Ok, so we have one ref who was removed from a Saints game because, well, he is a huge Saints fan. We had another who worked the Seahawks, despite the fact he worked for the Seahawks as a referee in their training camp scrimmages. And now we have one who told LeSean McCoy, during the game, that he needed McCoy to do better because the ref had McCoy on his Fantasy Team.
This is a joke.
Meh. They’re worse than the regular refs, but not nearly as much as everyone is saying. There’s an enormous amount of confirmation bias at play here, and many are forgetting how often we bitch about the regular refs.
So far, the calls aren’t nearly as bad as the time management.
The time management and the game management. It’s just a matter of time before there’s a bench-clearing, helmet tossing brawl because the replacement officials aren’t able to keep the on-field chippiness under control.
Back when the lockout started, I wasn’t too worried about the replacement refs. Sure they would make mistakes, but so do the regular refs. There’d be pass interference and holding calls that they missed or overcalled, but so do the regular refs. They’d miss the ball spot by a few inches, but so do the regular refs.
But now I realize there is so much more to officiating than just that stuff. The flow of the game has been absolutely horrid, as well as the long conferences that make every last one of them look like idiots. But I think what put me over the edge was just what you mentioned, the loss of respect from the players and how that will effect the game. By and large, players will try and get away with a hold here, a quick grab there, maybe a small push on a pass play to try and get away with it. But now it seems it’s rampant; players are trying, and getting away with, a myriad of fouls simply because they have no respect for the officials and think they won’t get caught. And this, in turn, has led to the chippiness we saw in the Baltimore/Eagles game or Rams/Redskins game. I do think it won’t be long before they lose control of these games, with what could be some drastic consequences,
Every officiating crew makes mistakes, but it’s more embarrassing here because the replacements don’t seem to know some basic rules or how the challenge system functions or how to work the clock, and no, they’re not keeping the games under control. It’s also true that conferencing is better than blowing a call, but when they regularly have long discussions before making basic calls, it looks pretty terrible.
As an aside, I’m not a fan of Jeff Ireland, the GM of the Miami Dolphins, and he hasn’t been very good at his job. But I feel bad that he has to apologize to an asshole fan who he called an asshole because the fan was, in fact, being an asshole.
Short version: he’s heading back to his seat after visiting his family and friends, and takes the time to shake a few hands and let people take photos of him. Then some douchebag gets his attention, berates him, and tells him he should fire himself. Like a normal human being, Ireland walks away and calls him an asshole.
Not a big deal at all, but I would have preferred that Ireland, rather than apologize, say “Yeah, he was being an asshole, so I called him an asshole. If he wants to cry about it, he’s an even bigger asshole than I thought.”
Do you have to specify that it’s an asshole fan with the Dolphins?
It’s kids not behaving for substitute teachers. And I agree, it’s going to get worse unless these replacement refs start throwing people out of the game.
RIP Steve Sabol.
One of the guys on MNF made this exact comparison last night.
+1
So after a historically bad performance, FO has Weeden ranked #1this week in DYAR. As extreme a difference as you can practically have.
With the replacement refs, teams now have game tapes on individual crews and what they’ve been letting go, so we’re going to see teams pushing the holding and pass interference and eye gouging and general nastiness further.
Bleh. The Bengals defense looked pretty bad in Week 1, so I’m not putting much stock in Weeden’s performance.
The comment was meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but you almost have to wonder if there’s some sort of “band of brothers” thing at work. I know it’s not easy, but, good grief, they’re having 10 minute conferences over every call, so how complicated can it be to check the replay if you’re that unsure? It’s not as if they’re just missing the little things–they are missing HUGE calls.
It’s bad when you wish you had Ed Hochuli back! ;)
They were uncharastically bad in week 2 as well. Bah. Stupid Bengals.
Yeah, but he did make some solid throws with guys in his face, he spread it around to eight different receivers, and he was hitting guys in stride. It was encouraging.
The D in DYAR is defense-adjusted, though granted with a small sample size, so that’s already factored in.
Not that it was spectacular, but it was pretty good. It was seriously the first time I’ve seen a Browns QB consistently getting the ball to his receivers in stride on the short routes, which is to say within ~10 years, since that’s been about as long as I’ve knowledgably watched games. But seriously - no other Browns QB could throw the short pass on time and in stride. Anderson (and Dilfer) could get the ball there fast - but the receivers are jumping or diving or trying to fall backwards to catch the ball. The noodle arms would occasionally hit them in stride, but so slow that a defender was there to tackle the guy.
Weeden ripped those balls right in there, and right where the receiver needed it to maximize YAC. You have no idea how gratifying it is to finally see that on my team rather than most of the rest of the NFL.
I’m not a Weeden fanboy - I’m cautiously optimistic - but he’s the first guy who has started for the Browns who could do both strength and accuracy at once. He makes dumb decisions and his ceiling is probably Eli Manning, but it’s refreshing that not every pass has to be a wounded duck half a second late behind the receiver.
I know - about five minutes after I said it to my boyfriend. He was amused at my prescience.
That was really outrageous.
Speaking of that. Does this mean Geico will kill those stupid commercials from last year 