the pack in the NFC West, and it also showed a team capable of finishing in close games. Stopping the Ravens on a last-minute drive with an interception left Arizona fans feeling good about the way the team closed out the win, too.

HOUSTON HAS A PROBLEM: There is discord in Houston. According to reports, head coach Bill O’Brien wanted to cut quarterback Ryan Mallett, but GM Rick Smith wouldn’t let him. The question now is whose side owner Bob McNair is on.

COOTER TIME: Just about 90 minutes before they were scheduled to fly to London, the Lions announced that they fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and a handful of assistants. Jim Bob Cooter takes over play calling duties, and it’s a welcome change for Lions fans.

POWER RANKINGS: Bye weeks for the Packers, Broncos and Bengals left the top of the power rankings nearly identical. The real fun was happening down the ballot, where teams like the Vikings are creeping into the mix.

DALLAS DYSFUNCTION: The Greg Hardy situation continued to simmer on Monday as the Cowboys repeated a familiar cycle. The whole thing has gone south on the Cowboys, no matter what Jerry Jones says.

FANTASY CORNER: Fantasy advice from 2011, you should pick up Darren McFadden. No seriously, he’s one of a handful of running backs you should target on the waiver wire this week. Check out the waiver wire targets for all the other positions here.

IT’S BAAAAACK: The NFL filed its DeflateGate appeal on Monday. Oh yay.

OVERLOOKED: Forget their 6-1 record, Roddy White says the Falcons offense still has a lot of work to do.

MARIOTA: Titans rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota will test his injured knee this week.