So I figured out why that ref crew was working that game

[BostonBullit]

When I first saw that a rookie ref crew was working the Pats Colts game I was, like most people, confused. How the hell could the NFL send a green team to ref the most hyped regular season game in history? It just didn't make sense. As I surfed around the web absorbing all the pre-game hype I noticed a few threads on a Colts forum about Randy Moss and "pushing off", which I have seen him do every now and then but I think most of the time the announcer says something about it it's BS because he never extends his arm to actually push anyone. Before anyone gets on my case remember that I HAVE seen him ACTUALLY push off a couple of times. Back to the point. Watching the pre-game stuff Sunday morning one of the talking heads brought up the issue specifically and then he pointed out a very curious coincidence - that the rookie crew has a record this season of calling offensive PI at a much higher rate than the other crews. Very interesting, NE's main weapon is preceived to be Randy Moss on the deep ball and it's been shown that there are few ways to defend it. He beats doubles and triples, gets most jump balls, etc. so one of the only effective ways to defend against him is to use a very liberal interpretation of the OPI rules and "ask" the refs to keep an eye out for the penalty. and who gets assigned to the game? a ref team with a track record of doing just that.

all very odd....

 

[psychoPat]

Sounds like this could be a piece of the puzzle.

But there still is much more behind it than that.
Those guys did much more than phony OPI.

 

[Brady'sButtBoy]

either it was intentional as you say to thwart Moss and Hobbs, or it was just one of the poorest decisions made the NFL this year. You have the biggest regular season game in years and years and you put anything less than your best refs in the game? Doesn't make much sense.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Yeah, but what was odder still was they also had the fewest defensive PI calls of any crew in the league as well. My first thought was Polian hand picked that wet dream crew seeing as we now had a huge WR who tends to push off and he now has found himself with a couple of bigger physical corners while we no longer feature those in part because of his rules emphasis...

Then the piece de resistance was when they called defensive PI only on us and at a rate nearly equal to their total in their previous 8 games...

I really hope Eisen has Perriera on tonight. Not that he will be able to explain this all away, but I enjoy gauging his angst in attempting to as indicative of how flustered the league is by the backlash on these performances.

Sooner or later they simply have to make PI reviewable.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

either it was intentional as you say to thwart Moss and Hobbs, or it was just one of the poorest decisions made the NFL this year. You have the biggest regular season game in years and years and you put anything less than your best refs in the game? Doesn't make much sense.

http://www.badzebras.com/zebradetails.aspx?sport=1&season=3&week=33&zebracrew=34



Interestingly, they were rated to have have 6 very good games and two very bad ones. Unfortunately, we know which was one of the bad ones.....

 

[workhorse]

There was an article on the Star's board (it's gone since the board crashed), but it was about this issue before the game was played. I think it was by a national guy, but I can't remember who. In it a league guy was saying that all the officiating crews are assigned by a computer before the season. They have a couple things that can not happen. The same crew can not ref a game with a single duplicate team within 6 games and can not ref a game with duplicate opponents in the same year. Other than that it didn't say much other than the "we feel that all our crews are qualified to ref any game" type comments. Just FYI.

 

[CTPatsFan]

There was an article on the Star's board (it's gone since the board crashed), but it was about this issue before the game was played. I think it was by a national guy, but I can't remember who. In it a league guy was saying that all the officiating crews are assigned by a computer before the season. They have a couple things that can not happen. The same crew can not ref a game with a single duplicate team within 6 games and can not ref a game with duplicate opponents in the same year. Other than that it didn't say much other than the "we feel that all our crews are qualified to ref any game" type comments. Just FYI.

You (via the national guy) pretty much answered my question before I asked it. Thanks, horse. I'd have to think all of this stuff is randomly generated somewhere, with the aforementioned caveats.

I think it was more pure Indy luck to get this crew as opposed to something insidious by the NFL.

 

[Metaphors]

I don't think there was anything underhanded about the crew, but it was an amazingly bad decision. Could you imagine Polian's reaction if questionable calls went against the Colts? That is not a good way to advance your career in the NFL. So they were under a lot of pressure.

If the Pats were even in the area of a receiver during a long pass (read, "high profile"), it was going to get called. I think the Samuel play was interference since if the roles were reversed I would have expected it...the Hobbs call was comical. Moss has been known to push off in the red zone (not as much as his reputation would indicate) so you know that a flag was coming at the first opportunity. That call was not only amazingly bad, it should have been illegal contact on the defender.

The funny thing is the the Colts DBs were physical with the Pats receivers all game. Outside of the Faulk mugging, I didn't mind it at all. Harkens me back to the days before the "point of emphasis".

So the crew called the game the way they felt (consciously or subconsciously) they needed to in order to keep their careers on a positive path. Unfortunately for them, the firestorm this has generated will likely force them to work games in Arizona and Oakland for a while. I really don't blame them, at least not completely. They should have never been put in that situation.

 

[Joker]

Just stop the nonsense....somehwere along the line, Polian set this up. This crazed maniac is behind EVERYTHING that's gone down this year...''the "un-named" Midwestern GM" source every dyam media clown is using for info

 

[cartmen]

WHO GIVES A FLYING CRAP???? we won lets move on please, god!!!

 

[Patriotic Fervor]

...

I think it was more pure Indy luck to get this crew as opposed to something insidious by the NFL.

Doubtless. But you must admit, it's more than likely when these (as it now turns out) clowns were paired with this game, lots of people in positions of influence, league-wise, must have blanched when they found out. I was a little confused myself when Reiss had a blurb about it last week.

 

[CTPatsFan]

Doubtless. But you must admit, it's more than likely when these (as it now turns out) clowns were paired with this game, lots of people in positions of influence, league-wise, must have blanched when they found out. I was a little confused myself when Reiss had a blurb about it last week.

Oh, absolutely!

 

[FrontSeven]

There was an article on the Star's board (it's gone since the board crashed), but it was about this issue before the game was played. I think it was by a national guy, but I can't remember who. In it a league guy was saying that all the officiating crews are assigned by a computer before the season. They have a couple things that can not happen. The same crew can not ref a game with a single duplicate team within 6 games and can not ref a game with duplicate opponents in the same year. Other than that it didn't say much other than the "we feel that all our crews are qualified to ref any game" type comments. Just FYI.

It makes sense that this is automated and a bit more complicated than just hand picking a crew. The same thing applies to where the game is played. I've heard Pats fans opine about the fact that it was in Indy, but so what is what I say. It's all computerized. You are what your record says you are - and you play where the computer says you play. The algorithm for that is not so simple either. It's a highly "nested" set of rules that would make most normal brains fry on the spot while trying to figure it out.

 

[Joker]

Polian didn't blanch...AND he's said ZERO about that abominable and detestable display of refereeing last Sunday...WHY?????????...isn't HE the head of the rules committee???? If ANYBODY should be talking about those refs, it's HIM!!~!!!!!!!

He's a rotten scumbag and needs to be ejected for life from ANYTHING to do with the NFL

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Just to add to the chorus, officiating crews are not hand picked, and it all happens before the season starts, once the schedule is out and the crews are set. There are multiple variables, which just go into the computer, and none of them has to do with perceptions about what the crews call or don't call.

While a few at the league know the crews, at least as of 2005, the crews themselves did not know which games they would work until a few weeks before. This is part of a series of anti-gambling measures designed to preclude people from trying to get to the refs too far in advance.

My hunch is that if the NFL could handpick crews, they would not have wanted this one for this game.

The good news is that these two teams face each other in the playoffs, this crew can't work the game.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Yeah, but what was odder still was they also had the fewest defensive PI calls of any crew in the league as well. My first thought was Polian hand picked that wet dream crew seeing as we now had a huge WR who tends to push off and he now has found himself with a couple of bigger physical corners while we no longer feature those in part because of his rules emphasis...

Then the piece de resistance was when they called defensive PI only on us and at a rate nearly equal to their total in their previous 8 games...

I really hope Eisen has Perriera on tonight. Not that he will be able to explain this all away, but I enjoy gauging his angst in attempting to as indicative of how flustered the league is by the backlash on these performances.

Sooner or later they simply have to make PI reviewable.

THose of you watching, please do some of us who don't have that channel a favor and post what he says and does not say in detail.

 

[maverick4]

Yup, it's like when Bill Simmons said the NBA purposely puts in a rookie ref crew during big playoff games to help the home team.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Doubtless. But you must admit, it's more than likely when these (as it now turns out) clowns were paired with this game, lots of people in positions of influence, league-wise, must have blanched when they found out. I was a little confused myself when Reiss had a blurb about it last week.

Actually looking at Perry's BAD ZEBRA stats page, it becomes more puzzling to me.

Here is a guy that has been raked fairly high ALL YEAR. In fact, 6 of his games his crew was ranked 1 or 2. Now all of the sudden he gets to the BIGGEST game of regular season, in front of one of (in effect) his big bosses (Polian - the Emperor of the Comp. Com.), and he all of the sudden, forgets how to ref a game.

It's one thing to be consistently bad and then be predictably bad, but it another to be good, and then completely terrible. You could throw out the ole "bad day" card, but come on, there is a limit. Even on his worst day, Brady doesn't turn into Rex Grossmen.

 

[spacecrime]

There was an article on the Star's board (it's gone since the board crashed), but it was about this issue before the game was played. I think it was by a national guy, but I can't remember who. In it a league guy was saying that all the officiating crews are assigned by a computer before the season. They have a couple things that can not happen. The same crew can not ref a game with a single duplicate team within 6 games and can not ref a game with duplicate opponents in the same year. Other than that it didn't say much other than the "we feel that all our crews are qualified to ref any game" type comments. Just FYI.

Mike Perreira said this on NFLN last week. Eisen asked if the league assigned a regular crew, or a made up one like the superbowl.

Perreira said the teams were assigned games before the season began by computer. I had forgotten the exact rules, but I believe they are exactly as you say above.

I do recall Perriera making that statement about crews being qualified for any game.

Polian is corrupt and uses his position on the CC for the benefit of the Colts, not the NFL, abusing the trust placed in him, but the referee crew choice can't be pinned on him unless Perreira was lying, whch I doubt.

BTW, speaking of abusing a position, how hypocritical was it of Shula to chirp about an asterisk for the Pats, when he used his CC position to browbeat refs. Every time there was a marginal call against the fins, he came down on them hard, not as a coach, for which he would have been fined, but as the head of the CC. While he was on the Committee, the Dolphins were the least penalized team in the NFL year after year. That he now has the nerve to talk about cheating simply astounds me.

What astounds me more is why the talking heads at ESPN do not mention this, or the fact the last year the Dolphins BRAGGED publicly about stealing our audible signals after beating us 21-0.

I'll take my medicine like a man and suck up the loss of a first round pick, but the hypocrisy is really annoying.

 

[oldskool138]

Even on his worst day, Brady doesn't turn into Rex Grossmen.

Did you watch the Miami game (in Miami) last year? He definitely looked Grossman-esque in that game.