NFL Refs

NCAA and NFL Referee news

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?

Romo Fumbles Away Another Win??

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With Dallas down 10-0 early in the fourth quarter, Tony Romo was sacked and fumbled the ball which was eventually recovered Clay Mathews and gave the Packers the ball at the Dallas 3 yard line.

But was the ball recovered by Felix Jones first? On the clip below, the play is shown at the 2:45 mark.

Jeff Triplette and his crew ruled that the ball was a fumble the entire way throughout and therefore Wade Phillips was unable to challenge. After watching the replay several times today, I believe the officials had this one correct, do you?