I can't be the only one who LOVED the officiating!

Originally posted by dj43:
OK. So to play the devil's advocate, I am tired of people complaining about how the Seattle secondary plays.

It is obvious the officials see no problem with how they play. If I am the 49ers defensive back coach, I am going to tell my players to play AGGRESSIVELY until/unless the officials begin to call fouls. To sit and play passively while the other team plays aggressively and then complain because you lose, is just bad coaching, IMO. Don't blame the refs. By not making calls against Seattle they are telling you it is OK to play that way…so play that way.

All a player can ask is for consistency.

Agree completely. Your job is to figure out HOW the officials are calling a game then adjust your game accordingly.

Similar to the strike zone in baseball. Every official is different and you need to push the limits to find out where he draws the line

Originally posted by jreff22:
Playing and robbing are two different things.

Agreed. The problem is WE don't play that kind of game...we play off coverage and within the rules and as a result, get screwed for it. This may end up being more of a style issue for Fangio b/c he doesn't seem to adjust to these (hidden rules) that only certain teams play and almost all teams play in the playoffs/Superbowl. Get with the times, Fangio! Make QB's and WR's EARN every yard...besides, if you have illegal contact throughout the play, they will ONLY CALL ILLEGAL CONTACT (5 yards) vs. P.I. which is what usually gets us screwed.

Originally posted by Tigerlaw:

Originally posted by dj43:
OK. So to play the devil's advocate, I am tired of people complaining about how the Seattle secondary plays.

It is obvious the officials see no problem with how they play. If I am the 49ers defensive back coach, I am going to tell my players to play AGGRESSIVELY until/unless the officials begin to call fouls. To sit and play passively while the other team plays aggressively and then complain because you lose, is just bad coaching, IMO. Don't blame the refs. By not making calls against Seattle they are telling you it is OK to play that way…so play that way.

All a player can ask is for consistency.

Agree completely. Your job is to figure out HOW the officials are calling a game then adjust your game accordingly.

Similar to the strike zone in baseball. Every official is different and you need to push the limits to find out where he draws the line

Exactly!!!

OP liked the officiating because the good guys won. Penalties need to be called when they are committed. Like many have said, the non call on RayMac nearly cost them the game. The 49er Dline was held on a number of occasions. Ted Robinson, the 49ers radio announcer, mentioned this morning how the officials were affected by the cold. He said he spoke to several 49er reps and they were not happy with the officiating. I'm glad the 49ers won while having to overcome spotty officiating, but I prefer a game where penalties committed are penalties called.

Originally posted by jays9ers:

I was really upset at the non-calls in the first quarter....but then when I seen the refs were just letting guys play, I was all for it. I have ZERO problem with not calling every ticky tack call. They let the teams play ball today and the better team won..period. Good job refs.

Ticky tack calls not being made - no problem. However, the defensive smothering of Crabtree on 3 separate occasions in the 1st quarter alone were far from ticky tack and should have been called. Same with the BS holding (and choking) of Ray McDonald. These things literally changed the outcome of the plays. The problem here is the 49ers,for the most part, were playing (seemingly) with the mentality that they would be flagged for cheating, so they (for the most part) played a pretty clean game. The Packers seemed to just say f**k it and took their chances. It worked for them. The reason I dislike the officiating is it is too inconsistent. If they consistently allow plays to play how they want, then BOTH teams would do so. They don't do that, so we end up with one team playing clean and the other saying f**k it.

If our guys say f**k it at some point, we'll probably get flagged the whole game.

Either enforce the rules all the time or none of the time.

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:
Are you drunk? The non-call on McDonald almost cost us the gAME. I have never seen WR's mugged like ours were today. I do not whine about officiating. But today, I was taken aback. I mean I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but after today, I think someone in the nfl front office doesn't like us. Sorry, it was ridiculous.

It has nothing to do with not liking the 49ers on a personal level.

The 49ers are the team with the best chance to beat the Broncos in New Jersey. The NFL needs to get them out of the way so that they can chase that storybook ending again. They love that story. It boosted profits when Elway went out a champion, sending Ray Lewis out a winner last year was another boon for the NFL and how "exciting" it is with storybook hollywood script endings. They want that again with Peyton Manning.

Originally posted by Empire49:

Originally posted by jays9ers:
I was really upset at the non-calls in the first quarter....but then when I seen the refs were just letting guys play, I was all for it. I have ZERO problem with not calling every ticky tack call. They let the teams play ball today and the better team won..period. Good job refs.

Ticky tack calls not being made - no problem. However, the defensive smothering of Crabtree on 3 separate occasions in the 1st quarter alone were far from ticky tack and should have been called. Same with the BS holding (and choking) of Ray McDonald. These things literally changed the outcome of the plays. The problem here is the 49ers,for the most part, were playing (seemingly) with the mentality that they would be flagged for cheating, so they (for the most part) played a pretty clean game. The Packers seemed to just say f**k it and took their chances. It worked for them. The reason I dislike the officiating is it is too inconsistent. If they consistently allow plays to play how they want, then BOTH teams would do so. They don't do that, so we end up with one team playing clean and the other saying f**k it.

If our guys say f**k it at some point, we'll probably get flagged the whole game.

Either enforce the rules all the time or none of the time.

It isn't "cheating" if the officials don't call it.

It bothers me when the calls are not consistent. My wife, who has become a pretty knowledgeable football observer, commented early on Saturday that the officials were letting things go that had been called during the regular season. That kind of inconsistency bothers me. However, as the weekend progressed, IN EVERY GAME, the officials were letting them play. That tells me that either the league had sent out a memo to let the play, or that the playoff officials (the best of the best) did not see the fouls as important as the refs who had stayed home.

Playoff officials are assigned on a performance basis. They are graded on each play of each game all season long. The best grades earn them playoff money. That suggests to me that the way these four games were called are the way they should be called for the most part, not the way they were called in the regular season.

I can't help but wonder if Harbaugh's constant badgering of officials has not negatively impacted the way games are called. He needs to shut up and coach his team to play the way the refs are calling the game instead of complaining that the other team is getting away with playing more aggressively…but that is just me.

Originally posted by threelittlebirds:
It has nothing to do with not liking the 49ers on a personal level.

The 49ers are the team with the best chance to beat the Broncos in New Jersey. The NFL needs to get them out of the way so that they can chase that storybook ending again. They love that story. It boosted profits when Elway went out a champion, sending Ray Lewis out a winner last year was another boon for the NFL and how "exciting" it is with storybook hollywood script endings. They want that again with Peyton Manning.

this is really out there. oliver stone would be proud

Originally posted by cciowa:
tom jackson on espn said the greatest thing last night when he said aldon made 69 check out. as you know i refuse to blame refs for things but yes there is no excuse for the non call on the great escape. i think packers fans are mad because they say gore got away with a hold during the last drive. bottom line the niners were able to over come non calls and roman to get another heart stopping win. i wish they would make it easier on us

Packers fans are all idiots.

Only Packer fans can actually complain about the officiating yesterday when it nearly won them the game. It should have been a 31-13 blowout... but the refs let them hang around by limiting the 49ers to FGs and even helped them score.

Originally posted by threelittlebirds:

Originally posted by cciowa:
tom jackson on espn said the greatest thing last night when he said aldon made 69 check out. as you know i refuse to blame refs for things but yes there is no excuse for the non call on the great escape. i think packers fans are mad because they say gore got away with a hold during the last drive. bottom line the niners were able to over come non calls and roman to get another heart stopping win. i wish they would make it easier on us

Packers fans are all idiots.

Only Packer fans can actually complain about the officiating yesterday when it nearly won them the game. It should have been a 31-13 blowout... but the refs let them hang around by limiting the 49ers to FGs and even helped them score.

they also harped something about a facemask they did not get called right before halftime that would have given them a one point lead? by the way roman was the reason we did not get the first 7 points that we should have gotten but there is nothing wrong with what you said.. and i am the biggest fan of never blaming the refs

Originally posted by thl408:
OP liked the officiating because the good guys won. Penalties need to be called when they are committed. Like many have said, the non call on RayMac nearly cost them the game. The 49er Dline was held on a number of occasions. Ted Robinson, the 49ers radio announcer, mentioned this morning how the officials were affected by the cold. He said he spoke to several 49er reps and they were not happy with the officiating. I'm glad the 49ers won while having to overcome spotty officiating, but I prefer a game where penalties committed are penalties called.

Me too. I know refs usually talk to coaches pre-game and give them a gauge of how they will call things but even if they don't, it's not hard to do research on a crew esp. those in the playoffs to get an idea of how the game will be called. I'm with you and Harbaugh - if it's a penalty, it's a penalty and no game scenario or situation should affect that, ever. Otherwise you cross over the "integrity of the NFL" line.

But I also agree with others as well...IF a game is going to be called under the, "We're going to let them play" mentality, the refs HAVE to call it both ways equally. Period. And THAT has killed us in critical games in the past...glad we're still overcoming these tough scenarios!

The Ray Mac non-call was pure crap.

These refs need to be publicly called out when this stuff happens.

More pressure needs to be put on the Commish - he keeps trying to change the game like moving the draft, London games - he should upgrade this officiating fiasco.

From the NFL rulebook:

Use of Hands, Arms, and Body

No player on offense may assist a runner except by blocking for him. There shall be no interlocking interference.

A runner may ward off opponents with his hands and arms but no other player on offense may use hands or arms to obstruct an opponent by grasping with hands, pushing, or encircling any part of his body during a block. Hands (open or closed) can be thrust forward to initially contact an opponent on or outside the opponent's frame, but the blocker immediately must work to bring his hands on or inside the frame.

Note: Pass blocking: Hand(s) thrust forward that slip outside the body of the defender will be legal if blocker immediately worked to bring them back inside. Hand(s) or arm(s) that encircle a defender—i.e., hook an opponent—are to be considered illegal and officials are to call a foul for holding. Blocker cannot use his hands or arms to push from behind, hang onto, or encircle an opponent in a manner that restricts his movement as the play develops.

Hands cannot be thrust forward above the frame to contact an opponent on the neck, face or head. Note: The frame is defined as the part of the opponent's body below the neck that is presented to the blocker.

There is always going to be some fuzziness about how these rules should be called in the real contact of a football game - look at the sentence bolded above about an offensive blocker is not allowed to grasp the defender with their hands or encircle any part of the defender's body. Grasping and encircling are not hard and fast things - it's fuzzy. What I think the advocates of "let them play" want is for the refs to not conservatively interpret the words of the rule. But what happened way too often in the 9ers-Packers game was that the refs seemed to be so liberal in their interpretation that it's almost as if the words in the rules didn't mean anything when it came to the Packers offensive line blocking (as in the picture of Aldon being undeniably encircled by the Packer tackle that someone posted earlier in this thread).

Originally posted by jays9ers:
I was really upset at the non-calls in the first quarter....but then when I seen the refs were just letting guys play, I was all for it. I have ZERO problem with not calling every ticky tack call. They let the teams play ball today and the better team won..period. Good job refs.

"Letting guys play" is a ridiculously stupid sports cliche'.

Call the game the same always. 1st quarter, 4th quarter, in 100 degree heat, in -10 degree cold, 1st game of the season, or the playoffs. Rules are rules and the official's sole job is to enforce them. Not to "let guys play" when they feel like it.

Originally posted by jimrat:
These no calls cost us the Super Bowl last year............

Yep.

Do you people that like to use the phrase "let guys play" like when they let guys play like this?





I know someone that didn't...