We all saw the Giants and Cards have flags thrown with indiscrimination today. But this is one of the few weeks I can say that every game I watched had an adverse impact, even if it was only on certain drives I watched.
On Thursday, I watched about ten minutes of the game. During that time, I saw the Steelers get called for three defensive penalties on one drive, two of which were personal fouls on legal hits. Neither player targeted the head and neither led with a helmet, but they were flagged, for only what I can consider to be hits that were too hard.
For the 1PM games today, I really only watched the giants, but that was bad enough. apparently, you can barely brush a player in the secondary, but throw a guy down after he's clearly out of bounds, and that's OK. Also, if you are a Giant, getting pushed in the helmet is means to be called for a PF on YOU! Make no mistake, the Cards were jobbed too, especially on a bogus call that wiped out a fumble.
In the 4PM games, I saw a Broncos player make a catch, not get touched and then lose the ball. But the refs called it an incomplete pass. Then Alex Smith clearly fumbled and was ruled to have an incomplete pass. Neither call was even close to being right, but they were upheld. In the Seattle game, Percy Harvin CLEARLY stepped out of bounds, but was ruled to score a TD, and upon further review - it wasn't overturned! These are all plays that affected scores or drives that led to scores and they were all botched. The Jets game had a few suspicious calls and misinterpretations of rules, especially on the tineout call that wasn't made by Ryan.
this has been a bleak week off the field, but the on the field stuff isn't too much better.
It clearly isn't at a crossroads, but if you continue to see what looks like blatant incompetence at work, it will eventually drive people away.
SF just scored on a play where the playclock was at 0 for a full 2 seconds before the snap.
It's going to take a massive screw-up on a Sunday night game to make a difference (like the GB/Seattle screw-up with the replacement refs).
But it's going to shit.
This guy looks pretty happy with the officiating....
The failure of the NFL to adopt professional officials is one of the league's greatest failings. It may not matter to neophyte fans, but studious, knowledgeable fans who understand the rules of the game know that the officiating is too often completely and totally rotten, and that undermines everything else the league is doing.
This could be fixed, but the league is NOT moving in any seriously corrective way. It is one of the reasons I am becoming increasingly pissed off at the NFL.
And if they are correct, the rules are idiotic at this point. I'm all for safety but let the guys play D. It's becoming so the ad can't do anything, and games are flag fests on plays all fans see as normal, good plays.
I DVR'd today's game and watched at 4pm-ish in 45 minutes and then watched 10 minutes of the Jets game/redzone channel and got bored very quick and went back out.
Been watching this SNF game because it's on and I haven't watched any football all day which is unprecedented in my adult life, but nothing about this is making me regret my new sunday gameplan.
montanagiant : 5:09 pm : link : reply
Where Harvin has a 60 yard TD run...The replay clearly shows he has at half his foot out of bounds around the 25 yard line. The sideline ref even points to where he goes out of bounds...They still signal a TD and the commentators are scratching their heads but assume the official review will catch it...NOPE, TD.. I have never seen anything more clear to him being out of bounds
With the current state of the rules, the additions of new rules every season and the memos of Captain Roger Queeg mandating more "emphasis", whatever the fuck that means, on certain rules, they may be making this game impossible to officiate.
It appears as though the officials no longer know what is and what isn't against the rules as far as pass defense is concerned.
Worse, it is creating a breed of coaches, like Carrol and Ariens who are coaching to take advantage of the vague rules and variable enforcement.
It was pretty bad breakdown, and a failure of the new replay rules that were passed this offseason. As a scoring play, it was automatically reviewed by the central replay office in New York, which confirmed the touchdown. FOX's Mike Pereira was in the NFL's command center, and was at a loss for words when trying to explain how replay officials could have missed it.
Harvin has since fumbled on a kickoff return, and the Seahawks are trailing at the half.
link - ( New Window )
Makes me wonder how much longer I can watch this shit.
Yet he didn't blow the play did and they didn't review.
Mind boggling
The golden goose is dying a slow death.
Hilarious.
I get that Seattle won last year because they took advantage of the rules. However, call Seattle for it, not everyone else. Its making the game unwatchable.
Joe Buck says "X player, touchdown! No flags!" after every score.
I absolutely find myself not caring as much this year. And its not just because the Giants suck. I used to watch RedZone all day to follow my fantasy players, but the officiating is just hilariously bad everywhere.
Overall though, I agree with you. Every game I watched had really poor calls or illegal contact calls that really have no impact on the play. The league asked these to be called and they have been, it makes for a terrible product but I can't put that on the refs. The league needs to scale back on what they want called.
That play gave me fits. Fitz is allowed to run directly through a receiver, but because DRC put his hands up (which 99 percent of people would do), he's flagged.
They actually appear to be stupid.
they never even reviewed the Harvin play!
I thought all scoring plays and turnovers are reviewed no matter what?
If it wasn't reviewed, that is not only incompetence, but a sheer ignoring of protocol.
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Get rid of illegal contact altogether, tho. Complete shit of a rule that can basically be called by an official whenever he feels like it- including when the offensive player knocks over a DB.
That play gave me fits. Fitz is allowed to run directly through a receiver, but because DRC put his hands up (which 99 percent of people would do), he's flagged.
There is a rule that allows legal contact of that type. The defender is allowed to use his hands to fend off imminent contact with a receiver. IMO it could have applied to that play.
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jlukes : 8:26 am : link : reply
they never even reviewed the Harvin play!
I thought all scoring plays and turnovers are reviewed no matter what?
If it wasn't reviewed, that is not only incompetence, but a sheer ignoring of protocol.
They do a new type of review now. It goes to the office in NY on every scoring play and they make the call...Supposedly the Harvin one went there and they confirmed the TD. When I saw it live I could not believe they even called it a TD at the game since the sideline judge pointed him out at the 21 on TV.
Someone said on BBI until their revenue takes a hit then get used to this garbage.
It takes away from the headlines caused by bad player behavior and the incompetance of the league's response. In Goodell's mind, at least TMZ doesn't give a crap about bad officiating.
It seems that the result the NFL is trying to get to is to encourage virtually all passing on offense and achieve constant scoring.
In addition, there are also a dusting of even more vague rules supposedly to make the game safer. Yet, injuries are as widespread and serious as any year in the NFL.
It would be so much simpler to get rid of illegal contact and enforce holding. Then when the ball is in the air, it becomes PI. These minimal brushes against a receiver that have little to no impact on his route are frustrating to watch.
I'm a huge proponent of letting the little stuff go. Call the fouls that either impact the point of attack or that are blatant when committed off the ball. So many fouls are called when you ask yourself "What did he see?". In my opinion, you should never have to ask that - it should be evident to all that are watching.
I'm glad you mentioned getting hit out of bounds. I was shocked when there was no flag on that tackle on Jennings. I thought it was a blatant penalty that not only wasn't flagged, but never even got a second thought from the broadcast team.
The flag on Pugh was ludicrous. If he was getting flagged for shoving a defender immediately after the whistle, it was very late and really ticky tack considering the affect of the contact. Otherwise, he got flagged because another player shoved him in the head. At the very least, in that case, a second flag for the Cardinal defender was in order. Personally, I would have thrown no flag at all.
But, overall, I agree with your primary complaint. It isn't just the number of penalties being called. It is that more and more the penalties being called are immediately impacting games in a negative way.
Foote was pushing players after each play, yet Pugh got called? Arizona got hosed on a few illegal contact penalties, but we had a few horrific ones that shouldn't have been missed. The play where Jennings was thrown down late. The Pugh play. The punt where they flagged us but not the blatant hold on Jennings.
A horrific performance all around by that crew.
How is it missed when a RB is running along the sidelines, clearly steps out and is slowing and a whistle blows and he gets hit?
As for the flag on Pugh, I had the same thought, that they called the wrong guy and were too embarrassed to correct it.
Make no mistake about it, Pugh did almost NOTHING you don't see on every play.
Here's an interesting statistic - Vs. this point last year, offensive holding penalties have been down by half, while defensive holding is up by 4 times. Illegal contact has had 8.5 times the amount called. Point of emphasis, I know. But you know what was also supposed to be a point of emphasis? Pick plays and offensive interference. In the first two weeks only 3 calls have been made for OPI. That is actually DOWN from last year.
The point of emphasis was supposed to be to correctly call downfield contact, but thus far, they've only called it one way.
I get that Seattle won last year because they took advantage of the rules. However, call Seattle for it, not everyone else. Its making the game unwatchable.
At first glance - and if you only saw that play in highlights that was all you got - it definitely looks like a blown fumble call.
However, if you were watching the game, they spent a long time reviewing and discussing the play. Nance brought it up during the review that while Ware hit Smith before his arm came forward, Smith did not lose possession of the football at that point. Smith's arm continued forward, with possession, after the hit and the ball came free at the end of his, ahem, throwing motion. Mike Carey was beamed in and agreed and ultimately the official on the field came to the same conclusion.
Overall though, the OP is on point.