The Officiating

[Rufus T Firefly]

Recap?

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10066559

[s0crates]

Why would Roger Goodell risk destroying a multi-billion dollar industry with a crippling scandal just to screw over the Redskins, especially when they've been doing a pretty good job of screwing themselves for about two decades now?

Why would a multi-billion dollars industry leave the outcomes to chance when they can rig them to their benefit without consequence?

[TheItalianStallion]

Why would Roger Goodell risk destroying a multi-billion dollar industry with a crippling scandal just to screw over the Redskins, especially when they've been doing a pretty good job of screwing themselves for about two decades now?

 

Not commenting on the name change bit, but your question is just as applicable to the CBA collusion.

[Boss_Hogg]

I don't think the screw up was on purpose. I think it was a breakdown in the zebras communication.

The side judge (Near Shanahan) signaled first down and Triplett signaled 3rd down, very bad.

Mike couldn't stop the clock because they were out of timeouts. He asked for a measurement but the dude judge said "You don't need to, it's first down."

Bad teams get bad calls and the Skins are a fundamentally bad football team. They screw up the most mundane tasks with ease.

I'm at a loss...

[SweetAlfred]

Kind of expected a loss at the start but not this kind of loss

[Boss_Hogg]

Edit: Wrong thread.

Thanks to MartinC for pointing that out.

[Timmy Smith]

A complete embarrassment tonight for the officials and I hope they get fined heavily.  I don't really care about the loss; I'll take the higher draft choices and slightly easier schedule next year, and hopefully a new coaching staff as well.  This season is starting to feel Zorn-esque.

[MartinC]

They showed the play. They also had Shanahan and Tripplet's post game comments.

Then they had an analyst, I think it was Merrill Hoge, who said the refs blew it, but it didn't cost us the game.

 

It certainly did not help us win it .....

 

Forget all the conspiracy theory bull**** it was just gross incompetence. I say just, like Collingsworth said on the commentary this is professional football and screw ups as basic as what down it is simply can not happen. Inexcusable.

 

Can you imagine what the Referees union would have been saying if a replacement crew had done something like that during the strike last year?

And what about Alfred Morris? Is he in the doghouse too?

 

Not sure what that has to do with this thread but no. Why do you ask? He ran it 11 times in the first half for less than 2 yards per carry (there was zero room to run from a combination of poor blocking and 8 man boxes). In the second half we could not convert on 3rd downs and sustain a drive to create opportunities to get him the ball.  

[perez24]

It certainly did not help us win it .....

 

 

Can you imagine what the Referees union would have been saying if a replacement crew had done something like that during the strike last year?

 

Good point.  These are supposed to be the "good refs." 

 

Still, if Fred Davis catches that pass, whether it was 1st and 10 or 3rd, it's a different ballgame.  I know they might have a called a different play, but if he catches that pass it doesn't matter if there was a screw up or not.

[Boss_Hogg]

Not sure what that has to do with this thread but no. Why do you ask? He ran it 11 times in the first half for less than 2 yards per carry (there was zero room to run from a combination of poor blocking and 8 man boxes). In the second half we could not convert on 3rd downs and sustain a drive to create opportunities to get him the ball.

Edited my post.

My bad man, didn't realize I was in the wrong thread. I'm getting too old for late games.

Carry on.

[markmills67]

Fair enough very bad call at the end of the game, but I am more pi---d at dropping simple catches and fumbling the ball after a catch to a team that clearly wanted to win the game more, I believe Shanahan has lost the locker room and should be sacked now.

[Burgold]

I think the winning or losing point is the wrong point.  Does it really matter if that call or non call costs the game?  What matters is whether the calls were correct, fair, or even.  In baseball, you want both teams to operate with the same strike zone even if the strike zone changes from ump to ump.  Similarly, in the NFL you hope that what constitutes a hold for one team would be a hold for another. 

 

You hope that if the refs are confused they huddle up to get the call right or take a measurement.  If the bad calls are one-sided, if all the non calls favor one team, and if they change the very rules of the game (like the blocking into the punt rule, changing the down after a play, etc.) then they are manipulating the game and hurting the game. 

 

Whether that single call costs a team a game is irrelevent.  What matters is should it have been called, why was it called and would it have been called for the other guy?  The latter one we can't know... although we have seen evidence of refs placing a ball, looking back at the sticks, and then moving the ball forward to ensure a first down for an opponent.  What matters more is if a host of calls had a cummulative effect especially if the lionshare of bad calls and non-calls are one-sided.

 

Does anyone believe that the Giants only committed one penalty yesterday?

 

Bad calls are supposed to even out.  Refs are human.  If they don't week after week after week you have to wonder why.

[RandyHolt]

I guess the officials didn't practice hurry up much during the week.  Or, did not practice well.

[markmills67]

Another point I would like to add is, was the lineman drunk who put the ball down for the 1st down, 4th down , o sod it whatever down it was, because he walked along the line were the 1st down marker was and then started walking sideways and suddenly we are a yard short.

[MartinC]

Edited my post.

My bad man, didn't realize I was in the wrong thread. I'm getting too old for late games.

Carry on.

 

 If you think it was late for you spare me a thought over here in the UK!

[Probos]

First thing- I'm NOT blaming the loss on the officiating

 

However,....

 

Then why even start a thread on it?  Lame,...

 

Loser mentality man -- There's bad officiating in every game and other teams find a way to win.  The team is bad.....I mean, colossally bad.  Sometimes when teams are that bad the officiating is that much worse.  

 

They stink.  Period.

[Cyclops]

Another point I would like to add is, was the lineman drunk who put the ball down for the 1st down, 4th down , o sod it whatever down it was, because he walked along the line were the 1st down marker was and then started walking sideways and suddenly we are a yard short.

 

I  noticed that as well. The one line judge marked it right at the marker. The ump took the ball ran it to the line with out even looking back a good yard shorter than where the line judge had marked it. The whole sequence was just awful.

[Henry]

Then why even start a thread on it?  Lame,...

 

Loser mentality man -- There's bad officiating in every game and other teams find a way to win.  The team is bad.....I mean, colossally bad.  Sometimes when teams are that bad the officiating is that much worse.  

 

They stink.  Period.

 

For the same reason we care about the cap penalty. Whether or not the team is any good shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not there is a level playing field. They shouldn't be related in any way.

 

What the refs did was inexcusably bad, and had it happened to the precious Giants it would be ALL over the news today. But when teams like the Steelers and the Giants get gifts from the officials it's "Oh well. Refs make mistakes. Ho hum."

 

After awhile that gets very old.

[Dan T.]

Why would a multi-billion dollars industry leave the outcomes to chance when they can rig them to their benefit without consequence?

 

Well you've convinced me.  It's a conspiracy to screw the Redskins. 

 

With the game clock ticking away, the refs decided to fool the Redskins on the down.  They very cleverly made it look like confusion and lack of communication between the side judge, the line judge, and the refereee.  To us sheeple, it looked like an ordinary officiating ****up.  But you, among the enlightened, saw that it was a masterful acting job by those co-conspirators.  You saw right trough their clever plan. Congratulations.

[Burgold]

Well you've convinced me.  It's a conspiracy to screw the Redskins. 

 

With the game clock ticking away, the refs decided to fool the Redskins on the down.  They very cleverly made it look like confusion and lack of communication between the side judge, the line judge, and the refereee.  To us sheeple, it looked like an ordinary officiating ****up.  But you, among the enlightened, saw that it was a masterful acting job by those co-conspirators.  You saw right trough their clever plan. Congratulations.

Ask yourself also... did Moss deserve he personal foul?  Did the Giants only commit one penalty.  I saw an incredibly blatant hold/block in the back as our guy was charging toward the punt returner.  Only three people in the area of the ball.  Not sure if it was possible for the refs to miss it.  It was a hold and take down.

 

So, do you think these calls have no effect?  No cumulative effect?  On top of it, when the refs changed the down... not one of the cried, "Backsies!" I mean how can that be fair.

[SkinsFTW]

In baseball, you want both teams to operate with the same strike zone even if the strike zone changes from ump to ump.  Similarly, in the NFL you hope that what constitutes a hold for one team would be a hold for another.

The refs were doing this in every game I watched yesterday. Its really like they are in on something with Vegas or the NFL wants certain teams to win.

The Eagles game they were allowing DB's to interfere on every pass play, on a few they even tackled receivers before the ball was there, yet when Foles throws an INT that would have put the Cards in scoring range late in the game they call PI on a defender who wasnt even covering the player the ball was thrown to and his interference wasn't even close to earlier when the Cardinals receiver was clearly tackled by a DB that wasnt even attempting to cover the ball that wasnt there yet, this had happened more than once.

Then in the 49ers game the Rams defenders were getting called for BS from the 1st play of the game. It was ridiculous. The Rams likely would have beat the 49ers and obviously the NFL seems to want the 49ers and Eagles and maybe even the Giants to keep the suspense going with the NFCE, and everybody knows that the 49ers have 10x more fans than the Cardinals or Rams.

I used to always say that the NBA was rigged whenever a player like Jordan seemed to get away with BS, now its pretty clear to me that the NFL is the same way and likely on an even bigger level.

How can a player like Orakpo have a defender hanging off his neck from the side or behind on just about every play in every game and never get a call yet later in the same games offensive holding is called for almost nothing in comparison whenever a play doesnt go right for the opponent and this happens all the time. The same thing happened at the end of the Cards/Eagles game. Foles screws up, cards would have gotten the ball back, incoming manufactured defensive penalty to allow them to run the clock out.

They've made it so rules arent really rules, especially on PI and Offensive Holding calls, or block in the back on kick returns and they decide the games when they want to call what they refused to call the 100 other times in the games when they should have.

[LD0506]

Just for the record, I utterly loathe the whole tin-foil hat paranoia thing that seems so popular these days but c'mon man, when it happens so often, so blatantly, so one-sided week after week and game after game, I start to wonder wtf really is going on. I have no answers but I sure have a lot of questions.

 

To me it's like UFOs, if you really think they are LGM from another system unimaginable lightyears away using their insanely advanced tech to come here and then sneak around anal probing random bohabs, thennnn, you're a dumbass and you failed the IQ test. But to dismiss it all when there's something going on is equally dumb.

 

Yes, the team reeks this year, can't really argue that but how does that negate the officiating that is so bad it transcends mere incompetence, beyond buffoonery, so far away from the supposed "level playing field" they are supposed to provide that you couldn't see it with the Hubbell telescope, what kind of denial is it taking to write that all off?

[HogNose]

Score more points than the other team and you win....it's pretty simple.  We can complain about the refs all we want, but if they win then it doesn't matter.   

 

The culture needs to change...until then, this team will wallow in ****. 

[Bang]

there is absolutely no way no how any sort of conspiracy to screw the Redskins.

What we have is absolute incompetence in critical areas of the game, and for the Kospiracy Kooks, it happens all around the league.

 

There is absolutely no reason why the NFl can't hire fulltime refs to work year round on their craft to try and eliminate screw ups like this, which are simple fundamental things. this isn't some judgment call being flagged,, this is a simple matter of not keeping track of the downs, mis-spotting a ball, not calling for measurements when it should be..  basic basic stuff..

the play that they called a first down.. not only was it extremely close..  the side judge running in set his foot down on the yellow TV line, and the other one set the ball a half yard short of where he was marking, and they still behaved as if it were a first down.

Absolutely inexcusable. As in "THERE IS NO EXCUSE".

Everyone is human, and everyone makes mistakes, but as the rulebook expands, and the league forces refs to look for more and more "points of emphasis" they miss the obvious and are distracted from their overall job and as a result, make more and more and more gigantic boneheaded mistakes on simple situations.. ball spot, down marker.

 

The NFL needs to pare down it's rulebook, and hire refs full time that can work year-round on masteing their craft. The game has moved WAY WAY beyond this part-timer system they have used for 60 years.

 

this is the NFL's fault. The fact that it happens so much all over the league should wake them up, but it won't, and their product is suffering for it.

 

~Bang

[goskins10]

Here is my problem with the conspiracy theory - well everything. Please tell me that no one really thinks there is a "out to get the Skins" directive!! 

 

Look, are the refs totally incompetent? Yes they can be! Do they seem to go brain dead at critical points in the game? Yes! Does it feel like the calls go against more than other teams? Sure, I am a homer so no matter how objective I try to be, I am going to come down on the Skins side when ever it's questionable. But a conspiracy??  No way! Again, please tell me no one honestly believes this.

 

We lost because WRs can't catch, the Oline played only 1 quarter, and the D while mostly decent allowed some big plays that could have changed the game.

 

Also, even after the bone head ref screw up of all time with the downs, if Garcon just holds onto the ball it's a 1st down. Just saying.