Boo-hoo. I challenge you to watch the game objectively, not through homer-colored glasses. I defend things about this team left and right, but running to crucify the refs on every close call is low hanging fruit fandom.
The AJ PI, AJ pushed off. Not much, but he extended his arms and created separation, plain and simple. If the ref had swallowed his whistle on it I'd have been just fine, fan-wise, but would have wiped my brow at the same time. The AJ fumble was a fumble. It was letter of the law close, but if that situation had been flipped this whole board would have been screaming that clearly the receiver had the ball, clearly. The Bouye PI I would like to see again. And I saw at least one where I thought Fitz was dealing with around the knee play, just like the kind JJ was screwed over last week.
Bottom line, calls go both ways over the course of a game like this one and my point stands that they didn't dictate the outcome. Not nearly as much as the play itself.
I've watched Houston pro football since the early 90's Oilers. Is that long enough to have developed a fan-sided view of the refs for you? Or perhaps it's long enough to have understood that they're not out to get us. And I am curious what other comments you're referring too.
The refs are quite obviously imperfect, but this ain't exactly news. And if it helps anyone to sleep at night to see that imperfection as the league constructing it's own standings, knock yourselves out. We had the ball late with a shot to win that the refs had no bearing on. We dug a ridiculous hole early that the refs had no bearing on. We could have actually won this ballgame with an extra big play here or there and that win would have been dictated by our play, period. Unless of course there's anyone out there that actually likes to thank the refs in victory all the same.