Officiating in Falcons Game

This had to be one of the most blatantly bad calls I've seen in a while. Why wouldn't the league crack down on officials making such bad calls?

1. Whitner hit on Jackson was clearly legal - changed the game right there by putting Falcons at the goal line.
2. They called a hands to the face on Brock (?) when there clearly were no hands to the face
3. They let the Falcon's kicker kick a practice field goal after the whistle during a timeout - blatant infraction. Even the snap of the ball was well after the whistle. How could they not flag this?

And there were other bad calls.

its been a terrible year overall for NFL officiating. They've gotta do something to improve it.

Originally posted by HearstFan:
This had to be one of the most blatantly bad calls I've seen in a while. Why wouldn't the league crack down on officials making such bad calls?

1. Whitner hit on Jackson was clearly legal - changed the game right there by putting Falcons at the goal line.
2. They called a hands to the face on Brock (?) when there clearly were no hands to the face
3. They let the Falcon's kicker kick a practice field goal after the whistle during a timeout - blatant infraction. Even the snap of the ball was well after the whistle. How could they not flag this?

And there were other bad calls.

I think Seattle paid off the refs in this game. Maybe with help from the Cards.

Originally posted by smithgdwg:
I think Seattle paid off the refs in this game. Maybe with help from the Cards.

I was not happy with the officiating but we won the game and I think we should stop complaining about it. Otherwise we are gonna sound like Shehawk fans.

Originally posted by HessianDud:
its been a terrible year overall for NFL officiating. They've gotta do something to improve it.

I'm more concerned with the actual rules--the whole unnecessary roughness b******t has got to go. I wish I had enough balls to boycott the NFL

The other way is true as well..

They called the PI that set us up nicely and there was no way it was PI.

Over all the refs did a bad job last night, but lets not go to over board we got some our way too.

Originally posted by swayze:

Originally posted by HessianDud:
its been a terrible year overall for NFL officiating. They've gotta do something to improve it.

I'm more concerned with the actual rules--the whole unnecessary roughness b******t has got to go. I wish I had enough balls to boycott the NFL

i agree, but i think the rules would be less of a problem if they were more easily enforced. Its almost impossible for the refs to get roughness/helmet to helmet calls correct with the speed of the game, IMO.

1. I agree that it has been bad all year long. I think they need to quit changing the rules every year. I think the refs have a hard time keeping track of what is and isn't legal. I know for myself, I used to be be able to cite a penalty pretty quickly when it happened... Now it's ridiculously confusing

2. I could be wrong but shouldn't the hit on Kaepernick's sack been a penalty. It was the play before they called PI (bad call) on the falcons. Kaep spun backwards and ran right into the sack. I don't really care in the end but I thought he got a helmet to helmet hit. Regardless if Kaep ran into it, I thought you couldn't touch a Qb's helmet...

Originally posted by HearstFan:
This had to be one of the most blatantly bad calls I've seen in a while. Why wouldn't the league crack down on officials making such bad calls?

1. Whitner hit on Jackson was clearly legal - changed the game right there by putting Falcons at the goal line.
2. They called a hands to the face on Brock (?) when there clearly were no hands to the face
3. They let the Falcon's kicker kick a practice field goal after the whistle during a timeout - blatant infraction. Even the snap of the ball was well after the whistle. How could they not flag this?

And there were other bad calls.

The only really bad call in your examples is number one. The hands to the face was close, Brock did have his hands there for a sec. And the practice kick happens...

We got lucky on the no call personal foul when Brock body slammed one of their WRs.

Originally posted by spraked:
The other way is true as well..

They called the PI that set us up nicely and there was no way it was PI.

Over all the refs did a bad job last night, but lets not go to over board we got some our way too.

It was the one bad call that went in our favor. About 5 went in the Falcons favor. But you know...it all evens out, right?

More bad calls:

1. On ATL's last TD, Gonzalez gets away with a push off for a TD.
2. Same play, Brooks gets called for a completely bogus roughing the passer call...which sets up ATL to try the onside kick from the 50....which they then recover already in FG range.

3. Hard helmet to helmet hit on Kap is ignored and unflagged.

In my estimation, the officiating this year has been very bad.

Some bad calls or no calls have gone against us, others have helped.

But, if the quality of the officiating does not improve, the league will suffer a loss of public confidence.

Question...why is it so hard for refs to call legal hits? Like Steve Young continues to say, "If it looks bad, it's a penalty." How big was that Brooks call now? HUGE! We'd be the #1 seed right now.

All refs have to do is look for the initial point of contact. In the Brooks hit it was chest to shoulder. In the Whitner hit it was shoulder to chest (same with Reid). In the Superbowl it was Carry Williams' crown of the helmet into the facemask of Crabtree. Initial point of contact. That is ALL a ref has to watch...everything else after that is just inertia (touching of the facemask, etc.) unless the defender makes an additional move (i.e. slams QB to the ground, rips up on the facemask, etc.).

Why is this so hard?

PS: The other thing they NEVER take into account is what the offensive player does with relation to the play (i.e. lowers head, ducks, etc.). Why is that? Even the Brooks P.I. last night Brooks was already IN THE AIR. They consider this on punt protection teams...why not for defenses?

I'm really growing tired of the blown calls for hits to the head. Whitner got nailed with one last night, but it's a league wide problem. The game is so fast, and the officials are clearly struggling to see if indeed the contact is to the head.

The solution is simple, make penalties for hits to the head reviewable. The penalties are are a 15 yard personal foul, meaning, they can be game changing. Clearly the officials have shown with the crackdown on these hits, that they will make an error on the side of player safety, however, the problem is that these errors are affecting the integrity of the games being played. The officials should not be given this much power, in my view. Perhaps it's not even a coache's review, but rather one called in from the booth. Either way, when the integrity of the football games are at stake, something should be done.

We can complain about the bad flags for legal hits (like Whitner's--soon to be 0-for-3 on fines after bogus flags), but let's stop it with the other complaints about officiating.

To your specific points:

2) Yes, Brock clearly had his hand forcing the WR's helmet up. It happens from time-to-time on press coverage, and its never intentional, but it is an infraction and if it gets called, it's not bad officiating.

3) Complaining about this is absurdly petty.

Did Whitner deserve the flag? No. Was Boldin interfered with on that phantom PI call? No.

There was no roughing the passer, and no PI, on the Gonzo TD. But the preference would be no flags at all, not offensive PI on the Falcons.

The hit on Kap was debatable, but I'm fine with no flag thrown.

The biggest thing is to 1) make big penalties reviewable, and 2) have them reviewed by the booth rather than delaying the game for five minutes. Even still, we won the game, and calls went for and against both teams. And to the shock of many who complain about calls, that's the nature of the beast: bad calls go both ways. Let's not be Seahawks fans here.