Officiating (Merged Threads)

**Mista T** · 09-11-2012, 10:47 AM

If I were a locked out ref, I'd be getting prepared for a long, dull Autumn of watching NFL games on TV. There has been no discernible drop in the quality of officiating regular season games. The NFL has no motivation to collapse. Just as they did with the NFL players, all the NFL $$$-machine needs to do is stick to their position and the union will ultimately heel.

**jefe96** · 09-11-2012, 10:50 AM

A couple of observations from not just last night, but other games on Sunday:

Spotting is really bad. Always seems to be inches to feet to yards behind where it should actually be marked. Someone mentioned the Rice catch. He rolls untouched 2 yards past the marker and the official who is standing right there marks it right on the 1st down line.

No illegal contact being called. Which is fine, but just wondering why not. Any call being made against the defense seems to always be PI. Did not see one illegal contact call made in any game that I watched. Everything was always just called as a PI spot foul.

Is taunting still a penalty? Saw a couple of times last night where #20 for the Bengals made a hit and then stood right over the Ravens player. Thought this was a penalty. They seem to be afraid to call it.

As others mentioned they're not any worse then the regular refs have been at times. The calls just seem to be very inconsistent or non-existent.

**phacts** · 09-11-2012, 10:57 AM

Spotting has been atrocious with the replacement refs, from preseason thru last night. This is a big deal. It might not show up to the casual fan, but the spot of the ball determines winners and losers in a game of inches. As a former ref (low-level), I've always been amazed at the ridiculously accurate spots I've seen NFL officials get. Of course they make mistakes, but these replacement refs leave a lot to be desired with respect to their ball placement.

Personally, I want the old refs back as quickly as possible.

**GOTA** · 09-11-2012, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by Mista T

If I were a locked out ref, I'd be getting prepared for a long, dull Autumn of watching NFL games on TV. There has been no discernible drop in the quality of officiating regular season games. The NFL has no motivation to collapse. Just as they did with the NFL players, all the NFL $$$-machine needs to do is stick to their position and the union will ultimately heel.

:word

The NFL is not going to budge and really doesn't need to.

**alienrace** · 09-11-2012, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by Corey

I kept looking at Boldin's TD. Clearly he lost control of the ball but I havent seen an angle that clearly shows the ball laying on the ground. It almost looks like he trapped it in his lap. The refs made the right call not to overturn that one. Whether it was a catch or not? Only Boldin knows.

That's what it looked like to me, the ball moves, but it seems his hand and arm are still under it. It may have very well touched the ground, but in no way could any of those replay angles confirm that.

**NCCRavensFan** · 09-11-2012, 11:32 AM

What standard is that?

Do you not recall how many horrible mistakes were made every week last year? Every single week there was one big screw up after another.
Hell the regular refs once messed up a coin toss.

Like others have said, ball spots were off in general, also they didn't seem to be as aware of the play clock, I saw a few play clocks wind to zero, the Roethlisberger timeout being the most egregious.

**Lee Van Cleef** · 09-11-2012, 12:41 PM

I think the expectation that one must remove one's head before making a tackle, so as to not connect with it, is perhaps going a bit far.

**Haloti92** · 09-11-2012, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by Lee Van Cleef

I think the expectation that one must remove one's head before making a tackle, so as to not connect with it, is perhaps going a bit far.

**perryw9202** · 09-11-2012, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by NCCRavensFan

You also have to remember that the NFL put their best replacement refs on the Primetime games, so we also had the best of the best replacement refs for our game. Overall for the weekend I thought they did an okay job (they weren't up to the standard of the regular referees), although if the timeout debacle in Arizona had altered the outcome there would have been some serious outrage.

Yeah.. They did put the best officials in the prime time games. It was mentioned in the second game that the referee was the same one who called the Giants/Cowboys game last Wednesday. Don't remember an official ever working 2 games in the same week.

Not sure if it was the entire crew or just the head ref.

**festivus** · 09-11-2012, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by perryw9202

Yeah.. They did put the best officials in the prime time games.

Well, that is discouraging.

Apparently the best of the replacements is about as good as the bad regular officials.

**Corey** · 09-11-2012, 01:57 PM

I know there was one game this weekend, I can't remember which one. Either Saints- Redskins or Bronco's- Steelers, where the ref missed 12 men on the field. The ball was snapped and the 12th player wasn't fully off the field.

I was screaming at my TV for the coach to throw the challenge flag. In the Superbowl between the Giants and Pats (the first one), Belichick was allowed to challenge a play that went off when the Giants had twelve men on the field after the refs failed to blow the whistle.

It's stuff like that, that worries me with the replacement refs. Sure they know the basic rules but do they really know the down right intricate details of the rule book. If the tuck rule weren't so infamous, could any of them have pulled that one out of the rule book?

**callahan09** · 09-11-2012, 01:58 PM

The Webb penalty (unnecessary roughness) didn't bother me too much. I think it was a legal hit, but some of the replays show what appears to be his helmet hitting Dalton first, which is always going to draw a penalty, so since it was such a close call, I don't think there was anything unfair about the call, it was one of those 50/50 things that could have been called or not.

The block in the back penalties last night were ridiculous, however.

Both the one called, and the ones not called.

T. Smith most certainly should not have been called for it, and the Bengals SHOULD HAVE been called for it TWICE on far more egregious instances of the penalty, but got away with it (there was even a third borderline instance that was still worse than T. Smith's).