NFL Refs

NCAA and NFL Referee news

Dispelling some Saints/Rams myths

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Ben Austro over at Football Zebras did an awesome job of breaking down most of these, but here are some highlights:

Roger Goodell should invoke Rule 17

I’ve seen a ton of people saying Roger Goodell should use Rule 17 to replay part of the game (or maybe the entire thing). He can’t — that’s not how Rule 17 works.

A former Rams player was an official during the game

Phil McKinnely was indeed a Rams player in 1981, and he also played for the Bears and Falcons. He was typically on Vinovich’s crew, but wasn’t for this game.

Vinovich must have seen the play when it happened

This is one I hear a lot; after the game, referee Bill Vinovich said “I personally have not seen the play” and people were outraged. How could the referee have not seen that play? Well, because it’s not his job. You can argue that other officials saw the play and should have thrown a flag, but Vinovich has a responsibility in the backfield. If he had watched the play unfold, then you’d have a right be to upset because he wouldn’t be doing his job very well.

There’s quite a bit more to this, and I encourage you to check out Ben’s full post for lots of details.

The blown late-hit enforcement in the Packers-Niners game

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Many of you are already talking about this play that occurred in the Packers-Niners game a little while ago.

clay-matthews-late-hit

The staff at FootballZebras have a nice recap of what happened. In part:

Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was flagged for a late hit on Kaepernick well after Kaepernick had stepped out of bounds. The two teams engaged in a small scuffle afterward, when the 49ers were hit with unnecessary roughness foul.

Because the Matthews foul was two steps after the ball was dead, the fouls were on the dead-ball side of the ledger, and the proper call is to offset the two fouls and the down counts. That would have given the 49ers a fourth down and a likely field goal situation.

Instead, Bill Leavy and the crew offset and replayed the down. The 49ers took another shot for the end zone, and they scored.

While I don’t agree that it necessarily “cost Green Bay the game”, as some are saying, it certainly didn’t help.  The Niners still might have gone on to win, but you never know.  Clay Matthews also had that soccer-esque fake dive to try and draw a penalty late the game, which fortunately the refs didn’t believe.  My opinion of him certainly dropped today.

That said, this is a bad way for the refs to start the season.  A blown call or bad judgement is one thing, but this is simply a misinterpretation of the rules that was clearly wrong and had a dramatic impact on the game.  Not good…

Check out the FootballZebras post for a bit more info about it.

Touchdown, interception or pass interference: Packers vs. Seahawks

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If anything should get the NFL and the officials talking again, a play like this will do it.  At the end of the game, the refs couldn’t figure out what to call, leading to this amazing picture with one calling for a touchdown and the other calling for a touchback (interception).

Here’s a video of the play. Touchdown for Golden Tate or interception by M.D. Jennings?

Did Victor Cruz “give himself up”?

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The big debate of the day.  The Giant’s Victor Cruz fell down, then intentionally let go of the ball because he thought the play was over.  However, having not been touched the Cardinals, he wasn’t actually down.  The refs decided that he “gave himself up”, making the play dead, but that’s controversial.

The rule states:

An official shall declare the ball dead and the down ended… when a runner is out of bounds, or declares himself down by falling to the ground, or kneeling, and making no effort to advance.

It doesn’t seem that Cruz fell down intentionally, and he certainly didn’t kneel, so did he give himself up?  Here’s a video of the play:

What do you think?  Did Jerome Boger and his crew make the right call?