Guys, Stop Blaming the Officials

by metal_militia on Jan 4, 2009 8:41 PM EST Comment 11 comments

This game was on the Colts. Peyton did everything in his power to win this game, but as we learned in years past, not even the great ones can do it all on there own. Look at the Ravens. For years after their one superbowl win, they have lost numerous games because of a lack of offense. Steelers? they lived up to the cliche of running the ball and stopping the run, but always had incompetent QB's who couldnt perform the role of at least game manager before Rothlesburge. This game was all on the Colts. Not being able to run the ball, defense playing inconsistent/wearing out early, and special teams putting the offense in a bad situation in the first place. Yeah there were some ticky-tacky calls and some bad no calls by Winters, but in the end the Colts had the game at hand and lost it.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors.

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Nice summary

I would have to agree with everything you said. I thought the defense did what they had to do coming into the game…stop Rivers and the passing game. They held an offense who scored 52 points last week to only 17 points (regulation) last night. I thought the inability to run the ball on short yardage/any yardage for that matter and bad field positon (due to their damn punter) throughout the game killed the Colts. The offense had the chance several times to ice the game away, but failed to do so. Those conservative flag penalties really occurred in overtime, not really in regulation when the Colts had the chance to put the game away.

by ColtsFanNChiTown on Jan 4, 2009 9:15 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

right on

They sucked running the ball. Like beachball through a garden hose sucking. There were also some questionable play calls by Dungy. (The empty backfield, the run on 2nd and 20). The D got take-aways but the O was too one dimensional to make enough plays to win.

by beckmania on Jan 4, 2009 10:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

On Moore?

Or on Manning? (Those questionable play calls.)

by coltsfanawalt on Jan 4, 2009 11:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Every time

Every time teams lose a game because of official calls, we are always willing to give these guys a pass. The NFL opened themselves up to questions by making holding a judgement call if it affected the play. They allow receivers and defensive backs contact throughout the game. That sends a message to players that they are letting them play. Then, they make a call in an absolutely critical situation of holding on 3rd and 8 in OT after the Chargers threw an incomplete pass. WE HELD THEM. THEY WERE GOING TO HAVE TO PUNT. THEY WERE THEN GIVEN A FIRST DOWN IN FIELD GOAL RANGE. We have to then hold them again and hope they miss a field goal. How deflating is that.

On top of that, the referee crew that the league gave us called 12 penalties on us in Green Bay. You can say a lot of things about the Colts, but they are usually fundamentally sound. So we were leading 17-14 and driving the ball for another score and we suddenly lose our poise and commit 3 holding penalties. I could see us losing our poise in OT when the game was slipping away, but that was after the penalty on 3rd and eight. Are you supposed to game plan for the officials. If that is so, let’s just throw out the rule book and ask each referee how he would call the game. A penalty should be a penalty, whether it is in the first quarter or the fourth quarter or in overtime.

I realize that we had many opportunities to win this game, but aren’t the Chargers also trying to win the game. No game should be decided by a series of questionable calls on the first possession of OT like that game was yesterday. The NFL set up this scenario and they opened themselves up for questioning by allowing only penalty calls only if they affect plays. What kind of year would Freeney and Mathes have had if they enforced holding the way it should have been enforece???

by Blueisgood on Jan 4, 2009 11:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Sorry, but that's crap

No offense, but I’m not willing to give the refs a pass. It can be simultaneously true that the Colts blew opportunities and that the refs sucked and took opportunities away from the Colts. In a close game, everything little thing factors in and becomes much more important. You can’t simply take one thing (poor referreeing) out of the equation and say it doesn’t matter. Of course it does.

Yes, if the Colts could have converted the 1st down the game probably would have been over. Yes, if the Colts could have done a better job stopping the run, they probably wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. And yes, questionable calls gave SD new life when they should have been punting. And yes, it’s particularly galling when Freeney is held all game.

Look, the whole “don’t blame the refs” thing is fine for the players and coaches at their press conferences. They want to be seen as taking responsibility and and not blaming others; they don’t want the p.r. hit of looking like whiners. But apperance is not always reality, and in the real world bad officiating can negatively impact a game. The quality of officiating has been horrendous all year (do I really need to give examples? Is there anybody who does not know the name “Hochuli” by now?) If the NFL is to keep the faith of the fans, it is going to have to address these shortcomings before they become worse.

by ctnyc on Jan 5, 2009 9:32 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

In other words

Sorry, meant to add: Yes, if the Colts had played better they could have overcome the poor officiating. But they should not have to overcome poor officiating. The NFL must work hard in the offseason to improve the quality of officiating.

by ctnyc on Jan 5, 2009 9:39 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

officiating is too inconsistent

In a close game with fairly well matched team small things matter. Isn’t that what the league wants – close competitive exciting games?

One blown call usually isn’t enough, but winters and others generally don’t have just one. And no two refereeing teams seem to call a game the same THAT is a big problem.. How are teams supposed to play to the limit if they have no idea what will be called in a game?

Yes the biggest problem was our total lack of a running game. That was the one glaring problem, and if we correct that we would have won easily.

BUT the honest truth is, if it had been a different refereeing crew out there the game MIGHT have turned out differently. And that is the fundamental in the sport. If which referee is in there changes the game there is a problem.

An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing...

by bluegirl on Jan 5, 2009 9:50 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Hear hear

If we had the crew that officiated the ATL/ARI game we likely would have won. No-calls all over the place in that game. Officiating should be clear and consistent, otherwise the officials are deciding the game rather than the players. And then you’ve become the NBA.

by ctnyc on Jan 5, 2009 10:09 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The players did decide that game. The Chargers played better than we did.

by eltharion_doa on Jan 5, 2009 11:45 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Did they?

Again that’s easy to say if you take that element of the entire equation out and ignore the other factors that influence the outcome of a football game. How the players play the game is one of the things that decide who wins and who loses, but not the only thing. Had a couple of poor officiating calls not been made, the Colts would have gotten the ball back. They very well may have scored and won the game. Does it mean that the players are to blame because the officials’ incompetence robbed them of that chance? Of course not.

Again, yes it would have been preferable if the Colts players had played well enough so that a couple of bad calls would not have had any siginificant impact on the game. Unfortunately, that did not happen. But that does not somehow negate the obligation of the officials to call a fair and consistent game. Nor does it excuse the aforementioned incompetence.

Bottom line: while it would have been nice to play well enough that it didn’t matter that we got jobbed, we still got jobbed. No amount of stoicism or press conference cliches changes the facts.

by ctnyc on Jan 5, 2009 5:23 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It'd be one thing

If they were calling those the entire game. But when you start calling penalties that would be considered iffy in during playoff regulation time you don’t start laying down the law in an overtime playoff game. The first holding call was BS. The play wasn’t even going towards that side of the line and he wouldn’t of been “holding” if the other SD lineman hadn’t pushed him to the ground and caused it to look bad. The second one was worse. The third one was definitely a penalty but it shouldn’t of gotten that far.

Straight up you don’t have two teams put up an amazing game like that for it to be ended on three straight penalties. There’s a reason they don’t call pass interference on hail mary passes. So yes, we should’ve gotten the 3rd and 2, their punter had his leg replaced with a bionic leg, and nobody but Manning showed up on offense. Our defense was amazing, they did much better than I could’ve even hoped. But to have a battle like that end on officials calls? Get real. I saw at least 3-4 facemask/holding penalties not called against Freeney.

Am I surprised though? No. Alot of playoff games seem to end on very iffy calls against the Colts.

My biggest thing is that not only did we beat San Diego, have 4 more wins and have to go there for the game, but they still get a better draft pick. In fact, since they’re the only 8-8 team they get a pretty high pick. Where’s the balance in that?

And the Chargers did not play better than we did. Their punter did. We moved the ball up and down the field and our defense shut them down.

Straight up, it sucks we lost but when I see a team play better than us I’ll come out and say it. We outplayed them, period. It’s still a loss and will go down as such. And who knows we might not have been able to do anything in OT on offense anyway, but those penalties prevented it. I’m not a sore loser because I’m used to it with the Colts.

by monstersbox on Jan 5, 2009 3:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs