A Very Well Officiated Game

[archstanton543]

you cannot line up over the long snapper - which he did not, he was outside the snappers shoulder pads - so unless they have changed the rule, i'd like to see the reasoning for the flag

I'll give you the reason right now. The refs didn't know the rule. Kind of like the faceguarding call in the AFCCG in 2006.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

minus the extra point mess-up and one blatant grab of Amendola's jersey that wasn't called, I had no complaints

 

[pencilneckgeek]

i may have been wrong, sort of:

Running forward and leaping in an obvious attempt to block a field goal or Try Kick and landing on players, unless the leaping player was originally lined up on the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped.

"landing on a player" has not been interpreted to mean "any contact" - incidental contact is fine, unless they have changed it since last fall:

NFL says Bobby Wagner’s leap was legal

you cannot line up over the long snapper - which he did not, he was outside the snappers shoulder pads - so unless they have changed the rule, i'd like to see the reasoning for the flag

The reasoning for the flag is that head linesman called it, but he had a bad angle to judge and was not overruled. I forgive him, on account of him and the line judge immediately ruling a catch by Edelman and because the 2pt conversions were converted.

 

[ALP]

they were a bit off really early w/ the hit on edelman(?) out of bounds and something else but settled in nicely

 

[Kontradiction]

So the fix wasn't in?

 

[Weishuhn]

I felt they did a good job of only calling the obvious penalties. The three Defensive holding calls in a row on Atlanta were all obvious, and maybe an attempt by the refs to force them to clean it up a bit. The McLellin call was wrong but oh well. I'm wondering if someone can explain to me why they wound the clock to end the 3rd quarter. The Falcons were penalized for Delay of Game with :03 left in the quarter. Why would they start the clock on placement of the ball after calling a Delay of Game penalty, makes no sense.

 

[SalemPats]

They deserve an very good B+, i thought there was a defensive holding they missed (but minor) and I think the Shea jump was fine (but need to rewatch it)

 

[PatsBoy12]

Yeah, especially missing what looked like holding by Cannon on the overtime TD! Lol All jokes aside, I'm happy that we don't have to talk about the refs in a bad light. That means they didn't decide the game. They could have easily gotten the Edelman catch wrong. We've seen that before MANY times. And in a league where the offensive player gets away with everything, they could have easily called facemask on Ryan on a critical third down play, even though Sanu had a chunk in his hand. I think that's why it was a no call (moot though because there was holding by ATL).

Kudos to the refs.

 

[meatface]

Yeah, on the holding call, I remember being shocked that they would actually call a hold that late in the Super Bowl. Then I saw the replay of what happened to Long; if they didn't call holding there, it would have been a huge disgrace. Glad they did their jobs correctly in that instance.

I said to my house guests that the holding on Long was about the only way you were going to get a holding call late in the super bowl

 

[Kdo5]

Yup fully agree about the holds. Definitely seemed like the Falcons defense was trying to test the refs and they didn't shy away from correctly throwing the flags.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

I said to my house guests that the holding on Long was about the only way you were going to get a holding call late in the super bowl

Word for word what I said in my household.

 

[ScottishPatriots]

What a surprise a ref who doesn't want to make it about him has a good game.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

Some good discussion at footballzebras here:

Super Bowl LI liveblog: Patriots vs. Falcons

 

[pwes]

I agree. Was thinking about this as I was reading the Falcons forum this morning where many are convinced the refs jobbed them. I prefer games where they let the teams play and only call the most egregious penalties. I felt the refs did a good job. Was kind of disappointed that our drive in the second kept getting extended by flags (only becasue the drive kept dying without them meaning the offense was playing bad). When I forget about the zebras that's a good game to me.

 

[pats4life12]

I have to agree with you I was pleasantly surprised that it was that fair of an officiated game.

 

[Gumby]

I agree. Was thinking about this as I was reading the Falcons forum this morning where many are convinced the refs jobbed them. I prefer games where they let the teams play and only call the most egregious penalties. I felt the refs did a good job. Was kind of disappointed that our drive in the second kept getting extended by flags (only becasue the drive kept dying without them meaning the offense was playing bad). When I forget about the zebras that's a good game to me.

or it could mean that their holds disrupted the pats timing so they couldnt get open. Chicken-egg.

 

[Marko]

It's no secret that the Seahawks used to grab and hold all the time and force the refs to have to call it. Dan Quinn might have been the author of this style. #70 on the Falcons was wrapping guys up the whole game and was finally caught.
On the start of the Falcons 2ND to last drive from the 10 it looked like a big time OPI was missed, which allowed the Falcons to get to the 40. Without that they were looking first and 15 from their own 5.

 

[drewskie]

They missed the Shea jump over the guard which should have been a blocked PAT...but otherwise I barely noticed them all the penalties for the most part were legit and warranted in each respective situation.

 

[scott99]

There was no blatant misses. Yeah I can be picky against certain calls (I thought the Butler PI was ******** and Edelman was hit WAY out of bounds), but generally a good job.

 

[1960Pats]

I always seem to give the refs a good rating after a win.

The best officiated game ever was the 2001 Snow Bowl that freed us of our bondage from 1976. Free at last. Free at last. Thank Walt Coleman we're free at last!