Now, I’m not a fan of either the Vikings or the Steelers, but I have to question just how the play in the end zone I just watched could conceivably not be pass interference. Steelers DB Washington was covering Moss, and clearly interfered with the attempt to receive the pass, without looking back (as the rules require). No flag? The commentators initially questioned the lack of call, but eventually decided it was “good” to let them battle away like that.
This isn’t the only bad officiating I’ve noticed this year, and it seems that things are worse this season than they have in the 20+ years I’ve been watching. Anyone else noticed a higher number of blown calls this year than in previous seasons?
I’ve been trying to explain football (this coming from a center with 15+ years of playing time under his belt) to GrizzWife for a few years. She gets most of it, but doesn’t understand a lot of the officiating. Specifically…
…“Bad calls are part of the game.”
Statistics will show that certain years will have more bad calls than others.
I’ve noticed a number of “bad calls” this year, but it’s also recently that the coaches have been allowed to stop the game and require a second look by the officials with the use of their red flag. Maybe it just now we’re noticing it more because of that.
Frankly, I’ve noticed a sad LACK of calling penalties away from the ball. That is, linesmen who hold or trip.
I don’t recall having seen ANY second look at a play where a linesman was wrongly called for holding, making an illegal block or (questionable) unsportsmanlike conduct.
Ah, yes, the bygone days of glory. I was a 240 lb running back in high school on the junior football team.
I don’t dispute that sometimes calls are going to be missed, or bad ones are going to be made, but sometimes they are just so glaring, it’s infuriating. These are professional officials, and there are a lot of them on the field. How so blantant an infraction at the ball could go un-called seems like incompetence. It would be more palatable if the NFL provided information on whatever post-game analysis they do on officiating calls. I’m sure, however, they worry that that might undermine the officials.
Anyway, it was really more of a light-weight rant, too mild for the Pit.
You people must realize the officials don’t have the use of myriad camera views that the tv viewer has. They see it one time from one angle. Give them a break.
I’m quite well aware of that, however I suspect you didn’t see the call I’m talking about. It was the receiver that the ball was going to, and the defender blocked him out of the way, and was hit in the back by the ball. This was not a border-line call – this was as blatant as possible.
Yep, I saw it and I couldn’t figure it out either. A friend of mine said something about how his hands were open and, had they been clenched in a fist or grabbing motion, it would have been flagged. I don’t know about all that, but it seemed pretty clear to me that it was pass interference.
:shrugs:
The Vikings could have taken that game if Moss had caught that pass.
As a Steeler fan, I liked it. But as a football fan in general…yeah, it was interference, and the official blew the call.
This has been a horrible year for officiating, and it’s not just the NFL–college officiating has sucked as well. And the one high school game I went to this year had a PAT attempt called good when the ball clearly went under the crossbar. I guess all the cycles are hitting a trough at the same time or something.
