Officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

I kept thinking during the game last night that the refs were going to hand it to the Colts again! What a crock! When are people going to wake up and see the biased, pro Colts officiating!?

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

Although there is plenty of "evidence" that shows otherwise, I refuse to believe that officiating crews are actually biased against certain teams. This would ruin the entire integrity of the sport, which due to my love of football, I can't concede to.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

They did miss a PI call on that Chargers' DB near the goal line.

IMHO-the officiating has gotten very bad in recent years.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

The officials last night are pretty biased, but not on the colts side, hooray, first time ever.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

The part that gets me is the false start penalty just before the missed FG. Seems pretty clear in the rulebook:

"No player of offensive team may charge or move abruptly, after assuming set position, in such manner as to lead defense to believe snap has started."

That call may not be made in the 3rd quarter on 2nd and 9...but in a situation where the ENTIRE WORLD knows you are trying to draw an offside penalty, that was amazingly stupid and borderline arrogant ("hey everyone, look at the cool play I made up all by myself").

You know why the Colts are the only team inventive enough to run this play? Because it is against the rules.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

The no call on Marlin Jackson in light of the Hobbs call was awful. I would love to hear Pereira justify the no call there vs the call on Hobbs. I cannot see how he could justify it but I'm sure he will. Jackson clearly made contact before the ball arrived and before turning his head.

The Colts got screwed on the interception in the end zone. If the whistle doesn't blow they have first and goal in place of first and ten from the 20, and they win the game.

I'm sure uncle Bill in Don Shula fashion will consult the competition committee on that one.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

Thats not 100% true. I mean, if the whistle doesn't blow.. they get past the 20 yardline for sure, but all the way down to the 6? Not so sure...9/11 players on the colts D stopped and 10/11 players on the Chargers O stopped because of the whistle... So to think that if there was no whistle the play would have happened the same way is not really true. The colts would have gotten farther then the 20 I'm sure, but not down to the 6.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

No. When the whistle blew and the refs signaled no catch, most players stopped. Had there not been a whistle, the guy never would have made it to the twenty. He's about as fast as I am.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

I'm glad someone finally posted this rule, because I've been wonder what it was.

It's totally appropriate for the officiating crew to take the situation into account. For all the colts' whining last night about "we've run that same play a dozen times," the ridiculous part is that the WHOLE PLAY was designed to try to draw a penalty. Even if they get it away with it in noncritical situations, they have nobody to blame but themselves here. They tried to draw a penalty by simulating the start of the play, and they got nailed for it.

Contrary to the idiocy that Madden was spewing, they were NEVER going to run a play there on 4th down. They were in there solely to try to draw an off sides. They would have run the clock to nothing and either called time out or taken a delay penalty. I have no problem with the officials understanding that when they decide to throw the flag late in the 4th quarter, but letting it go other times if it doesn't draw a defender across to make contact.

I saw a replay on the inadvertent whistle, and it now looks clear what happened. The back judge threw the beanbag to indicate change of possession but as he did it he was jumping backwards to avoid getting hit and his other arm (not the one with the beanbag) went out to the side. It looked a bit like he was signaling incomplete rather than throwing the bag, which led one of the other officials to blow the whistle. Kind of funny the way it played out -- surprised stuff like that doesn't happen more often.

Re: officiating in Chargers/Colts game
 

I didn't mean the refs did the wrong thing after the whistle blew, the whistle shouldn't have blown.