Officiating in Falcons Game

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.

Here are my responses to your examples by number.

1. Yep, bad call ... Whitner has a reputation and the violence of that hit will probably draw a flag from now on. The NFL is facing lawsuits into the billions because of concussion related isssues of past players, so this will probably be the case from here on. It was a bad call though, and a great hit by the Whit.

2. It was probably a ticky-tack call, but he did get his hands in the mask briefly. The issue with calls like this is that they are never consistently called. And when they are they can be game changers, which will ignite the conspiracy theorists.

3. Not sure about this one. If there is a rule,. I never heard of it. And it was close enough to the whistle that I have no problem with it anyway. I think this is a non issue.

4. You forgot one. The holding on Whitner in the end zone on Gonzales TD, and the roughing the passer against Ryan on the same play. Both of those calls were bogus, and if anything it was offensive PI on Gonzales. You could tell Gruden had to swallow his tongue to not say anything ... and he still intimated that he did not agree with either.

Now, to be fair about things ... how about the PI by the linebacker on Boldin that extended a drive. That call was atrocious. To be honest, I was sort of glad the 49ers got a FG only, because if they got rewarded with 7 points on such a bad call it just would have felt wrong.

I do not believe in conspiracies, but I do believe in human bias and limitations. The game is too fast and intricate for these refs to officiate. It is that simple. And I think the home filed advantage works to bias the refs some. How could it not? There will ahve to be some type of revamping of the system, or it will become irrelevant under the weight of scrutiny. Too much at stake on these games now to leave it to human error.

Originally posted by HessianDud:
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.

This is why I'm in favor of coaches being able to throw the red flag and having the officials review the questionable call. Also, I am in favor of having an OFFSITE official or officials to make the decision on the play in review. This eliminates the biases that exists and or the officials being intimidated by the crowd.

Many would argue that this would slow down the game, but NOT if they DON'T change the number of red flags a coach can throw. The allocation and and the other rules involving the red flag remains the same.

If any other QB in the league was hit in the face by another guy's helmet it would have been an automatic call. Kaep was still in the pocket and it was a very violent hit to his chin - that should have been called.

Whitner's hit was clean and should not have been called.

That's two plays.

It's funny cuz if you go to the falcons forums, they are complaining about their refs on their end as well. The refs were bad on both sides

Originally posted by phatbutskinny:

It's funny cuz if you go to the falcons forums, they are complaining about their refs on their end as well. The refs were bad on both sides

Yes, this . It wasn't good but it wasn't biased.

Originally posted by jacklegniner:

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...

I thought this should've been called as well. But we won, so no sense in b***hing about it imo

I have a question. why weren't the falcons charged with a timeout when Douglas got hurt after brick slammed him?

While i agree that the officiating has been horrible for a while, this reffing did a solid job considering that all the refs are incompetent.

The officiating was fine in this game. Sure the call in Hitner was bad, but they have a chubby for calling those on Hitner and will likely continue to do so the rest of his career.

Other than that it was fine.

I really dont understand why people stew on this s**t especially after a win. Its kind of petty.

Originally posted by IdahoNiner:

I really dont understand why people stew on this s**t especially after a win. Its kind of petty.

Because it easily could have been a loss. That 15 yd roughing call made the on side attempt from the 50, and when it was recovered by Atl they were already in FG range. If the 49ers had lost I would be you would have a little more ire. But the officiating in all games is terrible, not just this game. It affects outcomes of games and that is a fact. Perhaps the breaks all even out, but not in the course of one game.

Originally posted by sacniner:
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.

No they didn't. That wasn't a penalty since it happened before the whistle. They even had an article on PFT talking about why that wasn't a penalty.

Originally posted by JoseCortez:
I have a question. why weren't the falcons charged with a timeout when Douglas got hurt after brick slammed him?

And this is how nicknames are born.

All Personal Foul/Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalties should be reviewed. The replay to show that Whitner's hit was legal appeared almost immediately on the tv and could be quickly pushed upstairs for review. Throughout the year, these are the penalties that I find frustrating.

Originally posted by kray28:

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?

Yeah and actually we should have already had a first down. The play prior Kaepernick spun right into a helmet to helmet hit. No call. The refs just threw that flag for pi to make up for that non call.

Yup and as Bluesbro already mentioned, that holding call on Whitner was bogus. It should have been offensive pass interference on Gonzalez. He basically pushed whitner to the ground to get separation.