Week 4 Discussion(Other Teams)

[BmoreBird22]

The worst part about the play? The back judge was literally right there and the ball was bouncing up, so there was literally no other way to call that play other than an illegal batting.

No, the worst part was the back judge actually reached for his flag, but failed to throw it and discuss it with the referee who clearly knew the play, but didn't throw a flag because it is not in his realm to call it. Back judge had no idea that was a rule or had a foggy idea, but wasn't sure, so he just kept it in his pocket.

The NFL will likely review the rulebook now to make sure all rules are clearly known and cut down on how dense it is. It's pretty thorough and complicated to the point that these rules are becoming burdensome to officials, clearly. However, this is their job and there are people (doctors, vets, lawyers) who remember far more complex information, so it is possible to do.

I don't know, botched call. The NFL needs to either change the rulebook to be shorter and less dense or hire more competent referees

[BmoreBird22]

That judge should be fired.

Blandino too if he was on the phone with the ref and didn't point out that batting should be called. Poor Lions, they are always getting screwed in these officiating fails.

the back judge even reached for the flag, but clearly didn't know the rule well enough to feel comfortable throwing the flag

[RaineV1]

Eh, good teams don't leave the game up officials to decide the outcome. All Johnson had to do was secure the ball and they win. Yeah, it was a blown call, but they wouldn't have been in that position in the first place without the fumble. They also would have won if they even managed to get a couple more field goals. Even with the bad calls, they had the Seahawks on their heels and just couldn't take advantage of it. That's on them more than the officials.

 

As for odd calls in Seahawks games, maybe it's paying them back for the awful officiating in the Seahawks vs Steelers Super Bowl.

[beanfigger]

I hope the Seahawks rack up bad calls in their favor, and the refs make up for it when they play us by watching them super tight and critically.

[rmcjacket23]

Eh, good teams don't leave the game up officials to decide the outcome. All Johnson had to do was secure the ball and they win. Yeah, it was a blown call, but they wouldn't have been in that position in the first place without the fumble. They also would have won if they even managed to get a couple more field goals. Even with the bad calls, they had the Seahawks on their heels and just couldn't take advantage of it. That's on them more than the officials.

 

As for odd calls in Seahawks games, maybe it's paying them back for the awful officiating in the Seahawks vs Steelers Super Bowl.

Lions still have to score. Batting the ball out of the endzone doesn't automatically give the Lions the game.

[JO_75]

Seattle's luck with blown calls on MNF continues.

 

Well this teaches me to go to work during MNF. Looks like I missed a good game that again ends in referee controversy. Too bad Pittsburgh plays them on a Sunday 4:25 slot in Seattle instead of Monday Night.

 

That judge should be fired.

Blandino too if he was on the phone with the ref and didn't point out that batting should be called. Poor Lions, they are always getting screwed in these officiating fails.

 

It's funny watching Blandino and the NFL week in, week out come out and say, this flag shouldn't have been called, the refs missed this call. Yet nothing is done(meaning firing some of these officials) and we are left discussing these calls of what could/should have been a penalty. I said it on Sunday on that horrible Travis Kelce fumble review, when refs are missing calls/replay reviews that we as fans can see plain as day on these HD/4K TV screens at home. If we as fans can sit there and see on our TVs that Kelce was down and it should have remained KC's ball, or see that it was clearly illegal batting of the ball, something just isn't right.

[Purple Punishment]

Trent Richardson is gettng a workout with the Bills....and Ray Rice is still sitting at home?

[rmcjacket23]

Well this teaches me to go to work during MNF. Looks like I missed a good game that again ends in referee controversy. Too bad Pittsburgh plays them on a Sunday 4:25 slot in Seattle instead of Monday Night.

 

 

It's funny watching Blandino and the NFL week in, week out come out and say, this flag shouldn't have been called, the refs missed this call. Yet nothing is done(meaning firing some of these officials) and we are left discussing these calls of what could/should have been a penalty. I said it on Sunday on that horrible Travis Kelce fumble review, when refs are missing calls/replay reviews that we as fans can see plain as day on these HD/4K TV screens at home. If we as fans can sit there and see on our TVs that Kelce was down and it should have remained KC's ball, or see that it was clearly illegal batting of the ball, something just isn't right.

We do know that game officials are reviewed, graded, and rated on a weekly basis. Some of them actually do get demoted or replaced all together. The difference is... you'd probably never know about it. Like myself, you probably know a handful of the actual head referees by name, but other than that, you probably couldn't name even one back judge, side judge, umpire, etc. to save your life, without doing research about it. So the truth is that there likely is officials being replaced, possibly even monthly, but we fans know nothing about it, because we simply don't care. While most of the time officiating crews are usually "set" for an entire season (since one mistake in one week obviously isn't sufficient enough to lose your job), its not unheard of for certain officials to be "phased out" after many bad calls in a short period of time.

 

As it were, generally speaking, fans are wrong with their assessment of calls far more frequently than refs are (and that's even with replay). There's a ton of rules fans don't know about and think they do, and vice versa.

[allblackraven]

Couple interesting lines as a week 4 epilogue

 

Prima donnas everywhere:

 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000551175/article/bills-odell-beckham-a-prima-donna-threw-punches

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000551244/article/report-tannehill-incident-sparks-practice-changes

 

Sessler put it right, Texans QB two-headed disaster is the first class ticket to a top five pick:

 

http://www.nfl.com/videos/houston-texans/0ap3000000550059/Bill-O-Brien-wants-to-do-a-better-job-meter

[beanfigger]

Lions still have to score. Batting the ball out of the endzone doesn't automatically give the Lions the game.

 

True, but they were only down three points. That penalty would have at least resulted in a tie game or better for Detroit 99.99% of the time.

[rmcjacket23]

True, but they were only down three points. That penalty would have at least resulted in a tie game or better for Detroit 99.99% of the time.

... and there's still 1:30 left on the clock...

[beanfigger]

... and there's still 1:30 left on the clock...

Yes, so if the had kicked a FG, Seattle would be out of timeouts with little time left. If they scored on the first play, Seattle would have had to drive the whole field in little time with an offense that struggled all game.

It certainly didn't guarantee the game to the Lions, but it pretty much guaranteed the Seahawks had to score quickly or in OT. It was huge.

[ratedr]

Colts 2-0 without Luck. Good lord the AFC South is trash. Glad I didn't bother to watch.

[berad]

Greg Toler did a nice job of making that hail-mary work... too bad he plays for the Colts