Category: NFL Officiating

The new NFL ban on the hip-drop tackle gives defenses a grim outlook

The NFL is playing a very dangerous game by outlawing the hip-drop tackle.

It was announced Monday that the NFL officially banned the hip-drop tackle via a unanimous vote by the competition committee.

This comes after several players have suffered serious foot and ankle injuries over the last handful of years due to that style of tackle. Tennessee Titans running back Tony Pollard suffered a fractured leg and high ankle sprain against the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs in 2023. Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews also suffered a serious ankle injury as the result of a hip-drop tackle in Week 11 of the 2023 season, which caused him to miss the rest of the regular season.

Several players have voiced their displeasures with the new rule change. Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen said via X that the league will be “2 hand touch” next.

Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland also weighed in on X, saying that tackling was now banned.

Defenders are angry, and rightfully so. The deck was already heavily stacked against them in terms of the rules, and the penalties that are handcuffed to them. If defenders make a play on the receiver who is seen as defenseless, they are penalized for unnecessary roughness simply for playing football and trying to break up a pass. Instead of a play like that being an incomplete pass and a fourth down, though, it is 15 yards and an automatic first down.

Pass rushers can’t land with all of their body weight on the quarterback when making a sack, which caused a loud outcry after several awful judgement calls on the rule. Specifically, Dolphins edge rusher Jaelan Phillips was flagged in 2022 against the Chargers after sacking Justin Herbert.

And of course there is the constantly-debated pass interference- the most frequently called defensive penalty that is always the subject of debate. If a defender is flagged for pass interference, it’s an automatic first down and spot of the foul penalty. However, if there is a call for offensive pass interference, the offensive player is flagged for only 10 yards from the previous spot.

And now there is this new hip-drop rule, which is incredibly subjective. The NFL is asking players to defy the laws of physics. If a player is running away from a defender, what else would the NFL like them to do besides grab them and pull them to the ground using their body weight? Well, I’ll tell you what they are going to do- there is going to be a lot more hits to the knee. If guys know that they’ll be penalized for wrapping a guy and dropping their body weight to make a tackle, they’ll avoid the penalty by simply diving at their opponents’ knees, which result in even more injuries. And then in two years, the NFL will ban hits to the knee, and the deck will be stacked against defenders even more.

This a dangerous game the NFL is playing. It’s one thing to want to eliminate shots to the head and neck. Everyone is for making the game safer in that regard. However, when the league continually refuses to remove field turf from the game and make all 32 stadiums have natural grass fields, which players have long called for, it’s hard to take them completely seriously when talking about player safety when they haven’t listened to their players about that nagging that has caused far more injuries than hip-drop tackles have.

This still football at the end of the day. No matter what happens, injuries are unfortunately a part of the game, and they can’t be completely eliminated. It’s a physical, contact sport. At least it was.

Detroit Lions, Taylor Decker get hosed once again by horrible officiating

The Detroit Lions and offensive tackle Taylor Decker were once again victims of the NFL’s inexcusably horrible officiating.

The good news, we suppose, is that this ridiculously bad call against offensive tackle Taylor Decker and the Detroit Lions didn’t cost Dan Campbell’s team a game.

With 1:06 left in the first half of the Lions’ wild-card game against the Los Angeles Rams, Detroit had fourth-and-5 at the Rams’ 41-yard line up 21-17. The Lions were prepared to go for it, as Campbell is wont to do, but before that could happen, referee Craig Wrolstad called a false start on offensive tackle Taylor Decker. That gave the Lions fourth-and-9 at the Rams’ 45-yard line, and the decision was then to punt.

The problem was that Decker’s “false start” happened after multiple Rams defenders broke the line. There was no penalty on any of THEM. The Rams were unable to score before the clock ran out on the first half, but this was still an inexcusable gaffe.

The Lions fans were absolutely correct with that particular chant, and given what referee Brad Allen did to their team a few weeks back, you can understand the frustration.

Referee Brad Allen may have cost the Detroit Lions a win against the Dallas Cowboys

It says a great deal about the state of modern NFL officiating that Wrolstad and his “hand-picked” crew were graded and chosen to be playoff-worthy.

NFL officials need to start treating Justin Fields like a quarterback

Justin Fields has a problem in that the NFL isn’t treating him like a quarterback, and that lack of officiating protection is starting to multiply.

Mobile quarterbacks have always gotten short shrift from NFL officials when it comes to unmercenary roughness and roughing the passer penalties. When it’s assumed that you’re more of a runner than a thrower, referees will lay off the calls they give to more pocket-based quarterbacks. Cam Newton had to deal with that throughout his estimable career, and Justin Fields of the Chicago Bears has inherited Newton’s unfortunate legacy.

ESPN’s Teddy Bruschi brought this up with much frustration on Sunday morning, and you know it’s bad when a former linebacker is sticking up for a quarterback.

It happened again in Sunday’s game between the Bears and the Green Bay Packers. Fields was sliding to protect himself, but that didn’t stop safety Jonathan Owens from causing Fields’ head to hit the turf with this tackle.

You could argue that Fields slid late, but you tell me how many roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness penalties there have been this season against defenders who even come close to harming the quarterback.

Most likely, Owens will be fined by the league for what the officials missed, which is the nature of the beast these days. But in a larger sense, the NFL needs to start treating Justin Fields like a quarterback when he’s acting like one.

Referee Brad Allen gets a Week 18 prime-time game with playoff implications, and nobody’s happy

Brad Allen, the NFL’s worst referee, will call the Steelers-Ravens prime-time game on Saturday, and nobody in America is happy about it.

When the 9-7 Pittsburgh Steelers face the 13-3 Baltimore Ravens on Saturday, it means absolutely nothing to the Ravens, who have wrapped up the AFC’s one-seed. But for the Steelers, it means everything — they need to beat whoever the Ravens put on the field, and they also need help. Pittsburgh makes the playoffs under the following scenarios:

  1. PIT win + BUF loss OR
  2. PIT win + JAX loss or tie OR
  3. PIT win + HOU-IND tie OR
  4. PIT tie + JAX loss + HOU-IND doesn’t end in tie OR
  5. JAX loss + DEN win + HOU-IND doesn’t end in tie

And now, the NFL has presented its own scenario in which the game will be officiated by referee Brad Allen and his crew, who should not be officiating any game, anywhere, at any level of football.

In case you’ve been sleeping since last weekend, Allen and his crew were responsible for the tackle-eligible mistake and several other horrible calls that turned things in the Dallas Cowboys’ favor against the Detroit Lions, taking Detroit out of any hope for the NFC’s one-seed, which the San Francisco 49ers now have.  Allen and his crew were also responsible for the missed pass interference call on cornerback Carrington Valentine against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 13. Allen and his crew were also responsible for the one-sided farce in the Week 7 game between the Miami Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles.

And now, after all that, the most incompetent officiating crew in the NFL will “administrate” a major prime-time game with serious postseason implications. So much for accountability!

As you might expect, America was not at all happy about it.

Referee Brad Allen’s crew blew two more crucial calls late in Lions-Cowboys game

Referee Brad Allen didn’t just blow the Lions’ two-point conversion — he got two more calls wrong late in the game. Why is Allen still in the NFL?

NFL Referee Brad Allen had already been at the center of more controversy this season than any NFL referee should want. Then, there was the illegal touch pass called on the Detroit Lions with 27 seconds left in Saturday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. The two-point conversion that wasn’t likely came about because Allen and his crew got the offensive tackle reporting eligible wrong between Taylor Decker and Dan Skipper. Had Decker’s catch been legal as it should have been, the Lions would have had a 21-20 lead instead of a 20-19 deficit.

But we’ve already gone full Zapruder on that one.

Referee Brad Allen may have cost the Detroit Lions a win against the Dallas Cowboys

Now, let’s get into two more crucial calls Allen’s crew blew late in the game.

With 2:05 left in the game, Cowboys running back Tony Pollard hit a seven-yard gain on first-and-10 from the Detroit 29-yard line. This was the play after Jared Goff’s interception to safety Donovan Wilson, and at this point, the Cowboys could run the clock down and seal a victory up 17-13.

But Allen called tight end Peyton Hendershot for tripping, which negated the run and put the ball 15 yards back at the Detroit 44-yard line. Mike McCarthy’s three-play passing sequence, which took just 11 seconds off the clock, followed, and that was its own disaster. But let’s focus on the tripping call.

Here’s the All-22.

Hendershot was facing Lions edge-rusher Aidan Hutchinson on the play, and there was an attempt at tripping. But the overhead and end zone angles show that it was Hutchinson who made the attempt. On the overhead view, you can dee down judge Sarah Thomas throw the flag from the lower sideline. How Allen managed to extrapolate tripping on Hendershot is a mystery. Could Hendershot been busted for a hold? Maybe… but had this been called correctly, the worst that would have happened for the Cowboys was offsetting penalties and replaying the down. Not a 15-yard deficit that changed the complexion of the Cowboys’ drive.

Then, with 48 seconds left in the game, the Lions had second-and-10 at the Dallas 26-yard line. Receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown ran a seam route from the left slot, and he was clearly impeded by cornerback Jourdan Lewis — that’s a nice way of saying that Lewis was all over St. Brown before the ball got there. There was no call for pass interference. The Lions converted on the next play with a Goff pass to tight end Sam LaPorta which took the ball to the Dallas 11-yard line, but this was about as obvious a pass interference as you’ll ever see.

Now, go back to Allen’s performance in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 27-19 Week 13 loss to the Green Bay Packers. Allen’s crew clearly missed an obvious pass interference on Green Bay cornerback Carrington Valentine with 19 seconds left in the game, so we’ve seen these late-game issues before.

Referee Brad Allen embarrassed the NFL on Sunday night, and nothing will be done about it

As ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported in early December, Allen’s crew was already under scrutiny for a no-call the week before.

With 4:07 remaining in the second quarter, on second-and-9 at the Falcons’ 23-yard line, Saints quarterback Derek Carr threw a pass to running back Alvin Kamara, who was being defended by linebacker Kaden Elliss. The pass fell incomplete on a play in which Elliss never turned around to defend the ball, but Allen’s crew did not call pass interference.

The Superdome and the Saints organization were furious at the lack of a pass interference call on the play, which prompted the Saints to kick a field goal and trim their deficit to 14-9 with 3:54 remaining in the first half. The Saints (5-7) ultimately lost the game 24-15 and trail the first-place Falcons (6-6) in the NFC South.

Here’s that play, where you can see that Elliss was face-guarding Kamara and did not have his head turned to the ball. At the end of the overhead film, you can also see that this happened about five yards away from one of Allen’s officials.

Whatever this “increased scrutiny” was supposed to be, it certainly hasn’t helped matters.

So, we’re left with the larger discussion here. It’s time to focus out from which team Brad Allen may or may not have screwed in the Cowboys-Lions game. It’s time to ask whether Brad Allen is competent to officiate NFL games.

And the answer, clearly, is no.

Referee Brad Allen may have cost the Detroit Lions a win against the Dallas Cowboys

Brad Allen may have been the NFL’s worst referee this season, and right now, it looks as if he cost the Lions a win against the Cowboys

We at Touchdown Wire have had issues with referee Brad Allen before, and with good reason. And now, it’s entirely possible that Allen and his crew cost the Detroit Lions a win they should have had.

Here was the situation. The Lions went right down the field against the Dallas Cowboys down 20-19 starting with 1:41 left in the fourth quarter. The Lions had that much time because Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy called three straight passes before a field goal that put Dallas up 20-13. Dallas then gave quarterback Jared Goff all the soft coverage he could ever dream of having, which allowed Goff to drive his team downfield and hit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown for an 11-yard touchdown with 27 seconds left.

Then, head coach Dan Campbell called for a two-point conversion, as is his wont, and it looked for all the world that Goff hit offensive tackle Taylor Decker in the end zone for the successful try that would have given the Lions a 21-20 lead. But Allen called an illegal touch pass on the play, saying that Decker didn’t report as an eligible receiver.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after the game,”70 [tackle Dan Skipper] reported, 68 [Decker] didn’t. That was the explanation.”

Well, here’s the problem with that. ESPN, who had the game, had clear video evidence of Goff telling Decker to report as eligible. And there is clear video evidence of Decker going over to do just that.

Longtime NFL offensive tackle and football analyst Mitchell Schwartz had an excellent blow-by-blow breakdown of what happened…. and what should have happened.

As Schwartz said, this would have been a legal formation had the eligibility not been in question. A nd you can see Allen running away from the tackles as they’re clearly trying to report as eligible.

“I’m guessing that Brad Allen, based on his mannerisms, and his eyes… where his hat is looking, he never recognized [Decker],” ESPN rules analyst and former NFL referee John Parry told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt after the fact. “It’s not reviewable. What you need to do in that situation when the game is on the line… remember that the clock is stopped. You just had six points. So now, we’re going to go for two, so there’s no rush here, Take your time. Make sure you know who’s participating. They’re going for two. Slow everything down, make sure you have it correct. Make sure the defense knows who is eligible, and who is not. I think in this case, when you watch Brad, and his movements, and him focusing on No. 70 [Skipper], I don’t think that 68 [Decker] and Brad Allen ever connected.”

You could argue that it’s Decker’s responsibility to get Allen’s attention, but as Allen was running over to Dallas’ defense to let them know who was eligible. Decker thought Allen heard him.

Or… it could be even worse.

If that’s the case, Allen got the reporting lineman wrong.

Here’s the pool report, in which Allen appears to have gotten confused because Skipper had reported eligible to him earlier in the game.

And we now have a situation where one official is lying, or several members if the Detroit Lions are lying. That’s what Allen set up.

Allen probably isn’t lying — he’s going on his own incorrect interpretation of the situation and the rule. But given every other grievous error he’s made this season, Brad Allen should never be allowed to have this position in the NFL ever again.

It’s as simple as that.

Twitter is unhappy with referee Clete Blakeman’s flag festival in Seahawks-Cowboys

Referee Clete Blakeman and his officiating crew decided to make the Seahawks-Cowboys game about them, and Twitter was not happy about it.

Some referees just seem to like face time. The legendary Ed Hochuli was very much like that, and Clete Blakeman may have inherited the title. Coming into Thursday night’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowhoys, Blakeman and his crew had called just 110 penalties on the season, third-lowest in the NFL. But in this nationally televised event, Blakeman clearly wanted to make up for lost opportunities. Not only had Blakeman and his crew called 17 penalties through the end of the third quarter, but these more had been waved off after flags were thrown, and Blakeman got his mug on TV yet again.

Several of these calls were highly suspect, as we will see, and overall, social media was down on Blakeman’s repeat performances.

Seahawks miss field goal after Clete Blakeman’s crew forgets to re-set the play clock

The Seahawks lost an easy field goal try against the Cowboys when Clete Blakeman’s crew forgot to reset the play clock.

Section 2, Article 2 of the NFL Rule Book states that “In the event of certain administrative stoppages or other delays, a team will have 25 seconds, beginning with the Referee’s whistle, to put the ball in play next by a snap or a kick.”

That didn’t happen for the Seattle Seahawks with Clete Blakeman’s officiating crew with 1:01 left in the first quarter of their Thursday night game against the Dallas Cowboys. Seattle kicker Jason Myers was set to try a 37-yard field goal, but the Seahawks were pushed back five yards for a delay of game penalty. Myers subsequently missed the 42-yard attempt wide right.

There were two issues with Blakeman’s call. First, in re-setting the ball for the field goal try, the officials didn’t give Seattle enough time to kick, because they didn’t reset the play clock.

Then, there’s the matter of Pete Carroll screaming for a time out before the play clock hit zero, to no avail.

We’re more than used to NFL officials making mistakes this season, but when an experienced referee like Blakeman can’t even get the simple procedural stuff right, it does make one wonder.

Darius Slay wouldn’t have minded being penalized on controversial no-call

Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said that he wouldn’t have minded being penalized on one of Shawn Hochuli’s bizarre no-calls in the Bills game.

No matter which team you were rooting for on Sunday, we can all agree that the officiating job performed by referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew in the Philadelphia Eagles’ 37-34 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills was iffy at best, and outright incompetent at worst. Moreover, Hochuli seemed to see no issue with his bad calls in the pool report he gave after the game.

It may be too late to do anything about officiating in the NFL at this point outside of unplugging the thing and plugging it back in, but one Eagles player came out on Monday and said that he wouldn’t have minded if a penalty had been called on him. In this case, it was cornerback Darius Slay, who was filmed grabbing Bills receiver Stefon Diggs before the ball arrived while umpire Terry Killens Jr. was looking at… well, who knows what he was looking at.

There was also this incompletion from Bills quarterback Josh Allen to receiver Trent Sherfield with 4:33 left in the first half. This certainly seemed as if Slay basically tackled Sherfield before the ball arrived. No flag.

“So on that play from the view and the angle of the official, we just didn’t feel that it significantly hindered the receiver’s ability to catch the ball,” Hochuli said.

At least the players knew what was up.

Horse-collar no-call on Haason Reddick against Josh Allen might be worst of the season

Shawn Hochuli’s officiating crew made the worst no-call of the season by whiffing on Haason Reddick’s horse-collar tackle on Josh Allen.

It has certainly been a horrible season for NFL officiating, yes? No matter which team you call your own, you can point to one obvious example in which your team has been hosed by a group of officials that are inconsistent at best, and incompetent at worst.

Here at Touchdown Wire, we’ve written about the league’s awful product all season, but it’s going to be very difficult to top the no-call in the game between the Buffalo Bills and the Philadelphia Eagles for sheer WTF status.

Here was the situation. With 1:34 left in the second quarter, and the Bills up 10-7, Eagles edge-rusher Haason Reddick pressured Bills quarterback Josh Allen. In the process, Reddick tore the front of Allen’s jersey at the collar, and clearly grabbed the back of Allen’s jersey at the collar.

And that part of the play, per the NFL Rule Book, is a horse-collar tackle. Per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert:

Instead, Allen was called for intentional grounding, despite the fact that there were two receivers in the direct vicinity of his throw. Shawn Hochuli’s crew really blew this one. And this despite the fact that there was an official looking directly at the play from a couple yards behind.

NFL officiating in 2023? Make it make sense, people.