There needs to be a thread of the officiating today

[2003Contenders]

While I agree that there were plenty of other reasons why the Bills lost on Sunday -- officiating absolutely played a role.

 

To me the worst was the "completed pass" that McD challenged. Even the Jags knew it was incomplete and tried to hustle to the line of scrimmage to get another play off before the challenge flag came out. That ball CLEARLY came out as the defender was rolling around on the ground and prior to a "football move".

 

Inexplicably the challenge failed and it was deemed a catch. Even the NFL Network's rules guru had a a hard time explaining why the call was upheld -- just something about the receiver being touched down which effectively ended the play prior to he ball popping out. Even Kurt Warner thought that was BS.

 

That call by the refs (and apparently New York) provided the Jags with yet another 3rd down conversion AND cost the Bills a much needed timeout. It may have seemed like no big deal -- but it definitely played a role in the outcome of the game.

 

Same with the OPI call that negated a TD. It is easy to say that did not matter because the Bills answered back with a TD on the very next play. But the requirement of another play took about 10 seconds off the clock. That would have been pretty valuable at the end of the game, right?

[Nitro]

Every season there is one crew that is bad.  This crew was brutal.  It starts with the head ref.  He sets the tone for the crew.   They throw many marginal flags but miss blatant fouls.  They were bad for both teams.  Better to let the guys play than to be flag happy which they are.  

[Paup 1995MVP]

23 hours ago, folz said:

As I said in the post game thread, The Bills didn't lose because of the officiating, but the refs did make it an uphill battle for Buffalo all day.

 

And sometimes it isn't even about the calls that were made, but about a dis-balance in how they are treating the two teams.

The Jags were able to mug, hold, make contact early, but the Bills weren't allowed to do that. Reminded me of the Chiefs/Bills AFC Championship game in 2020. Also, offenses like to get in a flow and rhythm...if you throw a lot of flags it slows a good offense down and breaks their rhythm (beyond just putting them behind the sticks). And how many times did you see the ref standing behind Morse, holding up his hands, not letting Josh snap the ball. A bunch...including on the last couple of possessions as time is literally running off the clock while he is standing there...taking precious seconds off of Buffalo's chance to come back and giving the Jaguars plenty of time to make substitutions and get lined up properly. You could see how frustrated Josh was with that. Yet, the Jaguars ran a hurry-up offense early in the game and I didn't see the ref stand over the ball once, holding up the play. And not getting our timeout back despite a Jaguars player being injured? There are many ways that the refs can influence games without it being obvious or showing up in the final penalty tally.

 

How about the fact that the Bills had to call out the Jaguars false starts to the refs. Four times the Bills did that (the refs called three of them). Yes, I know that players always point out false starts to the refs, but the refs seemed really slow in pulling out their flags on some of those until the Bills players started going crazy. Seemed like they wanted to not make the call, but the Bills players made it so obvious they had to call them. 

 

The five penalties against the Jags were those 3 false starts, an illegal down field pass, and the roughing the QB. Are you telling me that in the entire game the Jags never held anyone, got there early on a receiver, or committed any other in-play infractions other than the roughing the passer?

 

One of the most egregious no-calls was on the play that Taron got injured. He is rushing the QB, and as he is in Trevor's face, a Jags player basically tackles him from behind and causing Taron's knee to hyper-extend on landing. That has to be a hold or a block in the back or something (I'd call it a personal foul)...and that was right in front of the ref. But no call.

 

I don't think all of the calls that they did make were b.s. I didn't see a closer view of the hands to the face called on Oliver, but from the long angle, I did see the offensive lineman's head go back like there probably was hands to the face (unless he was acting), some personal fouls (the one on Poyer and the roughing the QB on the Jags) weren't surprising even if they were iffy---they've been calling that stuff close for a while (there is at least a consistency there).

 

I won't go through every call (good call or bad call), but if you couldn't see a bias against one team, I give you the punt return at 9:43 in the 3rd quarter. It is still only a 4-point game (11 to 7). Four flags were thrown! They made two calls, accepting the personal foul on Tyler M. The first call they made was "Illegal block above the waist" against Sherfield. What the hell kind of call is that? I've never even heard that call before. The player was not engaged with anyone else and Trent pushed him in the front of his shoulder as they are running side-by-side. It wasn't in the back or a blindside. One ref threw a flag for that. And then 3 refs threw a flag on Tyler, when it was just a damn good block. He was totally in front of the other player and just laid him on his ass. That is a good block, not a foul. It was a bogus call and yet three refs made that same bogus call?

 

Seriously, how often do you ever see 4 flags thrown on one play. It usually doesn't happen because the refs all have different assignments on what they are looking at/for. Sure seems like a flag was going to come out on that play one way or the other to give the Bills bad field position to start their drive (uphill battle).

 

Look, I do not think the league season or individual games are scripted. That would be really, really hard to pull off and maintain. I also do not think that games are predetermined (they know who will win before it happens or absolutely make sure that one team wins---they still want to keep the image of an unbiased, competitive sport). But, I do think with some teams and games (particularly in the playoffs) they do have a preference on how they would like it to go for financial reasons (story lines, star players, marketing, business/partner deals, etc.) and they are not shy to have their refs give teams a leg up. They won't out and out rig the game, but just make it a little easier on one team and a little harder on the other. If a team is good enough, they can often still overcome this...but the Bills were a little too flat on Sunday (travel/time change/injuries) to get it done. But you can at least guess why the NFL would want a Jags win in this one (build up the Jags and the London games in the hopes of more expansion in Europe and beyond).

 

I just wish the NFL would call all games, all players, and all teams consistently and let stars and storylines emerge organically, rather than trying to manufacture and control narratives. When it comes to the refs, you can only chalk up so much to mistakes, incompetency, the speed of the game before you start to realize that there is much more to the story than that.

That's a great analysis of the refereeing in the game.  I thought the roughing against Josh when we were driving was a weak call against the Jags.  But I also thought the call against Poyer was weak.  Lighting up a WR used to be a big part of the game.  Unless you lead with your helmet into his face, I think its a fair play.  I did not think it was egregious contact.  The PI on Taron Johnson down the sideline was crap too.  He did not impede the receiver from making a play on the ball.  The ball was underthrown.  Referee Sean Smith is lousy.  His crew always calls a lot of penalties.  And there is usually a lot of confusion when he refs a game.  I don't like the guy.  The game was way over officiated.  We just got nothing call wise in the game.  What about losing the challenge on the pass over the middle that was called complete?  Guy went to the ground and lost the ball.  How was that ruled a catch?  (I was in a bar in Detroit watching the game and the sound on the TV was not loud.  And there were a lot of Lions' fans pregaming.)

 

Way too many illegal hands to the face and illegal man downfield penalties being called in general this year.  Let these guys play unless the penalty is egregious.  Its big and fast men playing a physical game.  Let them have at it.  The refereeing on the whole is pretty lousy in how games overall are officiated in today's NFL.  

[billsintaiwan]

Why the NFL thinks 19 penalties is what fans want to see is beyond me. 

 

The bills losing sucked, but it was just a terrible game to watch.

[RichRiderBills]

4 hours ago, 2003Contenders said:

While I agree that there were plenty of other reasons why the Bills lost on Sunday -- officiating absolutely played a role.

 

To me the worst was the "completed pass" that McD challenged. Even the Jags knew it was incomplete and tried to hustle to the line of scrimmage to get another play off before the challenge flag came out. That ball CLEARLY came out as the defender was rolling around on the ground and prior to a "football move".

 

Inexplicably the challenge failed and it was deemed a catch. Even the NFL Network's rules guru had a a hard time explaining why the call was upheld -- just something about the receiver being touched down which effectively ended the play prior to he ball popping out. Even Kurt Warner thought that was BS.

 

That call by the refs (and apparently New York) provided the Jags with yet another 3rd down conversion AND cost the Bills a much needed timeout. It may have seemed like no big deal -- but it definitely played a role in the outcome of the game.

 

Same with the OPI call that negated a TD. It is easy to say that did not matter because the Bills answered back with a TD on the very next play. But the requirement of another play took about 10 seconds off the clock. That would have been pretty valuable at the end of the game, right?

 

 

They talked about that yesterday on OBL Chris and Steve were basically Homers....said they understood the call ..did not compute. 

 

The threshold for that play , the standard for possession was clearly not met. 

 

Consistently you have to have that in the hands or bread basket a significant time longer to imply possession. That or the "football move" a clear overt act, a roll over, a juke , a tuck away. None of this was met. Not even close. The ball did not even stop or settle on his hands. 

 

The ball was instantly knocked and stripped....it did not meet the norm and standard for that play. 

 

This is why even the apologist TV ref was like "that's a new one for me".

 

BTW, the ground can't cause a fumble but it sure as heck can cause an incompletion. 

 

It was a terrible, terrible call, and Steve/ Brownie being so ho hum about that call was frustrating.