Some egregious bad calls and non-calls in this article.
Yes
1 Like
Watching the KC game yesterday.
Start of the 4th quarter One of the KC OL had a vegas defender in a head lock. No call. But a weak illegal contact on defense. Just to keep KC in the game.
The NFL needs to make refs full time employees. And force them to be accountable
3 Likes
Let’s see how they officiate the dallas game before we have this conversation.
It is pretty bad. But social media has amplified the noise about it.
Also does not help having each play replayed in super slow motion.
Recency bias probably plays big role in people making those statements.
But who knows, maybe it is way worse.
1 Like
It’s at the level of the replacement refs
I would say they are damn good.
The ball spotting and things that are clear they are like 100%
The 2 areas that are a problem are holding and PI.
I think the very best crews find a way to feather the basketball mantra of if the holding or PI had an effect on the play directly.
The “missed calls” are almost exclusively judgement calls. And you have to take into account the ref, his location on the field, and his responsibilities.
We the viewer get to see 4 views of which the ref typically only sees 1 of those views .
1 Like
Don’t forget it only really matters when the darlings get screwed. When the refs were on strike, and the scabs actually called it how they saw it, the Packers were “victimized” by the refs and the next week the full time ones were back calling the same biased crap we’ve endured for ages.
Itll take some more bad calls against the darlings before major change happens. They need to start utilizing technology and the eye in the sky to confirm or override some bad calls. The biggest issue will be the plays where there isn’t a flag thrown.
3 Likes
There’s a SI article dedicated to explaining why the refs gave us the Vikings game and listed all the calls they are unhappy about
But never mentioning the bad PI call against us or the terrible 3rd down spot
Yes, there are plenty of bad calls, missed calls, and bad rules that still hamper the NFL and its officiating quality. It will never be perfect or anything close to perfect.
Having said that…
I think the officiating has been an improvement this year. I’ve particularly enjoyed the new fast replay system. I think the NFL has done a good job of gradually shifting to the eye in the sky model where a video official can quickly get word to the officials on the field to correct calls. I’m looking forward to when they completely move replay upstairs and even feature a full-time video official for each game that can quickly and efficiently communicate with the refs on the field.
They’ve gotten fast enough at this point to speed up replays, which I’ve got to believe all of us enjoy? I think they can eventually get to a point where they help to pick up more flags for phantom calls, or help with late flags for missed, egregious calls. The overall accuracy improves, as does the time it takes the officials to get calls correct. That can’t be bad, right?
So long as they don’t turn it into an over-saturated, overbearing video official system, I think there is a sweet spot that will be pretty damn good, all things considered. Long ways to go, but it’s clear they are doing this gradually…which is good imo.
1 Like
I would like to know the number of offensive holding calls this year vs last. My hunch is there have been a lot fewer this year.
According “the football database”
2023 - 0.877 per team per game
2022 - 0.882 per team per game
2021 however 1.001 per team per game.
Its down almost 15% from 2 years ago
3 Likes
As well as
-Which team he is a fan of
-Which team he has bet money on
-Which team he is held most accountable for calling penalties against, and so on.
1 Like
I think there’s some truth to that but also the owners influence in keeping their $200,000,000 investments upright. Despite more holding, QBs are continuing to get hurt and the product suffers.
It has been pretty bad as of late.
I think teams an even most fans want the calls to be fair calls an that is not the case in most big complaint calls. You look at video an makes a person wonder what they hell are they looking at.
We as Lion fans know what it feels like to get shafted by officials like they did last season in Ram Seattle game. The how many have been called numbers mean nothing. If they call 3 holdings on one team an just one on another the one can be at final drive of a game an affect the result.
Meaning depends when calls are made.
The illegal contact is way to easy to give a team a automatic first down. That IMO shouldn’t be a automatic first down. Two players collide an they normally call the O for the penalty .Now when its blatant then call holding on D. Or PI on O or D.
Spotting the ball has to be ridiculously hard, and I think they have done a fine job for the most part with that. The play is run by the fastest biggest people on the planet and they are in a huge pile up diving and someone is supposed to see a small brown ball and figure where it goes down to the inch. It’s actually impressive how much they are accurate.
2 Likes
Its trending towards “normal” levels. Its interesting that the least amount of holding calls since 2009 was the covid year. Did they want offenses to look better to bring in more viewers despite a lack of crowds?
The biggest difference I see this year vs in the past is the obvious holding calls are being purposely ignored. Its not just Hutch. Its strange and not good for football IMO. As I said in another thread, I would have my defensive lineman work with some kind of wrestling coach or whatever fighting discipline can help with this situation. If the refs are not going to make the call, the only other option is to KNOW the hold is coming and be able to have a counter move that puts the offensive lineman in a painful or compromsing position when he does it.
1 Like
It comes down to when, where and how. If a defender is being roped at the top of the arc and 2 full yards away from the QB, those are not called. As with a lot of calls, the refs are looking at hand placement and jersey pulls, or full-on tackles.
I kind of get it. Since holding could be called on just about every play, there has to be an acceptable threshold. That seems to be whether the defensive player is in position to actually make a play.
That’s just what I think I see. I don’t think it’s working well at all and expect them to “emphasize” certain plays again in the offseason. You know, just typing that out, I think what we’re seeing this year is playoff-officiating. We’ve always known they swallow their whistles once the playoffs start. This regular-season seems more inline with playoff holding, which has always been ignored.
I am seeing holds from the line of scrimmage all the way to the QB being purposely ignored. They are not making a distinction. These are also not backside holds or inconsequential holds. They are meaningful holds that are allowing the QB to get off a pass or escape. Its intentional. If they want to change the rules that’s fine. But its hard to respect the league as a fan when they will throw in some selective enforcement of what they are choosing to willfully ignore on other plays.
We all remember this holding call that was ignored against the Seahawks. Every week I’m seeing this purposely ignored in nearly every game. And again, if they NEVER enforced it…it would be different. Its the selective enforcement that raises eyebrows.
1 Like