As it turns out, it WAS a touchdown for Troy Polamalu, but it’ll never show up that way in the history books. Fortunately, this error didn’t change the outcome of the game. However, it messed up a lot of gamblers and fantasy players, and could possibly affect the playoff picture under certain scenarios.
The problem is that if ANY forward pass touches the ground, the play is dead. The officials simply got confused about which pass was which.
The little flip pass from LaDanian Tomlinson to Chris Chambers was an illegal forward pass, but was handled cleanly by Chambers. When Chambers tried to lateral again, the ball hit the ground. However, because that pass went backwards, the ball was still live and it was legal for Polamalu to pick it up and score.
There still should have been a penalty on the Chargers for the illegal forward pass from Tomlinson, which the Steelers could decline so they could keep the touchdown. That’s what happened initially. After that, referee Scott Green changed his mind (got confused, etc) and things got a little weird.
We got a couple of bad calls. It’s hard to imagine people don’t know football any better than that. Maybe I’ll be swayed differently after I see the replay, but from what I saw on the field, I still can’t get over it. It was a really bad call. It should have been our ball and a touchdown for us.
Unfortunately for Jim, there were two problems with those comments:
The officials were correct. Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen confirmed that the call was correct.
Pac-10 rules prohibit coaches from commenting publically on officiating.
I’m a big Jim Harbaugh fan, but he really should have kept his mouth shut this time.
If not for the mess in week one, this probably wouldn’t even be a story. Unfortunately, it is.
Early in the first quarter of the Falcons-Panthers game today, referee Ed Hochuli flagged Julius Peppers for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Falcons’ QB Matt Ryan. The play had resulted in an interception and a touchdown for the Panthers, but it was called back due to the penalty. Should it have been called?
I watched the game live, and thought it was the right call. It certainly appeared to be helmet-to-helmet, although it wasn’t very hard and it didn’t seem to be intentional. I really think this was a call that could go either way. Sadly for Hochuli, the call had a very direct impact on the game, taking seven points away from the Panthers. Like his call a few weeks ago, he threw the flag before the “big play” happened, so he had no way of knowing how important the call would be.
If I can find a video or screencap of the hit, I’ll post it here. Please let me know if you find one.
Jones was fined more than Payton because owners are held to a higher standard. Chargers coach Norv Turner was not fined for referring to the blown call as “unacceptable”, since he limited himself to that single word and referred all other questions about the matter to the league office.
According to ESPN, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton has been fined $15,000 by the NFL for criticizing the officals after last week’s 34-32 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Specifically, Payton was upset that an obvious neutral zone infraction wasn’t called with 2:40 left in the game. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear to all teams that they are welcome to talk to him about officiating problems, but any public criticism (like Payton’s) will result in disciplinary action.
The referee in the Saints-Broncos game last week was Ron Winter, though this call would have been the responsibility of his Head Linesman or Line Judge.
“He is a consummate professional who’s refereed in this league for 17 years and he hates to make any mistake. So when you add a mistake of this magnitude, at this particular junction of the game, it’s been really hard on him. We’ve talked probably seven or eight times since that game, and my whole goal is to try to get him back to get on the horse and work again this weekend. He’s too good of a guy, too good of an official to keep off the field over this critical mistake he made. I think he’ll be all right, but he’s really been affected over this mistake he made.”
If Pereira is right and Hochuli gets right back into it, he’s scheduled to ref the Browns-Ravens game at 4:15EST.
“I’m getting hundreds of e-mails — hate mail — but I’m responding to it all. People deserve a response. You can rest assured that nothing anyone can say can make me feel worse than I already feel about my mistake on the fumble play. You have no idea … Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection — I failed miserably. Although it does no good to say it, I am very, very sorry.”
The NFL has decided to give Ed Hochuli some “marked down” grades for his bad call in the Broncos-Chargers game, which may mean he can’t work in the playoffs this year. GIven all of your harsh comments, I’m guessing most of you think it’s too light.
The official statement, from NFL spokesman Greg Aiello:
”Officials are held accountable for their calls. They are graded on every play of every game. Ed has been an outstanding official for many years, but he will be marked down for this call. Under our evaluation system, an official’s grades impact his status for potentially working the playoffs and ultimately whether or not he is retained.”
At the same time, the referees association has made it clear that they are standing behind Ed. They admit that he obviously screwed up, but they point to his 19 years of experience (with very little criscism). Tim Miller, the executive director of the NFLRA, had this to say:
“No one feels worse about this than Ed, but like the coaches and players in our high-speed game, mistakes will occur.”
“The NFLRA stands by Ed Hochuli as a 19-year veteran with multiple Super Bowl and countless playoff game experience who has the integrity and character to admit a mistake and accept the criticism that comes with it.”
So what do you think? Should Hochuli have been punished more, for what was really just one quick mistake? Or does the fault lie with the NFL, whose rules didn’t allow Hochuli the ability to fix it (by awarding the ball to San Diego)?
All of the attention is (rightfully) on the Denver-San Diego mess, but there was another very controversial call this weekend. In the Wisconsin-Fresno State game, a Fresno State fumble was overturned after a replay review. What makes this unique is that the replay review was apparently badly blown.
According to Colin Cowherd on his radio show this morning, this was an absolutely insane call. He has no doubt that the replay official should be fired, and they should all be very embarassed. I guess the difference is that this call didn’t quite cost Wisconsin the game, while the Hochuli call very definately cost the Chargers their game.
I didn’t see the play, so I can’t comment for sure. If you saw it, what did you think? Was it an obviously blown call, or did they get it right with the review?
Also, did anyone catch the name of that official? I can’t find it anywhere.
Trailing 38-31, the Broncos (2-0) reached the 1 but on third-and-goal, Cutler reared back to throw and the ball slipped out of his hands, bounced off the grass and into linebacker Tim Dobbins’ hands.
But referee Ed Hochuli blew his whistle, apparently ruling it an incomplete pass. After a review, Hochuli said that the Broncos would keep the ball because his whistle had blown the play dead. The Broncos got the ball at the 10-yard line, where it had hit the grass out of Cutler’s hands.
I’m kind of torn on this. Hochuli obviously blew the call, but did all he could to make it right. Once he had blown the whistle, there was nothing he could do. Of course, he never should have blown the whistle.
The difference last week in the Washington-BYU game was that the refs had time to discuss it, and still blew the call. Of course, that game would have only tied it, whereas this call certainly lost the game for the Chargers.
