The Refs--AGAIN!!!

[Rico]

No doubt some questionable calls... but in the end, the best team won.

Great effort by the Bills.

[Kuile]

Some really questionable calls today. There was also a pass inf. call that should have been. I know the college crews blow a lot of calls too, but at least the NCAA comes down hard on crews when they make major blunders, for example the Sooner-Ducks game this year. I hope the NFL at least talks to this crew.

[jester43]

the calls and non-calls were so one-sided it was nauseating.

[East Brady]

Some really questionable calls today. There was also a pass inf. call that should have been. I know the college crews blow a lot of calls too, but at least the NCAA comes down hard on crews when they make major blunders, for example the Sooner-Ducks game this year. I hope the NFL at least talks to this crew.

855912[/snapback]

What are they going to talk about... Which teams they want Ed and the boys to help make the super bowl??

 

Ed Hoculi is the modern version of Jerry Marcbrite and thats no easy gig to pull off......

 

The better team did win today though and we can't get to down about that......we need 3-4 more players to win some of these games .

[Prognastic]

My point being that there are questionable/bad calls in almost every game. Its up to the good teams to either capitalize on those opportunities or overcome those hurdles. It happens to all teams so it pretty much all comes out even in the wash eventually.

[richNjoisy]

He's dead on.  I highly doubt they pick the Bills to screw with, that idea is BS.  But the officiating sucked. They did a poor job today. No, they didn't single out Buffalo, they just plain sucked.

855898[/snapback]

 

 

Ya know, I actually considered that possibility (that it was just bad reffing in general). I am one of those saps that likes to believe the best about people, situations, motives, etc (just ask my hubby RichNJoisy--I was downright naive when we met!). But, here's the part I

missed--which calls were the ones that went against the Chargers??? And how again did they help the Bills????

Sorry, I can't see any way that this was badly done, equally, to both teams. RevNJoisy

[dave mcbride]

With the exception of the night in Foxboro that changed Ralph's mind about instant reply, that was the most poorly officiated game in Bills history. It was so blatantly pro-Chargers that it's hard to come to any conclusion other than the refs were attempting to influence the outcome.

 

If more people saw the game, I'm sure there would be more outrage. There were:

 

Two obvious pass interference calls that San Diego got away with.

 

A pass JP completed in the first half that was ruled incomplete because JP was ruled down. He was not; the replay on the Jumbotron showed he wasn't even close to being down when he let go of the ball.

 

The fumble was clearly in the Bills possession.

 

A catch by Peerless on the sidelines was ruled out of bounds. The refs might have got this one right. If they did, it is a poor rule and it should be changed.

Several other smaller calls that were all pro-Chargers, i.e. they gave San Diego an extra two yards on one catch. The receiver's knee was down when he caught the ball.

San Diego is a great team and the Bills played just as well as the Chargers. The offense and defense made some mistakes in the first half but I thought the Bills were clearly the better team in the second half. I was proud of the way the team played today. They could have easily won it. It's a shame that such egregious officiating all but prevented them from a victory.

855769[/snapback]

 

after watching a couple of times on tivo, mcgahee *clearly* got the first down on that third down screen (the one where he danced). the spot was horrible, but the bills didn't challenge it.

 

re the price catch, he was *CLEARLY* pushed out of bounds. that was so obviously a legit catch that it's a joke.

[dave mcbride]

My point being that there are questionable/bad calls in almost every game.    Its up to the good teams to either capitalize on those opportunities or overcome those hurdles.    It happens to all teams so it pretty much all comes out even in the wash eventually.

855981[/snapback]

um, no. it doesn't come out in the wash. the bills were clearly screwed on four important plays, by my count. the chargers were screwed on nada.

[2003Contenders]

Human nature dictates that the officials will usually err on the side of the home team. That seemed to strangely go the opposite way today.

 

1. The JP non-sack was a judgement call by the officials who ruled him in the grasp. That could just have easily been an advantage if JP had fumbled or thrown an INT there. For those who saw it, there was also a play earlier in the game where JP clearly grounded the ball -- but the officials called it an incomplete pass.

 

2. There was a non-call for pass interference intended for Lee Evans in the first half, where the ball was ruled uncatchable. On replay, I do think that Lee may have had a shot at it, if he wasn't being mauled. I have always hated that rule. To me it's still a penalty, since there was illegal contact outside the 5 yard buffer, right? At the very least, it should be a 5 yarder and automatic 1st down.

 

3. The Peerless near-catch along the sidelines should probably have been called a force-out. There is no question that he would have come down in bounds without the push -- since he darn near came down in bounds WITH it! Logic would dictate that the toe should represent one-foot-down, but the rule doesn't work that way. According to Jauron, the officials explained this rule to him during the timeout -- and he decided to challenge it anyway. I blame Jauron for the stupidity in challenging the call more than anything else. In the long run, it probably wouldn't have mattered, but it would have been nice to have had that last timeout.

 

4. The non-interference call on Josh Reed on the very next play was actually a good non-call. The ball was tipped -- and replays showed that pretty clearly. You could see the projectory of the ball change slightly after the tip.

 

There were also numerous holding penalties on the Chargers' offense that were not called throughout the game. Oh, well... They say that there is holding on every play, I guess.

 

I agree that the officials were not especially kind to the Bills -- and it DID seem like most of the close calls (and non-calls) went against the Bills. Still, I don't believe that there was any impropriety on the part of the officials today.

[Catholic Guilt]

I am beginning to wonder is the NFL is turning into the WWE. I questioned this in August.

 

1. How does Reggie Bush, a once in the lifetime player fall to New Orleans? A city that is in ruins from Hurricane Katrina?

 

2. How does Pittsburgh win that Super Bowl last year? Oh yeah - some non-calls and a nice story line with Jerome Bettis.

 

3. Ralph speaks up about the refs. Guess what time is always on the short stick?

[Fezmid]

4. The non-interference call on Josh Reed on the very next play was actually a good non-call. The ball was tipped -- and replays showed that pretty clearly. You could see the projectory of the ball change slightly after the tip.

I couldn't see it. The announcers couldn't see it. The players didn't see it. Nobody at the stadium saw it (as evidenced by the boos after being shown on the Jumbotron). I don't think it was clear at all - and in fact I didn't see any tip.

 

CW

[cåblelady]

Nuts and bolts......we got SCREWED!

 

I'm still fuming.

 

BTW.....my fellow season ticket holder brought her Dad to the game with us today. Before the game started he saw two of the refs over at the Charger sideline and a couple of Charger coaches and Chargers players gave them a hug. Wonder what that was all about.

 

 

Oh yeah, !@#$ you Merriman.....you steroid-using, unsportsmanlike-conducting !@#$.

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

after watching a couple of times on tivo, mcgahee *clearly* got the first down on that third down screen (the one where he danced). the spot was horrible, but the bills didn't challenge it. 

 

re the price catch, he was *CLEARLY* pushed out of bounds. that was so obviously a legit catch that it's a joke.

856030[/snapback]

 

 

i was listening to the game on the radio. it's a pretty sad state of affairs where the announcers---albeit our announcers on the Bills football network---question the quality of the officiating. at the beginning of the second half, murph mentioned that the bills had to fight the chargers, the weather, and "perhaps the officials as well...". kelso agreed.

 

to listen to it, there were a series of bad calls----gates pushed off on a large gain on the first series the chargers had the ball, the losman sack nullifying a reception by cieslak, a couple odd spots, the decision to measure the ball on the bills last third down drive of the first half thereby restoring the last of the chragers times outs, the bills drive and bolts non-call before the chargers went up for good where losman hit (price?evans?) at the 30 yard line of the bolts. the fumble recovery by hargrove? and, even rivers lobbying for and receiving a game clock reset to give him an additional 10 seconds on the last drive they scored on.

 

i don't think the toss games, but i'm pretty sure they nudge them in the right direction to help it along from time to time. i look at it this way---there are some feel-good stories in the nfl, and LT chasing the td record is good for the nfl. why not let some of the "little stuff" go to get the ball back in his hands more often?

 

interestingly, on the non-call oif pass interference on the bills second-to-last drive, kelso remarked it was a textbook case of pass interference, joking it would be a video clip used to point out to officials in the future just what pass interference looked like.

 

the bolts are a good team, i'll give them credit. the bills were competitive at times, and that's a good thing. they tried to come back, made some good plays, but .500 teams lose as many of these games as they win. i do wonder, however, what might have happened had the ^&%$ing pass interference been called to give the bills first and ten at the bolts 30 (at least that's what i heard), down by three.

 

f the refs.

 

any commentary from dick j. after the game on the officiating? i udnerstand he was fired up during the game about a few calls.

[Fezmid]

Oh yeah, !@#$ you Merriman.....you steroid-using, unsportsmanlike-conducting !@#$. 

856051[/snapback]

 

 

Don't you mean:

 

"Stupid Merriman... you poopy-head unsportsmanlike-conducting poop!!!

 

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

  I couldn't see it.  The announcers couldn't see it.  The players didn't see it.  Nobody at the stadium saw it (as evidenced by the boos after being shown on the Jumbotron).  I don't think it was clear at all - and in fact I didn't see any tip.

 

CW

856049[/snapback]

 

projectory?

 

you're saying the d-back got his hand on the ball before he hit the receiver? the play-by-play guys didn't see that...

[Golden Wheels]

The refs wouldn't have been a factor if the Bills defense didn't give up 17 points in the first half because they couldn't stop LT and were trying to cover Gates with a linebacker up the slot.

 

However, I lost count in the second half of the number of time this officiating crew huddled before making a call, rather than just call what was clearly in front of them. That left a pretty bad impression along with all the questionable rulings.

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

The refs wouldn't have been a factor if the Bills defense didn't give up 17 points in the first half because they couldn't stop LT and were trying to cover Gates with a linebacker up the slot.

 

However, I lost count in the second half of the number of time this officiating crew huddled before making a call, rather than just call what was clearly in front of them. That left a pretty bad impression along with all the questionable rulings.

856067[/snapback]

 

 

fair enough, but when you take a first down off the board in the 4th quarter on a non-call (again--didn't see the game, listened to it, so I'm going by what I heard) when the team that surrendered 17 points has battled back to within 3 points-----and you've had an overall bad game as would seem to be the case-----you gotta flip the coin back over to the obvious fact---they were a factor. not the only factor, perhaps, but a significant factor, enough to help push the better team over the top.

 

and don't get me wrong-i recognize at the speed the game is played at, mistakes will be made and calls will be missed. however, the nfl would have you believe these guys are infallible, and when they have a bad game, it should be debatable in a public forum.

[Wraith]

1. The JP non-sack was a judgement call by the officials who ruled him in the grasp. That could just have easily been an advantage if JP had fumbled or thrown an INT there. For those who saw it, there was also a play earlier in the game where JP clearly grounded the ball -- but the officials called it an incomplete pass.

856043[/snapback]

 

There are a couple points about this "judgement call" that were infuriatingly idiotic:

 

1) What official in their right mind thinks a QB being grabbed by his jersey is "in the grasp." These are people who are paid to watch football games every week. Over half their job is to watch quarterbacks. I mean, damn, he was grabbed for less than a second.

 

2) The whole point of "in the grasp" is to stop a play when the quarterback is being held and is defenseless. So how the hell can you retroactively call "in the grasp" after the play was over? If you truly thought he was in the grasp, blow the !@#$ing whistle and protect the quarterback. If Losman had truly been "in the grasp" on that play, he would've gotten killed, because the officials clearly did not blow that play dead.

 

Totally, totally, ludicrous.

[Georgia Bill]

I guess it's "the rule". Still -I don't understand:

if you caught the ball and are falling forwards you can get just your toes on the ground and drag them out of bounds before landing, and that's an in bound catch, but if you happen to be going backwards (ala Price), and one foot is down in bounds, and then the toe of the other is down in bounds, when the heel of that second foot lands on the white the catch is ruled out of bounds. Seems like a crappy rule to me. If any part of both feet land in bounds (while at the moment no part of the foot is down out of bounds), it ought to be a catch. What the hell does it matter if it's a forward toe drag or a backwards drag where the heel lands second!!?? That rule sucks!

[BuffaloBrad]

Last week's San Diego victory against Oakland was also aided by the officials

SF Gate Story

 

Perhaps San Diego is the "new" New England?