Tag: Clete Blakeman

Lions draw controversial referee for NFC Championship against the 49ers

Detroit Lions play against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship, where they will have a ref who they bad history with in the past

The Detroit Lions secured a decisive victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, earning their ticket to the NFC Championship where they are set to face the perennial powerhouse San Francisco 49ers. As the stage is set for this crucial matchup, the referee assignments have been announced, and unfortunately for the Lions, they find themselves under the oversight of Clete Blakeman, a referee with a troubled history in Detroit.

Clete Blakeman has been entrusted with refereeing duties for the NFC Championship, prompting disappointment among Lions fans. The mere mention of Blakeman brings back memories of the 2019 debacle when the Lions appeared on the verge of defeating the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night, only to be thwarted by a series of controversial calls, resulting in a heartbreaking 23-22 loss and almost ensuring the NFC North title for the Packers.

While the Lions had Blakeman as a referee earlier in the season during their matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders, there were no significant issues reported. However, an incident where he waved off a holding call from an umpire raised concerns about his attentiveness to his officiating responsibilities.

Despite Blakeman having one of the lowest totals for flags thrown (220), he has dismissed 45 of those calls, tying for the highest dismissal rate among officiating crews. Recent history includes the memorable flag-heavy game between the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys, where flags seemed to fly every 30 seconds, with many being picked up later.

In the playoffs, officiating crews vary from the regular season, introducing an element of unpredictability. However, convincing Lions fans to overlook Blakeman’s contentious history with the team may prove challenging. As the NFC Championship game approaches, all eyes will be on how officiating unfolds, with the shadow of past grievances lingering in the background.

Worst of the Week: Clete Blakeman, Jamal Adams, Ron Rivera, Broncos in the red zone

Jamal Adams, Ron Rivera, Broncos in the red zone, Joe Flacco’s last two plays, and more bad officiating! It’s the NFL’s Worst of the Week!

Football is a wonderful, thrilling, inspiring game that can lift us to new heights in our lives.

But football is also a weird, inexplicable, at times downright stupid game that may force you to perform Keith Moon-level furniture destruction in your own living room.

So, as much as we at Touchdown Wire endeavor to write about what makes the game great, there are also times when it’s important to point out the dumb plays, boneheaded decisions, and officiating errors that make football all too human.

Folks, it’s time for the Worst of the Week for Week 13 of the 2023 NFL season.

Twitter reacts to overzealous officiating in Seahawks-Cowboys game

Naturally, fans who were watching were extremely put off by all the flags.

The NFL had a real shot at their first entertaining Thursday Night Football game in history last night. The Seahawks and the Cowboys got into a thrilling shootout, with Geno Smith and Dak Prescott exchanging big plays from the first whistle to the last.

Unfortunately, referee Clete Blakeman and his crew were in rare form, throwing a total of 19 flags against both teams and totaling 257 yards in penalties. That ruined the flow of the game, which devolved into a totally defense-less affair. DBs on both sides got the worst of it, as they were not allowed to so much as touch an opposing receiver without getting called for pass interference.

Naturally, fans who were watching were extremely put off by all the flags. Here’s what they had to say about it on Twitter.

Studs and duds for the Seahawks from Thursday Night Football loss

Here are our studs and duds for Week 13.

The Seahawks got into a rare thriller on Thursday Night Football against the Cowboys tonight. For a while there it even seemed like they were going to pull off an unlikely upset against a nine-point favorite on the road. However, at no point were they able to stop Dak Prescott and when it mattered most they buckled in the trenches, losing 41-35.

As painful as it was to watch at the very end, we should not let this latest loss overshadow several players who put in praiseworthy performances under the worst possible circumstances. Here are our studs and duds for Week 13.

Dak Prescott forwards his MVP chances at Cowboys edge Seahawks

The Cowboys’ 41-35 win over the Seahawks proved one thing: If you don’t have Dak Prescott as your MVP frontrunner, you’re not paying attention.

Coming into Thursday night’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys, Seattle was 36-0 in games in which they had scored 35 or more points.

Now, they’re 36-1. Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith put up a valiant performance, completing 23 of 41 passes for 334 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 97.0. With no run game to speak of — Kenneth Walker was out with an oblique injury, and Zach Charbonnet left the game in the fourth quarter with a knee concern — it was all up to Smith to keep up with the Cowboys.

Smith’s performance would have made it work against most teams and most quarterbacks, but not the Cowboys and Prescott right now. In Dallas’ 41-35 win, Prescott completed 29 of 41 passes for three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 115.8.

We’ve talked a lot about how well Prescott has been playing since Dallas’ Week 7 bye, and since Week 8, he has 20 touchdown passes. C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans and Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers are tied for second with 10.

In this game, Prescott hit three different targets — receivers CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks, and tight end Jake Ferguson — for touchdowns.

There is an aura of inevitability about Prescott’s play right now. No matter how much the opposing team scores, you just have the feeling that Prescott will find a way to match and exceed his opponents’ efforts.

As for the Seahawks, it was a frustrating game at a lot of levels. Head coach Pete Carroll was apoplectic at times with referee Clete Blakeman and his officiating crew, and for good reason. But in the end, they were left to deal with the fact that the Cowhoys are the better team, and Prescott is the better quarterback.

And at this point, if you’re not speaking his name as the prohibitive MVP favorite, you’re simply not paying attention.

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.

Referee Clete Blakeman got confused about which team he wanted to penalize

Referee Clete Blakeman had trouble figuring out which team he wanted to penalize in the Seahawks-Chiefs game.

With Week 16 of the 2022 season in full gear, there’s no nice way to put this: NFL officiating has been a complete and total bleepshow of late. Blown calls affect games, and there appears to be in-game confusion about everything from what a catch is to what constitutes roughing the passer. Whether the NFL will do anything about it in the offseason is a matter of conjecture, but we’re getting to the point where the zebras are struggling with the simple things.

The worst officiating moments from a NFL Week 15 that was full of them

With 7:30 left in the third quarter of the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle quarterback Geno Smith threw a fourth-down pass to Colby Parkinson that fell short of the sticks. Not that it would have mattered if the play had created a first down, because it was coming back.

Eventually. First, referee Clete Blakeman had to figure out which team to penalize. At first, it was the Chiefs! Then, it was the Seahawks!

In the end, it was an offensive pass interference call on Seahawks receiver Penny Hart. We just had to wait an extra second for Blakeman to figure that out.

Referee Clete Blakeman’s crew assigned to work Chiefs-Seahawks game

The #Chiefs pulled referee Clete Blakeman and his crew for their Christmas Eve game against the #Seahawks

14-year NFL referee Clete Blakeman and his crew are set to officiate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 16 game against the Seattle Seahawks according to Football Zebras.

This is the second game that Blakeman has officiated for Kansas City this season, with the first game coming against the Tennessee Titans in Week 9. That game was the Chiefs’ most penalized game (10) this season up until last week’s 11-flag game by Carl Cheffers.

Since Blakeman was promoted from field judge in 2010, Kansas City has a 9-6 overall record in games officiated by Blakeman. That includes some pretty notable losses, where penalties played a big part like the AFC title game against the New England Patriots or the Los Angeles Rams game in 2018 when the NFL replaced Blakeman’s regular crew with an “All-Star” officiating unit.

Through 13 games this season, Blakeman’s crew has thrown the fifth-most total flags with 194 on the season, but they average the third-most flags per game in the NFL. This crew is right around the league average of dismissed penalties (26) and they also have a pretty even split of penalties called on the home (83) and away (85) team.

The penalties this crew calls with the most frequency are offensive holding (29) and false start (28). The Chiefs are near the top of the league in offensive holding (19), but they’re dead last in the league in false start penalties (5). Defensive holding (14) and defensive pass interference (14) are also among the lead penalties for this officiating crew, followed by illegal formation (8) and delay of game (8). Overall, Chiefs Kingdom should expect a second consecutive week with a lot of penalty flags on the ground.

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