Referee Ed Hochuli

[Haley]

What a mess. They couldn't even keep track of what down it was!!

 

[Zeus]

Was the McCourty penalty based on what the officals saw on the field or on the replay board?

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

I think most of the questionable calls last night were by the U. In fact, I don't think Hochuli had a call all night other than maybe one of the false starts. He was 40 yards from the helmet to helmet call, so there's no way he called that -- he just listened to his crew.

Maybe they give Hochuli a crappy or inexperienced crew because he's an established ref? Not sure how that works. The ref is in charge of down, though, with the U backup, so that cluster**** was Hochuli.

At the end of the year, it will be interesting to see how holding penalties compare with prior years. I think the U in his new position is just not in a good spot to see them. I think he's straightlined to half the line. I've seen occasions where holding this year is called by the BJ and the U kept the flag in his pocket, which means he didn't see it but a guy 20 yards behind the U's old position does see it.

 

[RobertWeathers]

That was the worst one-sided officiating I have ever seen. !

2006 AFCCC in Indy was the worst.

2005 AFC Div in Denver was 2nd.

1976 AFC Div vs OAK was close to 1st.

 

[N.Eman]

I usually like Ed..but I do know this..the Packers got a way with A TON of holding by that O line.

defenately got away with some, If they were actually called no way Matt Flynn has such a good game. Plus with Dictator Goodhell present the Zebras were nervous

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Was the McCourty penalty based on what the officals saw on the field or on the replay board?

Looked to me as though the BJ came running in pretty quickly to basically tell the LJ the equivalent of "I have more information than you perhaps saw," which is what led to the conference. But I don't know when the replay ran in the stadium. Whether they saw the replay while they were conferencing is hard to say.

 

[RoughingthePasser]

Not a big fan of him-never have been.
He can keep wearing those tight shirts but the fact is he's limp and he'll never be able to do what TBC has done.
The butt packers were holding all night and the McCourty helmet hit was weak.

Not impressed by Godell either-he's NOT a football player and never will be.

 

[p8ryts]

The McCourty penalty seemed to clearly be a head shot to me and worthy of a penalty call. However, it did seem that they called it based on replays because it was a real late call.

There was a lot of holding.

The one they that boggles my mind is the hands to the face. Both players were in each others face and Tully got called. A couple plays later the tackle had his hands in Tully's facemask again and there was no call.

The hands to the face, call and non call, were the ones I had a problem with.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

No real complaints from me. It is what it is, and for much of the night we were outplayed

 

[RoughingthePasser]

The NFL keeps limiting what defensive players can do.
It's sad.

 

[Froob]

2006 AFCCC in Indy was the worst.

2005 AFC Div in Denver was 2nd.

1976 AFC Div vs OAK was close to 1st.

2007 at indy was really bad too. Might be worse than all of those(wasn't alive in '76 so can't comment there.)

 

[TrueBeliever]

Thought Hochuli was playing to Goodell, rather than reffing the game.. too many delays before calls were made, felt he was indecisive...

Usually like him, but last night he and his crew missed a lot of Green Bay penalties and overcalled penalties on the Pats...

I have to agree. Usually I'm not one to blame a loss on the refs, my feeling being if you're good enough to win the game, you will (except of course for games against the Clots.) Last night however, the officiating was just ridiculous. Even I could see holding by the Packers that went unnoticed.

And that one call, even the announcers said they threw the flag just because Goodell was at the game. Give me a break. You're so damn concerned about player health but you're going to force them to play two more games every year.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Was there any offensive holding penalties being called? I saw some pretty bad holding by the packers, but can't say for certain if the Patriots returned the favor in the second half where the O-line seemed to eb doing a better job.

it seemed like the Pats had a call or two go their way early in the game as well. All in all, I was more concerned abotu the tackling and people falling down (and Meriweather taking out McCourty to allow the 61 yd touchdown).

wit hthe crew and the commish being around, you had to figure the game was going to be like this, so I'm not going overboard on the criticism.

 

[PatsDeb]

2006 AFCCC in Indy was the worst.

2005 AFC Div in Denver was 2nd.

1976 AFC Div vs OAK was close to 1st.

Yes, I guess in the heat of the moment I have forgotten these other debacles. My vote for the worst ever is the Denver game.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

On the merits, I thought they missed a lot. More for the Patriots than the Packers, but there were a couple I thought could have gone against us. There looked to me a block in the back on the big Connolly run. There also looked to me to be a PI that I was sure would draw a flag. Missing the TBC face mask is inexcusable, but at the end of the day, he did put his hand up under the facemask so it would have taken the pick off the board anyway. Offsetting penalties there would only have meant replay 2d and 5, so it's not a huge deal to me. On the McCourty play, I'd have to see the text of the rule, but my general impression is that although it's not the most pernicious kind of contact or what they are most concerned about, because he led with his shoulder, the helmet was actually the first thing that made contact with the player. At least it looked that way to me. Isn't that what the rule prohibits? If they used replay to call it, though, that's no good -- playing to the Commish.

 

[DaBruinz]

On the merits, I thought they missed a lot. More for the Patriots than the Packers, but there were a couple I thought could have gone against us. There looked to me a block in the back on the big Connolly run. There also looked to me to be a PI that I was sure would draw a flag. Missing the TBC face mask is inexcusable, but at the end of the day, he did put his hand up under the facemask so it would have taken the pick off the board anyway. Offsetting penalties there would only have meant replay 2d and 5, so it's not a huge deal to me. On the McCourty play, I'd have to see the text of the rule, but my general impression is that although it's not the most pernicious kind of contact or what they are most concerned about, because he led with his shoulder, the helmet was actually the first thing that made contact with the player. At least it looked that way to me. Isn't that what the rule prohibits? If they used replay to call it, though, that's no good -- playing to the Commish.

It was very clear in the replays that McCourty's ARM and Shoulder are what hit Quarless first. The Helmet contact was incidental. The problem I have is that McCourty didn't lead with his helmet, Quarless wasn't defenseless, and McCourty didn't launch himself. Those are supposed to be the criteria for calling that penalty..

 

[Synovia]

Hochuli's crew is usually pretty fair, I don't know what happened last night to change that (EDIT: Forgot that the Omish was at the game) but it was a little one sided. The 15 yarder on McCourty was clearly a perfectly legal hit with his upper arm and shoulder hitting the receiver dead center in the chest, and the illegal hands to the face on TBC was clearly crap as well.

The team didn't play thier best game, and the officiating didn't help. Glad they are a good enough team to overcome.

What in the hell? TBC not only had his hand inside the OL's facemask, he pushed twice. That wasn't crap, that gets called every time, especially in front of the ref.


If TBC thought he was being fouled, he should have stuck his hands up in the air or fallen down or something. When you foul a guy back, you ALWAYS get called. ALWAYS.

 

[Synovia]

It was very clear in the replays that McCourty's ARM and Shoulder are what hit Quarless first. The Helmet contact was incidental. The problem I have is that McCourty didn't lead with his helmet, Quarless wasn't defenseless, and McCourty didn't launch himself. Those are supposed to be the criteria for calling that penalty..

At this point DaBruinz, I look at this like PI, in that I don't think we have any idea what they're looking for. McCourty looked fine, but there definitely was helmet-to-helmet contact, and I'm not sure that each crew isn't looking for something different.

 

[PATSNUTme]

The call that I had the most problem with is the call on Big Vince. Yes, Vince did have his hand in the OL's face and it was a penalty. However, the OL was grabbing Vince's face mask at the very same time.

So how do you call one and not the other? How do you see one and not the other? Off setting penalties should have been called on that play. It's not like both infractions occured in different area's of the body. They both were happening inches away from each other.

 

[reflexblue]

Just a thought given that penalties could have been called on oppossing players on several occasions Hoculie always chose to call the pats for the foul every time. Makes me wonder if he knows what the commish is rooting for.