Officiating Crews

Big-T said:

Steratore & Vinovich have the best crews, the 2 rookie head refs I've seen this year (are they the only 2?) both look to have decent crews too.

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thank you this is what i was looking for, who are the decent officiating crews if any outthere. or have the rule changes affected the officiating by putting a lot oft subjectivness into the decisions we see made out on the field these days i dont remember the officiating being this bad over all in the past, it seems like a more recent occurrence

Browner is definitely a target for these refs. Revis gets away with a lot of contact but if Browner even remotely breaths on whoever he's covering, they seem to call it.

jsull87 said:

That contact call that Edelman got was borderline as well. But i think there is no doubt the pats got some bad ones. That spot, pushing off on Dennard, Contact on Gronk for his TD, Calling hands to the face on Browner before Ayres Sack.

But that's football. I am neither too high or low about this game

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I saw a clear defensive pass interference one play before the Brady sack and a hands to the face non-call on Green Bay.

I'm sick of all the flags. I think this trend is very negative for the game experience.

On one hand, I think player safety is paramount. I support efforts to reduce behaviors that lead to injuries, such as blows to the head.
On the other hand, I disagree with so many penalties disrupting the game, especially the "defender's hand is too close to the offensive player" type.

What can the NFL do to discourage dangerous behaviors but not disrupt the game?
What about more fines and suspensions? Hand out penalties after the game, in addition to unnecessary roughness calls in game.
Any change in this approach would obviously require acceptance from the Players Association - and they would certainly be against any more off-field penalties.

Referees need to be reviewed graded and relegated every single year. Bottom 3 crews should be out of work in the NFL and the best crews from college should move up.

Jerome Boger and his crew need to be the first out. Incompetence personified.

While some crews are certainly worse than others (*cough*Boger*cough*), the real issue isn't the individual crew but rather the new rules and emphasis. If there aren't so many ways for a crew to affect the games, calls cannot be so slanted. The NFL is to blame for the perceived inequities with these new subjective and flag happy rules.

Rob0729 said:

Throwing the flag for 12 men on the field when the Pats have 11 has to be one of the most moronic calls by any ref crew I have ever seen. How can you trust a ref crew that can't count to 11?

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That call was right up there with the lingerie league refs

Hochuli probably should have been canned after that Chargers-Broncos game in 2008, but he's consistently one of the worst officials in the game.

Haley said:

While some crews are certainly worse than others (*cough*Boger*cough*), the real issue isn't the individual crew but rather the new rules and emphasis. If there aren't so many ways for a crew to affect the games, calls cannot be so slanted. The NFL is to blame for the perceived inequities with these new subjective and flag happy rules.

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Oddly the crew yesterday wasn't really flag happy, just inept. Way to much blatant crap missed and more than a few ticky tacky calls.

Overall it felt like it evened out yesterday, but the timing of some had a large impact. GB converted two thirds thanks to really blatant no calls, and got bailed out of bad situations on that bad call against Browner and the no call on that return.

Bledsoe_Fan said:

That call was right up there with the lingerie league refs

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Well, those refs have it harder because instead of having to count to 11, they have to count to 22.

TriplecHamp said:

Referees need to be reviewed graded and relegated every single year. Bottom 3 crews should be out of work in the NFL and the best crews from college should move up.

Jerome Boger and his crew need to be the first out. Incompetence personified.

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Jerome Boger's crew was the bottom rated crew the year the Ravens met the Niners in the Super Bowl but he and his crew were specifically elevated to ref THAT game by Goodell. This is a matter of PUBLIC RECORD. That game was a presposterous fix. Of course no one wants to admit that Goodell deliberately orchestrated the "Ray Lewis Retirement Bowl" but Boger and his crew made a mockery of the game that day.

Look at the Pats/Cincy game for MORE outright attempted game fixing by Boger...Cincy had FOUR penalties, NE TWELVE!!!!!...in a 43-17 beatdown. Boger repeatedly called nonsensical call after nonsensical call quarter after quarter attempting to influence the flow of the game. There is NO question about this. LOOK at it. It's what a moron would attempt to do, a catspaw moron doing his master's bidding.

Triplette is just a northerner hating cracker SOB. His games are usually lopsided in favor of any team south of the Mason-Dixon line when they play northern team>

Hochuli is an incompetent due to his pathological need to insert himself into the flow of a game...any game. There were bad calls on both sides yesterday, if you noticed. I said before the game that this nitwit would make these ridiculous mistakes and he did. Why does the NFL (Goodell) feel the need to sully a great contest between two top teams with a ref and crew KNOWN for head scratching calls and herky jerky game officiating?

Make no mistake about Boger though. HE is a scumbag.

Just a note, Gene Steratore - widely regarded as the best official in the league....was in charge of the Raiders @ Rams game. Bill Vinovich got the Bears @ Lions on Thursday.

Seriously, they let those games have the good officials and the Patriots @ Packers game got Hochuli?

It seems like blocking in the back is one of the calls that refs leaguewide tend to get right a majority of the time. This crew missed a pretty clear one (though there weren't any NBC replays to confirm this) in the 3Q when Slater was lined up to make a tackle within the 20 and got knocked to the ground from behind. After the play was over you could see Slater questioning the ref's vision.

I'd have gone ballistic if that return had gone back for 6.

Also - let me echo those who don't usually post about refs, but felt the need to ... elaborate on Hoculi's crew.

Dennard getting thrown to the ground? Right in front of a ref no less.

Unfair question. Seriously.
If they are good i don't notice them.

ForThoseAboutToRock said:

It seems like blocking in the back is one of the calls that refs leaguewide tend to get right a majority of the time. This crew missed a pretty clear one (though there weren't any NBC replays to confirm this) in the 3Q when Slater was lined up to make a tackle within the 20 and got knocked to the ground from behind. After the play was over you could see Slater questioning the ref's vision.

I'd have gone ballistic if that return had gone back for 6.

Also - let me echo those who don't usually post about refs, but felt the need to ... elaborate on Hoculi's crew.

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Something else annoying about yesterday's game: A lack of replays. On the play you mention, I remember seeing what looked like a block in the back, then seeing Slater complaining at the end of the play and that was it. They never showed a replay so we could see if it was a clean block or not. The same thing happened with one of the "hands to face" calls on the Patriots.

BradyManny said:

When they can't even count correctly, you have to wonder how competent the crew is.

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Same thing happened in Bengals game and MArvin Lewis actually threw a challenge flag when he wasn't supposed to (last two minutes) because the ref missed a 12 men penalty....
Oh and if we never see Clete Blakeman again ( clown from mugging in Carolina last year) it will be too soon..Watch he'll get next week' game....

TriplecHamp said:

Referees need to be reviewed graded and relegated every single year. Bottom 3 crews should be out of work in the NFL and the best crews from college should move up.

Jerome Boger and his crew need to be the first out. Incompetence personified.

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The bold happens.

The rest is completely asinine.

Rob0729 said:

Throwing the flag for 12 men on the field when the Pats have 11 has to be one of the most moronic calls by any ref crew I have ever seen. How can you trust a ref crew that can't count to 11?

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jsull87 said:

That contact call that Edelman got was borderline as well. But i think there is no doubt the pats got some bad ones. That spot, pushing off on Dennard, Contact on Gronk for his TD, Calling hands to the face on Browner before Ayres Sack.

But that's football. I am neither too high or low about this game

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BradyManny said:

When they can't even count correctly, you have to wonder how competent the crew is.

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102 Pat said:

Here's to hoping this game will ruin Hoculli's grade for getting a chance to work the playoffs...

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TBR said:

LaFell gave the Packers' DB a piggy-back and still got no defensive pass interference call. 2 players later: 3 & out. That was our 2nd or 3rd drive I believe.

Also, there was a textbook example of offensive pass interference on Devante Adams for a 3rd down coversion. It was as blatant of a push-off you could ask for and there was still no-call.

The call Edelman got was certainly favorable, but even with that, everything else was handed to GB.

I wouldn't say "that's football" though.

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woolster22 said:

The Adams push off was as obvious as they come, no call. That is my opinion of the officiating tonight. That said, we had multiple chances to overcome the bias and failed to convert.

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oldrover said:

Not to mention when Hochuli called a play dead because 'the refs weren't in position'.

"Hey guys... you've got to do it over again...

because we suck."

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stinkypete said:

I saw a clear defensive pass interference one play before the Brady sack and a hands to the face non-call on Green Bay.

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Urgent said:

I'm sick of all the flags. I think this trend is very negative for the game experience.

On one hand, I think player safety is paramount. I support efforts to reduce behaviors that lead to injuries, such as blows to the head.
On the other hand, I disagree with so many penalties disrupting the game, especially the "defender's hand is too close to the offensive player" type.

What can the NFL do to discourage dangerous behaviors but not disrupt the game?
What about more fines and suspensions? Hand out penalties after the game, in addition to unnecessary roughness calls in game.
Any change in this approach would obviously require acceptance from the Players Association - and they would certainly be against any more off-field penalties.

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Bledsoe_Fan said:

That call was right up there with the lingerie league refs

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primetime said:

Hochuli probably should have been canned after that Chargers-Broncos game in 2008, but he's consistently one of the worst officials in the game.

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When do you think the referee strike ends? These replacement ref are horrible.

I forget who I'm replying to but this can all be fixed by removing the 1978 rule that keeps getting "re-emphasized."
Making the whole field a "chuck" area unless the ball is in the air means the way to defend the pass is to throw off the timing with hand shoving. Right now it is to let the receiver contact the ball then hit him so hard he does not hold onto it.

The game is made safer and the refs have a much easier job.

Then we can work on moving the hash marks back.