Game Thoughts: The Pats beat the Bills and Gene Steratore's rogue whistle edition

[patchick]

I can't think of a reason a whistle should ever be blown mid play.

The official with the premature whistling problem is the poor guy who was seriously injured in a sideline collision with a player early in the season. (9 broken ribs, collapsed lung.) He was only recently able to return to work. There's speculation that with the players racing straight toward him and Rex blocking his view, he had a panicky self-preservation moment.

That's not an excuse, mind you, but maybe a reason.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

Yeah, I agree that is what they probably did, but they are not supposed to do that. I mean it benefitted the Pats that they decided to disregard what happen and claim that Amendola caught the ball before the whistle, but if you look at it as an unbiased observer they screwed both the Pats and then the Bills on that sequence.

I think he tried to make the best of a bad situation. Had he followed the rules and replayed the down, the place would have gone nuts. I assume he went over to Belichick and said essentially, " we giving you the catch but not any YAC". If you're Bill, you take the gift and don't complain because you know what they were supposed to do.. Oh and those extra 15 yards for Rex running on the field was a nice bonus.

 

[The Gr8est]

The rule should just be to play through the whistle, you can't undo that screw up. I thought they emphasized years ago for refs to hold the whistle because they kept blowing plays dead at the tackle and it negated a bunch of fumbles.

I can't think of a reason a whistle should ever be blown mid play.

Yet it seems to me that the refs wait too long to blow the whistle on running plays when the runner is wrapped up.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Wrong again. You are right on the interception hit no doubt, but the other hit was not on Brady's chin. That's legal. Its his chest.


So in summary, for Steratore specifically, he missed one call. The hit on Brady after a negated interception.

Wrong, yourself. Intent doesn't matter. The defender did hit Brady in the chest, but then his head slid up and hit Brady (hard) in the chin. That's supposed to be a penalty regardless of whether or not it was intentional and regardless of where the initial contact was as long as initial contact is on the upper chest or higher.

 

[tasmlab]

Rob, I know the injury situation sucks this year, but I think nothing tops 2013.

2008.

Sorry, too soon?

 

[DaBruinz]

Speaking of poor officiating, did anyone see the offsides that wasn't called on the 3rd down play after the inadvertent whistle? I may have to go back and check the DVR, because it looked like a Bills D lineman had his hand a good foot or two past the line of scrimmage at the snap, no call. Now, it could be that the line on the TV was inaccurate, or the angle made it look worse than it is, but it looked so blatant I was stunned when there was no flag. Anyone else notice that?

It was Jerry Hughes and I mentioned it in the Game thread as well as the post-game thread..
They also missed a false start by Cordy Glenn.. He was moving back from the line before the ball was snapped during the Bills field goal drive..

 

[DaBruinz]

The official with the premature whistling problem is the poor guy who was seriously injured in a sideline collision with a player early in the season. (9 broken ribs, collapsed lung.) He was only recently able to return to work. There's speculation that with the players racing straight toward him and Rex blocking his view, he had a panicky self-preservation moment.

That's not an excuse, mind you, but maybe a reason.

I honestly feel that Ryan purposely blocked the view of the official.. I've NEVER seen a coach got at an official like that DURING a play. After a play, sure. But never during one.

If Ryan isn't fined and suspended for his actions, then it will just confirm, again, what we know about Goodell. That's he's a pompous hypocrite.

 

[rochrist]

Here I go:

• First and foremost, this was one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. Steratore and his crew should be embarrassed and Steratore should be suspended. He could have cost the Pats the game. And even after that he got the call wrong on the inadvertent whistle. And that was just the most glaring screw up. There were bad calls and no calls all game. There should have been a personal foul at least twice on hits on Brady (one when he threw the interception that was overturned by offsetting penalties and a defender just clocked him and then one when he was hit in the chin).

However bad they we're last night, Steratore is one of the best refs in the game. I can't see suspending him while Jerome ****er Boger continues to work.

 

[Billsfanonapatsforum]

He actually benefited New England as best he could, since technically, they should have called it NO CATCH and replayed the down.

This is true, it's a redo the down play... the Pats benefited not the bills and 15 yarder is nill when it's a redo the down... he actually got every facet of it wrong on that call but tried to favor the pats for botching the call instead of following the rules.................................. instead of following the rules............. instead of following the rules.................... if we repeated that for each offense against each team the page would be full.

 

[mosey threetupu]

Not starting a thread about this and don't want to hijack but how is no one talking about Rex clearly influencing if not causing that "inadvertent" whistle.

Edit - just saw the thread.

 

[rochrist]

This is true, it's a redo the down play... the Pats benefited not the bills and 15 yarder is nill when it's a redo the down... he actually got every facet of it wrong on that call but tried to favor the pats for botching the call instead of following the rules.................................. instead of following the rules............. instead of following the rules.................... if we repeated that for each offense against each team the page would be full.

It's a redo the down play IF the ball was in the air when the whistle blew. I've watched the play a bunch of times now, and while it's pretty clear the whistle blew while the ball was in the air, it was /really/ close. Considering they can't review the play, it's happening in real time while they're watching, it's conceivable to me that they felt justified in ruling it a catch, whether or not the Pats would benefit.

 

[Billsfanonapatsforum]

It's a redo the down play IF the ball was in the air when the whistle blew. I've watched the play a bunch of times now, and while it's pretty clear the whistle blew while the ball was in the air, it was /really/ close. Considering they can't review the play, it's happening in real time while they're watching, it's conceivable to me that they felt justified in ruling it a catch, whether or not the Pats would benefit.

I'll say it again, we're like a bunch of peasants fighting of scraps from the king... everyone gets jilted when the rules are to interpretative and the enforcement isn't consistent.... the integrity of the game is at hand and fighting among ourselves is exactly what keeps the M.O.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Sounds like they could go halfway toward implementing Bill's suggestion and allow video review for a bunch of situations where the refs have the potential to look like idiots, because they might get a black and white issue wrong (like the timing of the whistle) if they don't avail themselves of video review.

They would have been fine just assessing a 15-yard penalty for Ryan placing his fat ass between the offending official and the play. They didn't need to make a make-up call then. They simply got it wrong.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

Gonna need an actual video or gif rather than one picture still.

Gonna need a slow-motion video. I can't count the number of times that I've railed against the ****ification of the game, when a QB gets hit squarely in the chest, his head snaps back, and RTP is called, only to realize that the defenders helmet barely touched the QBs facemask, and that caused his head to snap back so fast that I couldn't even discern the contact at full speed. Tough job the officials have protecting the NFL's biggest investment.

 

[glm]

Gonna need a slow-motion video. I can't count the number of times that I've railed against the ****ification of the game, when a QB gets hit squarely in the chest, his head snaps back, and RTP is called, only to realize that the defenders helmet barely touched the QBs facemask, and that caused his head to snap back so fast that I couldn't even discern the contact at full speed. Tough job the officials have protecting the NFL's biggest investment.

This wasn't one of those plays, he clearly hit Brady square on the chin. What made it very obvious was how Tom's head flew back during the hit.

Hell, Brady was obviously shaken up after the hit, and we all know Tom's a tough sum*****.

 

[Tuck]

Wrong, yourself. Intent doesn't matter. The defender did hit Brady in the chest, but then his head slid up and hit Brady (hard) in the chin. That's supposed to be a penalty regardless of whether or not it was intentional and regardless of where the initial contact was as long as initial contact is on the upper chest or higher.

That play sucked. Brady is lucky he didn't get his jaw broken. I can only guess there was no flag because Steratore was not in position to see it.

 

[Rawky77]

Yeah, I agree that is what they probably did, but they are not supposed to do that. I mean it benefitted the Pats that they decided to disregard what happen and claim that Amendola caught the ball before the whistle, but if you look at it as an unbiased observer they screwed both the Pats and then the Bills on that sequence.

With all due respect to the unbiased in this world what the refs did was fair to both sides. The refs restored the play to its point of least success, IE the point of the Amendola catch with no YAC. Thus both teams were treated fairly and that's about the best you can hope for in that situation.

 

[Rawky77]

Wrong, yourself. Intent doesn't matter. The defender did hit Brady in the chest, but then his head slid up and hit Brady (hard) in the chin. That's supposed to be a penalty regardless of whether or not it was intentional and regardless of where the initial contact was as long as initial contact is on the upper chest or higher.

My take on that hit was it was illegal from the kit-go as the player lead with his Helmet which is by definition spearing. Regardless of where the contact was made.

 

[DaBruinz]

I'll say it again, we're like a bunch of peasants fighting of scraps from the king... everyone gets jilted when the rules are to interpretative and the enforcement isn't consistent.... the integrity of the game is at hand and fighting among ourselves is exactly what keeps the M.O.

Sorry, but the only reason there is even an issue is because your unprofessional Head Coach came storming down the sidelines and interfered with the Official on the sidelines by being in the white chalk area. Ryan's actions were clearly intentional and he should be fined and/or suspended for his actions..

 

[pencilneckgeek]

I don't know that Ryan's journey onto and along the white stripe was intentional. He was just overly involved emotionally and got excited about getting in a sack of Brady and interfered with the play. It's typical of him and his teams to lose control at key moments and clearly attributable to his lack of a fully evolved temporal lobe, central to the ascendancy of homo sapiens. Ascribing attention to a simian, however humanlike their behavior, is called anthropomorphization and leads to logical fallacies. Please aspire to a higher standard. This is New England after all.