Chargers Broncos Call

[Lets_Go_Joe]

Ive heard everyone just killing ed hocculie today, and i think its kind of unfair. The NFL has drilled it into the officials head to protect the qb as much as possible. When cutler threw or fumbled the ball, a defensive player was coming in free to hit him, hocculie blew the play dead bc from his perspective (behind the QB) it appeared to him that it was forward motion of the arm. Plus he didnt want to be the reason cutler got rocked on a non-play so he made a split second decision.

The other argument i hate is "the chargers player clearly would have gotten the bell, so why not replay it and give the ball to the bolts?"

Once a play is blown dead, most players give up on the play. You can argue in this case no one on the broncos would have made it to the ball before the chargers player, but how would you ever be able to tell? The thing is, baseball doesn't replay calls at 2nd base or home whether the tag was made or missed, its the human element of the game, I think it needs to stay there

Also, if you encourage players to play 100% even if a whistle is blown, alot more injuries can occur. Some guys are going to give up on the play while others are still going full out, and this is when people get blindsided and hurt.

I dont see how you can make this a replay type situation, and thats what the "experts" have been encouraging all day on ESPN, just wondering what you guys thought of the situation.

[theFRANCHISE]

Ed Hochuli is one of the better officials in the NFL, but everyone makes mistakes. Hochuli at least owned up to his when he spoke to Norv Turner on the sidelines after the call was reviewed, and he [i]tried[/i] to rectify it by at least placing the ball where it was fumbled, rather than at the original line of scrimmage at the 2-yard line.

In theory, if the Chargers had stopped the Broncos, the call would have been a moot point. But, we all know that didn't happen, and Mike Shanahan's successful decision to go for two and win the game only added insult to injury for San Diego.

No referee is perfect (as any fan will attest to), but at least Hochuli manned up and admitted his mistake on that particular call. I know there was an earlier gaffe with the replay equipment, but that was not his fault and needed no personal apology.

The man is a lawyer during his day job -- he must know every single word of the NFL rule book, down to a T. He probably knew he messed up before he even went to review the play, and the only reason he didn't rule it a fumble was because the whistle was already blown; the whistle is the end-all, be-all finish to a play when it comes down to a judgment call like that.

The good news is, at least this rule will spark a change in the rule book as it pertains to reviewing calls after the whistle is blown and the play is "dead." Unfortunately, San Diego had to be at the business end of it, just like Baltimore was last season with the controversial last-second field goal in the Browns game. And that particular play sparked a change in the rule book, as well.

[BrownsFan]

Two thoughts for me on this:

1.) Hochuli plain and simple blew the call and unlike the majority of refs he is one of the better ones if not THE best ref the NFL has. I can completely believe he probably feels REALLY bad about the call and as stated above by Franchise, everyone makes mistakes. I give Hochuli props for owning up to it and not ducking it.

2.) Despite the wrong call, Mike Shanahan said it best when he said that just because the call was blown it doesn't mean the Broncos were GIVEN a TD; they STILL have to put it into the endzone for 6. San Diego's defense at that point has to stop them from scoring, bad calls unfortunately happen to EVERY TEAM in the NFL and some happen at worse times than others but that doesn't excuse the SD defense from not stopping them either.

[Moderator 2]

He is my favorite ref I may not always like his call, but he calls games fairly and he manned up.

[Mahatma_Sloth]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' post='66520' date='Sep 15 2008, 06:52 PM']Ed Hochuli is one of the better officials in the NFL, but everyone makes mistakes. Hochuli at least owned up to his when he spoke to Norv Turner on the sidelines after the call was reviewed, and he [i]tried[/i] to rectify it by at least placing the ball where it was fumbled, rather than at the original line of scrimmage at the 2-yard line.

In theory, if the Chargers had stopped the Broncos, the call would have been a moot point. But, we all know that didn't happen, and Mike Shanahan's successful decision to go for two and win the game only added insult to injury for San Diego.

No referee is perfect (as any fan will attest to), but at least Hochuli manned up and admitted his mistake on that particular call. I know there was an earlier gaffe with the replay equipment, but that was not his fault and needed no personal apology.

The man is a lawyer during his day job -- he must know every single word of the NFL rule book, down to a T. He probably knew he messed up before he even went to review the play, and the only reason he didn't rule it a fumble was because the whistle was already blown; the whistle is the end-all, be-all finish to a play when it comes down to a judgment call like that.

The good news is, at least this rule will spark a change in the rule book as it pertains to reviewing calls after the whistle is blown and the play is "dead." Unfortunately, San Diego had to be at the business end of it, just like Baltimore was last season with the controversial last-second field goal in the Browns game. And that particular play sparked a change in the rule book, as well.[/quote]

you said it all bro.... a true man owns up to his mistakes

[johns600rr]

ok so if it was a incomplete pass, shouldn't have intentional grounding be called since there was no reciever in the area the ball landed?

[Lets_Go_Joe]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' post='66520' date='Sep 15 2008, 09:52 PM']The good news is, [b]at least this rule will spark a change in the rule book as it pertains to reviewing calls after the whistle is blown and the play is "dead." [/b]Unfortunately, San Diego had to be at the business end of it, just like Baltimore was last season with the controversial last-second field goal in the Browns game. And that particular play sparked a change in the rule book, as well.[/quote]

Explain to me how you can review a play based on what happened after the play was "ruled dead" doesnt that mean that the players are supposed to stop going all out, therefore making what happens after the whistle a non-factor??????

[theFRANCHISE]

I'll put it like this: at least Ed Hochuli is no Phil Luckett.

Now, Luckett...[i]there's[/i] a ref who's caught [i]a lot[/i] of bad breaks in his officiating career... (Think back to the 1998 Thanksgiving coin toss between the Steelers and the Lions.)

Plus, if the Chargers had played well enough throughout the entire game, their hopes wouldn't have hinged on that [i]one[/i] call. The Chargers should've left no doubt that they "deserved" to win by simply stopping Denver earlier, and by hanging more points up on the scoreboard -- it's that simple.

Though it can be argued that this was a case of the officials deciding the outcome of a game, that wouldn't be true if the team that got the business end of it, had simply out-played their opponent.