NFL '13 SEASON THREAD

[rams80]

You know it is debatable if that was a penalty on a game deciding play any penalty must be undebatable. The fact that Jerry Gerry Austin agreed it was the proper call and his explination it was the right call.

Two former supervisors of officials, Mike Pereira and Jim Daopoulos believed it was a penalty.

Daopoulos:

Pass interference occurs when a defender is not playing the ball and restricts the receiver’s opportunity to make the catch. This absolutely occurs on the play in Carolina as Kuechly is not playing the ball and restricts Gronkowski from having an opportunity to make the catch. The official correctly calls the foul for pass interference, then picks up his flag.

The ball was catchable as the definition of “uncatchable” is clearly over an end line or side line and not one that is short of the receiver because he is being restricted. This is a foul and the penalty should have been enforced and ball placed on the one yard line.

Actually Pereira's stance was more along the lines of "if you throw the flag there you can't pick it up because that would be a sign of weakness."

[Brass]

Pats lost. Blown call or not, it happens. Time to move on.

When the players play a perfect game, then I'll expect perfect officiating.

[Cosmic]

Last night's referee, Clete Blakeman spoke to two poll reporters. One from Boston and one from Charlotte.

Former game officials and former NFL supervisors differ on if the flag should have been picked up.

I'm not surprised Blakeman stands by the no call last night. Can you imagine the -storm that would follow if he came out and said, "Well, yeah actually after reviewing the play, we probably should have called it interference." That's not going to happen.

I think they made the wrong call. The flag was thrown by the person who had the clearest shot of the penalty and the ball. I can only think of a couple reasons why they didn't call it interference: They didn't want to deal with the backlash and they were in Carolina.

The Fail Mary was in Seattle, the Tuck Rule Game was in Foxborough, the Immaculate Reception was in Pittsburgh, as was the Mel Renfro non-TD.... noticing a pattern here?

That there's a 50% chance of a bad call favoring the home team?

[dbadefense1990]

The Chargers aren't exactly out of it either...

The Chargers are truly terrible. I'm thinking 5 wins max.

I feel like every team in the AFC that's vying for that 6th seed is terrible.

I don't know who to feel more sorry for: the teams who won't get in the postseason, or whoever the AFC #6 seed is because Brady will take his anger out on them.

[BlueSky]

You know it is debatable if that was a penalty on a game deciding play any penalty must be undebatable. The fact that Jerry Gerry Austin agreed it was the proper call and his explination it was the right call.

Two former supervisors of officials, Mike Pereira and Jim Daopoulos believed it was a penalty.

Daopoulos:

Pass interference occurs when a defender is not playing the ball and restricts the receiver’s opportunity to make the catch. This absolutely occurs on the play in Carolina as Kuechly is not playing the ball and restricts Gronkowski from having an opportunity to make the catch. The official correctly calls the foul for pass interference, then picks up his flag.

The ball was catchable as the definition of “uncatchable” is clearly over an end line or side line and not one that is short of the receiver because he is being restricted. This is a foul and the penalty should have been enforced and ball placed on the one yard line.

Actually Pereira's stance was more along the lines of "if you throw the flag there you can't pick it up because that would be a sign of weakness."

Whether it was PI, illegal contact, or holding, a foul occurred. This was the second instance of the ref running in and overruling another official was on top of the play. The other was Saints CB Corey White's INT fumble/touchback that was initially ruled to have gone out of bounds at the one.

Yet to be understood is how the ref, many yards away and viewing the fumble from the center of the field, could possibly tell where it went out better than the official trailing the play down the sideline. Neither had a perfect or even adequate view to tell conclusively; so whether the sideline ref ruled touchback or out at the one, how can the ref overrule his call?

[dfwabel]

Last night's referee, Clete Blakeman spoke to two poll reporters. One from Boston and one from Charlotte.

Former game officials and former NFL supervisors differ on if the flag should have been picked up.

I'm not surprised Blakeman stands by the no call last night. Can you imagine the -storm that would follow if he came out and said, "Well, yeah actually after reviewing the play, we probably should have called it interference." That's not going to happen.

I think they made the wrong call. The flag was thrown by the person who had the clearest shot of the penalty and the ball. I can only think of a couple reasons why they didn't call it interference: They didn't want to deal with the backlash and they were in Carolina.

The Fail Mary was in Seattle, the Tuck Rule Game was in Foxborough, the Immaculate Reception was in Pittsburgh, as was the Mel Renfro non-TD.... noticing a pattern here?

That there's a 50% chance of a bad call favoring the home team?

It is greater than that. Last year's book, "Scorecasting" went over some situations in most team sports.

For the NFL, the book had the following:

In the NFL, "Home teams receive fewer penalties than away teams -- about half a penalty less per game -- and are charged with fewer yards per penalty. Of course, this does not necessarily mean officials are biased. But when we looked at more crucial situations in the NFL ... we found that the penalty bias [increases]."

13. When instant replay came to the NFL, the home winning percentage declined from 58.5 percent (1985-98) to 56 percent (1999-2008). "Before instant replay, home teams enjoyed more than an 8 percent edge in turnovers ... When instant replay came along ... the turnover advantage was cut in half." Also, "the home team does not actually fumble or drop the ball less often than the away team ... they simply lose fewer fumbles than away teams. After instant replay was installed, however, the home team advantage of *losing* fewer fumbles miraculously disappeared, whereas the frequency of fumbles remained the same. ... In close games, where referees' decisions may *really* matter ... home teams enjoyed a healthy 12 percent advantage in recovering fumbles. After instant replay was installed, that advantage simply vanished."

14. After instant replay, there was no change in the relative frequency of home and away penalties. That might be because penalties can't be challenged.

15. Away teams have their challenges upheld 37 percent of the time, versus 35 percent for home teams. But when the home team is losing, the visiting team wins 40 percent, versus only 28 percent for the home team. So it looks like the referees favor the home team more when they need it more.

[BlueSky]

It finally came to me what this pic reminds me of...

Don't know if it will change anyone's mind but for the "he only hit him in the chest" crowd, something evidently hit Brees in the mouth during that play since he was bleeding immediately after.

On another note, I'm worried about Thursday night. Hoping the Saints don't figure "we got this" and start looking ahead to Seattle.

Speaking of, the Saints will have 10 days off and the Seahawks will be coming off their bye That's going to be a war.

Edit: The league has fined Brooks $15K+ for the hit. I don't really agree with the fine and honestly, when I saw there was a flag on that play I assumed the Saints had held. But based on the replay and from the pics, it is a penalty under the current rules. Which I think blows because I just don't see what defenders are supposed to do.

[dfwabel]

Well apparently, Jerry Jones really did not make the decision to hire Monte Kiffin alone, he was encouraged by Larry Lacewell, their former scouting director* who has not been a team employee since 2005!

Lacewell on January 11, 2013:

“Frankly, I think it’s the best hire the Cowboys have ever made. Well, other than Jimmy [Johnson]. To fall into Monte Kiffin is just a gift, To pull this off is just a coup. Whoever thought of this was real smart.”

Lacewell yesterday:

“I will take full blame for wanting Monte to be hired,” Lacewell said from Jonesboro, Ark., where he lives. “But I will not take blame for 7,000 injuries.

“We never had that many injuries, ever. Now, maybe we didn’t play that many great quarterbacks, either.

“I’m a fan now. I watch games, and I catch myself doing the same things as other people. At the same time, I do know that real good coaches are real good coaches.”

[Funky Bunky]

The Chargers aren't exactly out of it either...

The Chargers are truly terrible. I'm thinking 5 wins max.

I feel like every team in the AFC that's vying for that 6th seed is terrible.

I don't know who to feel more sorry for: the teams who won't get in the postseason, or whoever the AFC #6 seed is because Brady will take his anger out on them.

*Andrew Luck

[Cosmic]

In the NFL, "Home teams receive fewer penalties than away teams -- about half a penalty less per game -- and are charged with fewer yards per penalty. Of course, this does not necessarily mean officials are biased. But when we looked at more crucial situations in the NFL ... we found that the penalty bias [increases]."

Couldn't such a small difference simply be crowd noise? Just offhand, I'd say that 80,000 people screaming their heads off when one team is on offense and not the other might be worth half a penalty a game.

I think that stat is a much stronger argument for make-up calls. Divide up teams arbitrarily, and in any average game, one team will only have half of a penalty more?

[BlueSky]

On Patriots-Panthers, the NFL's head of officating must be blind because here's what he said on NFL Network:

"...and ultimately they ruled that the restriction occurred simultaneously with the ball being touched. When you watch it at full speed, you could see why they would make that call on the field.” This is under the rule where once a pass is touched by the D (tipped at the line or deflected on a breakup, etc.) anything goes downfield and there's no pass interference possible.

The pic below is about a full second after significant contact started. Not my definition of simultaneous. Plus as Ross Tucker pointed out on his excellent podcast, the field officials' explanation differs in that they claim the flag was picked up because the pass was uncatchable.

It's embarassing enough when errors like this are made. Don't make it worse by denying it was a mistake.

[Still MIGHTY]

Dan Dierdorf to retire from broadcasting after 2013 season

[Sport]

Dan Dierdorf to retire from broadcasting after 2013 season

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON!!!!!

[ninersdd]

LOL, thanks to Graham's dunk, the posts are tilted.

[LAWeaver]

Not the best pictures. I'm sure there will be better ones in the morning

[dsaline97]

Not the best pictures. I'm sure there will be better ones in the morning

I bet the Saints have a specialist hired in New Orleans for fixing this.

[Chicageaux]

Not the best pictures. I'm sure there will be better ones in the morning

Am I the only one who watched the gif to see the crow reaction? The guy in front of the #13 jersey cracked me up.

[dbadefense1990]

The back of the goal post has this sticker adorned:

[Sport]

It wouldn't surprise me if there's a new rule this offseason about hanging on the goalposts.

[NJTank]

It wouldn't surprise me if there's a new rule this offseason about hanging on the goalposts.

Beat me to it. I think that will happen without a doubt.