[News] Ravens React To Questionable Referee Calls

[boconnor]

I have been listening & watching football for 55 yrs this is the worst year for officiating all across the league that I can remember. What happens to the refs for making bad calls they don't get publicly called out and fined as they should like the players. Harbaugh was right about someone getting hurt any the offender fined for hitting them for hitting the runner in the position he is in

[GrapeApe]

I'm sorry but it kinda looked like John Urschel was brushing dirt off of his jersey. Just running to the huddle and flapping his hands. If I was a ref, I wouldn't have paid him any mind, either. He needs to get up in the refs face.

[surfdude]

O.K. my fellow Ravens fan I hate to say it, but I'm done with the NFL. The officiating not just with the Ravens, but throughout the other games is a joke. The product sucks ! NFL has neuter the defenses and like a lot of you have said call penalties whenever they feel like it. I've seen so many blown calls with the ref looking right at the play. Unreal. I will always bleed purple, but will be a fan from afar now.

[Ravensfansince03]

These bad calls from the refs went to far last night. Even if you weren't a ravens fan, it looked like the refs were helping the Cards seal a victory. I mean that's the poorest I've seen officiating since that TD pass during the Packers-SeaHawks game....and those were back up refs!! Its getting sad because it just makes you think, how is it possible for referees to continue to make horrible horrible calls, and everyone watching the game including the announcers knows its wrong, but there is nothing that can be done about it. Im tired of this Commisioner Goodell run NFL league.

[Ravensfansince03]

On that play when Brandon Williams tackled Chris Johnson and Chris was just sitting still, if another defender had of came in and popped him the refs would have thrown a flag.

[RavensInNC]

Fumble wasn't close at all, his ankle was down. Refs blew the call big time.

[RavensInNC]

I'm sorry but it kinda looked like John Urschel was brushing dirt off of his jersey. Just running to the huddle and flapping his hands. If I was a ref, I wouldn't have paid him any mind, either. He needs to get up in the refs face.

 

If you watch the video you see Flacco pointing to him and it appears he is saying something to the Ref as well. (I doubt he is talking about his Mighty Wings)

[A Fish Called Yanda]

Would just like to commend the Ravens website for posting this article.  Not often you see the official team website calling out the refs for doing such a poor job.

 

However, I think we can all agree that the officiating is not the reason that we lost last night.  Our secondary is easy to beat and will continue to be so for the rest of the season - they are the reason that we lost the game.  That being said, I think we have every right to complain about the referees and hold them accountable for the many blatant mistakes that were made.

Edited October 27, 2015 by A Fish Called Yanda

[RavensDieHard21]

I agree with everyone's comments on this story. I thought we had heart out there and that we played good against a top notch team in a hard place to win. But, refs need to start getting suspended or demoted when making those atrocious calls. His knee looked like it was down and Ross probably shouldn't have ran that one. But these make or break calls are killing us. The johnson one was by far the worst. If Smith or Hill hit him after forward progress was stalled there is no doubt an unnecessary roughness call would've came.

[NaturalBird]

Coach John Harbaugh keeps saying Johnson was stopped for 3 sec. Sorry coach but watch in full speed and he wasn't hardly stopped for one full sec. Pee Wee ballers know to play to the whistle. Just a poor D play.

[GeeWallee]

Terrible job by this Ref Crew. Took the momentum from us on 4 different occasions. Urschel "CLEARLY" signaled to the Ref and he was looking right at the huddle. No way did Webb interfere on the play near the 5. Ross was down and still had more control than the Card's tackler. I also think that CJ's calf hit the turf as he was being tackled. Amazing that when you are the home team, you seem to get the close calls...... eh ? You also don't replay  a play, with a possible reversed call, on your stadium's JumboTron......lol It's over and done with, but we may be better off with officials calling the games from the TV Booths. Get's frustrating as a Fan, but a good team won't give the ref's the chance to help decide a game's outcome.

Edited October 27, 2015 by GeeWallee

[sami]

there were two other calls I thought were pretty poor by the refs. The unsportsmanlike conduct on Asa. The cardinal was hanging onto his legs pushing him back, whats he suppose to do? That call should have been on both. offsetting. And the other was The call on Webb for pass interference at the goal line. That was a great play and the refs gave the Cards 3 more chances to score.

[RavensFanThick&Thin]

Shoot I'll say it if nobody else does. Stating referees didn't lose us the game (or injuries, or cap issues blah blah etc) is just sports politics. Because no one wants to hear excuses. We, in a sense, go along with the official statements because it sounds good instead of like sore losers but if we're being honest those calls were atrocious enough to make any team lose. This year is just Murphy's Law in full effect for our beloved Ravens...

[validjim]

Living in the West, I don't often get to see the Ravens play, but when I do, I love it and the team. Last night was terrible. No, not the team or their play, but it is tough to play a good team and the Ravens shouldn't have to play against the referees too. That was horse puckey.

[Space11jams]

maybe JH exaggerated on the amount of time the play was stopped but it was long enough to where a whistle should've been blown dead. everyone stopped the play, even CJ didn't move. he wasn't fighting for extra yardage and that was clear. JH is right if someone would have hit him the way he was we would've gotten flagged for it....to many times the game has been altered because of bad calls. who knows, that ineligible call could have given us a TD if that wasnt called.....NFL need to do something about the officiating because in almost every game not just the ravens it's been really really bad

[BillyD]

Shoot I'll say it if nobody else does. Stating referees didn't lose us the game (or injuries, or cap issues blah blah etc) is just sports politics. Because no one wants to hear excuses. We, in a sense, go along with the official statements because it sounds good instead of like sore losers but if we're being honest those calls were atrocious enough to make any team lose. This year is just Murphy's Law in full effect for our beloved Ravens...

Brother, I agree with you that those horrible calls didn't help.  But neither did our inability to move the ball at all in the 2nd half.  First drive of the 3rd quarter, 3 and out, Flacco sacked on 3rd and 10.  2nd drive - Two 1st downs, then 3 straight incompletions, punt.  Only one running play on that 2nd drive.  3rd drive - One 1st down, then 2 short passes to set up 3rd and short and we get stuffed on 3rd and 1.  Punt.  4th Drive - 3 and out, Flacco sacked on 3rd and 2.  Final drive - We move to ball all the way down the field only to be intercepted in the end zone to close out the game.  So let's put that together - 5 drives, 4 punts and a pick, 2 drives ended by sacks on 3rd down.  So while we started the 2nd half down only 4, we did nothing on offense the entire 2nd half to rectify that.   

[BillyD]

Terrible job by this Ref Crew. Took the momentum from us on 4 different occasions. Urschel "CLEARLY" signaled to the Ref and he was looking right at the huddle. No way did Webb interfere on the play near the 5. Ross was down and still had more control than the Card's tackler. I also think that CJ's calf hit the turf as he was being tackled. Amazing that when you are the home team, you seem to get the close calls...... eh ? You also don't replay  a play, with a possible reversed call, on your stadium's JumboTron......lol It's over and done with, but we may be better off with officials calling the games from the TV Booths. Get's frustrating as a Fan, but a good team won't give the ref's the chance to help decide a game's outcome.

Agree with you 100 percent.  We did absolutely nothing on offense the entire 2nd half until the final drive.  Then as we were closing in for the potential tying score, confusion sets in, headsets go off, and the train goes off the rails.  Frustrating across the board with all the calls and craziness throughout the game, but haven't we heard the "we need to finish better" story before?  Aren't we supposedly practicing week in and week out these end game scenarios?  They say lightning never strikes twice...Well, the person that made that assessment hasn't watched a Ravens game this season.

[cobrajet]

His forward progress was so completely stopped, you have to blow the whistle for player safety!!!!!!!!!!

[ibleedpurpleandblack]

We are acting like we haven't experienced bad reffing before; is everyone a new Ravens fan or what? How many times do we have to say you can't let them be the deciding factor of the game?

[ellicottraven]

Bad luck befriends losers more often than not. As for us, bad luck seems to have married our team just prior to pre-season and won't accept a divorce!

[FlocksGottaFeed]

Is it me, but if you can't 'definitively' see if player's knee is down with some of the most accurate million dollar video playback apparatus on the planet - how do you see that his knee is not down with aging eyes from a bad mobile angle in a split-second?

You just don't make that call on the field.

[Jim Giampaoli]

Didn't Belichick put in ineligible receivers during the playoff game last year? He had them lined up as wide outs. The zebras went along with it. The call on Urschel was, to say the least, shocking. Johnson got back up and started to run. The play was never blown dead.

[Ravens_Flock]

Good teams overcome bad red calls. Good teams play so well, that they can win regardless. We are a not a good team. Our entire team basically sucks, outside of Tucker, from Flacco on down. If it didn't, we wouldn't be 1-6. And in all honesty, we should by all rights be 0-7. This is not "playing like a Raven", and Harbaugh claims it is, then he needs to go.

[birdseye]

Do referees not get the same images that we see on tv when they go under the booth? If not, why the hell don't they, I think the NFL can afford the technology to make that happen. When watching the game live ESPN aired at least 2 or 3 high definition DEFINITIVE pictures of Ross' knee on the ground and the ball secured in his hands. Its like, I know we can't say the Ref's lost us the game, but dude, if we dont fumble that punt, and if we get a touchdown after the Urschel play, I'm pretty comfortable in saying I think we would have won that game. Anything can happen but to say that these refs didn't have a direct impact on the outcome is just as much a load of BS as saying that they didn't lose us the game. as a side-note, we cant underestimate the power of momentum, just remember our superbowl if you need an example.... in this game the refs made sure the ravens never had any and when they did get it the refs took it right away... not the cardinals, the refs took our momentum with terrible calls... In any other high stakes work like this such a crucial error would cost that person their job, seems fitting

[Barry S]

This rule about being on top of another player and not being down is a given, in this instance forward progress was stopped but it was a judgement call. The refs whistle stops the play however, so that should be a lesson learned, never stop until they blow the play dead. No sense in crying over it, next time drive him into the turf he's a runner, just don't hit him in the head helmet to helmet.

[The Mom Gene]

Per Ed Werder of ESPN, the NFL will agree referee Ronald Torbert erred in penalizing Ravens John Urschel for illegal substitution. Torbert won't be punished because it was “determined not to be critical” to the final score of the game.

 

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[Raven_Lunatic]

In additon to the ones called on us; I also saw a pretty blatant block-in-the-back by a Cards player on one of the kick-offs. Also pretty sure I saw a Cards offensive player grabbing Trawick#28 by the face mask. The announcers let me confirm my suspicions by showing a replay...but they seemingly did not notice as they were talking about a Cards player at the time! Don't get me wrong, I think Gruden and Tirico are by far my favorite announcing duos to date. I think they do a good job, and especially love Gruden's desire to help us fans see a little behind the scenes, with diagnosing plays, language terminology, and what-not.

Hoping we get some of these "homefield advantage" calls in the next coming weeks.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Raven_Lunatic

[Grapple Raven]

Sure, there is a long list of self imposed reasons contributing to the loss. However, the bad calls by the refs were huge and game changing. As many shortcomings as this team has, the Ravens may have played well enough to have gotten the win if those horrendously bad calls did not occur. Sure, we are not a very good team right now so incompetent officiating is the 1 factor they cannot control, overcome or currently compensate for or absorb. I just hate to see unaccountable refs ruin this game and interject bad calls which can notoriously put the nail in the coffin. Refs are too often involved in game altering shoddy calls throughout the league. I hate bad calls, whether it be the Ravens or another team I am watching. The league has done too little to insure the quality and consistency of the refs who can determine outcomes when they botch calls over and over again.

 

Brilliant post!

 

And I will add to that... with the billions of dollars the NFL pulls in each and every year, and with the state of technology today there is absolutely no reason why this debacle of communication "headset" issues needs to exist, period!

[EddiOK]

My Yelp rating for the refs, on a 1-5 scale, would be -13.

[EddiOK]

So the next time a ball carrier is held down, not moving, sitting on another player, and a 2nd defensive player comes over and cleans his clock - how many of us think we'll see an unsportsmanlike conduct or late hit penalty for that? Yep, me too.