Bad Grant Reviews

[bhjelle at unm.edu]

I have a question for those of you who have more experience with
the NIH grant review process than I.

I just got a review back from an NIH submission that, after 
acknowledging my lab as "clearly capable of excellent work
in the field", goes on to devote nearly all of the remaining
5 paragraphs to extolling the virtues of a competitor's
laboratory, and faults us repeatedly for "not coordinating"
our effort with this larger competitor. At least 5 or 6
complete sentences contain nothing but glowing comments
about our competitors' efforts!

Needless to say our grant did badly.

My question is this: has anyone heard of such a thing?
For example, an HIV grant that is acknowledged to be 
"excellent" but faulted for lack of collaboration with
certain labs at NCI? A colon cancer grant trashed because
you did not work with Vogelstein?    

Any perspective that will help me understand this much
appreciated!

Brian