Tag: NFL Officiating

NFL explains why Zach Ertz catch was not a touchdown

The NFL explains the Zach Ertz call.

The Washington Commanders defeated the Chicago Bears 18-15 on Sunday in one of the most thrilling NFL finishes in years. Rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels’ Hail Mary into the end zone landed in the waiting arms of Noah Brown to give Washington the shocking win.

While Chicago fans will lament blowing the game on the Hail Mary, the Commanders had several opportunities to put the game away long before the fourth quarter.

Up 6-0 with over five minutes remaining in the first half, Daniels found tight end Zach Ertz in the front corner of the end zone for the game’s first touchdown. However, officials ruled it incomplete. The Commanders challenged the ball but lost.

Judge for yourself:

If they had ruled it complete on the field, this was one of those calls that probably remained a touchdown. After the game, Nicki Jhabvala asked NFL Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth about the controversial call.

“The ruling on the field was an incomplete pass,” Butterworth said. “After the challenge flag was thrown, for us to overturn it, we needed clear and obvious video evidence that he actually had control of the ball before it hit the ground. When the ball came to the ground, we had hand separation off of the ball, therefore it’s an incomplete pass.”

He provided further clarification.

“There were two different angles used, and he didn’t have his hand completely under the ball,” Butterworth replied. “And then you look at right after the hand and ball had contact with the ground, his hands were off the ball momentarily.”

The NFL created this problem, and fans have been confused ever since. It’s not just fans, but players and coaches have admitted over the years they aren’t even sure what a catch is anymore. By the current rules, the NFL probably got it right, at least sticking by its initial call. However, if it were ruled a touchdown, things would’ve been much more interesting.

 

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.

Did John Hussey’s officiating crew miss OPI on the Ravens’ first touchdown?

The Ravens’ first touchdown against the Texans should have not counted due to offensive pass interference, but John Hussey’s officiating crew missed it.

Per Rule 8, Section 5, Article 2 of the 2023 NFL Rule Book, offensive pass interference should be called when a player cuts off the path of an opponent by making contact with him, without playing the ball.

Well, with 9:14 left in the first half of the Baltimore Ravens’ divisional round playoff game against the Houston Texans, Lamar Jackson threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor. No problem there, except that it certainly looked as if Baltimore tight end Charlie Kolar committed offensive pass interference as he broke inside to the same side as Agholor’s route. Kolar moved safety Deandre Houston-Carson out of the way so that Agholor could run his route unobstructed.

If that’s the case, referee John Hussey and his all-star playoff crew gave the Ravens quite a gift.

Craig Wrolstad’s crew blew so many calls during Lions-Rams, and here they all are!

The Lions beat the Rams in a thrilling wild-card matchup, but an unfortunate side story was referee Craig Wrolstad calling a fireable game.

The NFL goes through a process during the regular season in which all officials are graded for their performances, and then the “best” officials are given playoff assignments, with refereed working with “all-star” crews. Given the state of officiating in the NFL this season, you should expect that not every playoff-ready official is really up on things.

This was certainly the case for referee Craig Wrolstad, who was given the wild-card game between the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams that ended in a 24-23 win for the Lions. And on that vaunted stage, Wrolstad and his bunch put together one of the most horribly-officiated games of the 2023 season — which says a lot.

There’s no need to present any additional commentary here; the embarrassments are enough to be simply shown.

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.

Referee Brad Allen nearly called a penalty on the wrong team again

Referee Brad Allen got another call wrong on the field. It must be a day ending in “Y!”

With 7:36 left in Saturday’s slopfest of a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers, referee Brad Allen and his crew stopped play for a penalty announcement. If you’ve followed Allen’s “work” throughout the season, you know that there was going to be a high “Choose Your Own Adventure” possibility here.

And indeed, there was. The penalty was called against tight end Connor Heyward on a punt by Jordan Stout of the Ravens. And since Allen was involved, we all had to stop and take a break while Allen figured it out with the help of down judge Sarah Thomas. You can see Allen and Thomas discussing the play, Allen signaling a holding penalty against… the Ravens, Allen and Thomas discussing it again, and Allen getting it right with a penalty on the Steelers.

This, of course, wouldn’t be the first time Allen called a penalty on the wrong team this season. In fact, it wasn’t the first time Allen called a penalty on the wrong team in the last calendar week. Let’s travel back to last Saturday night’s embarrassment in a crucial game between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys.

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.

Just another day ending in “Y” for the NFL’s worst referee, who is working a game with playoff implications. At least this one got corrected before it was official.

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.

Referees call simultaneous horrible roughing the passer calls on Vikings, Panthers

The Vikings and Panthers were victimized by simultaneous horrible roughing the passer calls in two different games. Bravo, refs!

There’s no question that the putrid state of officiating is one of the top stories of the 2023 NFL season, and here we go again. On Sunday, virtually at the same time, the Minnesota Vikings and the Carolina Panthers were waylaid by roughing the passer calls that did not stand up to close inspection.

The penalty against the Vikings came with 9:17 left in the first half. Defensive lineman Patrick Jones II barely touched Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, but Land Clark objected nonetheless. That turned second-and-26 into first-and-10, and game the Lions 15 extra yards.

The penalty against the Panthers happened with 8:44 left in the first half, when edge-rusher Yetur Gross-Matos was apparently a bit too rough with Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love. Again, you’d love to see any evidence of actual roughing the passer here. That turned third-and-1 into first-and-10, and gave the Packers 15 bonus yards. Bravo, referee Alex Kemp.

You can see both “penalties” right here.

Worst of the Week for Week 15: Pickens and Toney, Sean Payton’s meltdown, Ron Rivera’s folly

MIke Tomlin, Sean Payton, Kadarius Toney, George Pickens, invisible Panthers fans, and the Jets. It’s time for 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 15 of the 2023 NFL season.

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

Referee Brad Allen embarrassed the NFL on Sunday night’s Packers-Chiefs game, but what will be done about it? And how would we know?

Two things can be true.

The Green Bay Packers deserved to beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football.

Referee Brad Allen and his crew made such a mess of things in that game, we’ll never know who really won.

The call (or no-call) everyone’s talking about in the Packers’ 27-19 win was the missed obvious pass interference call on Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine with 50 seconds left in the game, and it was BAD. Valentine so obviously impeded receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s ability to play the ball, there was no other call to make.

It absolutely should have been pass interference, the Chiefs should have had the ball inside the Green Bay 10-yard line, and from there? You never know what will happen.

And we will never know what would have happened. We also have the two-hand shove given to Travis Kelce by Packers safety Jonathan Owens on this Hail Mary pass at the end of the game. Yes, officials let a lot of contact go on those types of throws, but this was, again, obvious.

Not that the Chiefs were the only team hosed near the end of the game. It’s hard to top the unnecessary roughness penalty given to Owens on this hit of Patrick Mahomes with 1:05 left in the game. This really started the rodeo.

There was also Allen not letting the clock run when Valdes-Scantling was pushed out of bounds with 24 seconds left in the game. Because Valdes-Scantling was pushed backward, and his forward progress had stopped, the game clock should have kept running. But it didn’t.

After the game, Allen “explained” himself in a pool report.

The “covering officials” should be fined and suspended for missing such an obvious call (set of calls, really), but as far as we know, that will not happen. The NFL does not make discipline of officials public, nor does it make the reviews of officials public. If an official is downgraded for a game like this, we don’t know about it, and if a downgraded official somehow gets a postseason assignment, we don’t know that, either. Which really isn’t a good look for the NFL.

There is no one way to fix an officiating problem that has become the league’s top story without question this season, but some level of transparency would help. If the media wants to speak to an official after a game, that official should be made available, and the interview should be made available to the public. NFL senior V.P. of officiating Walt Anderson should have a weekly press conference — also made available to the public — in which he can explain any calls or no-calls media may have questions about.

And in the case of this particular debacle, the “covering officials” should not be able to slink away anonymously. They should also be made available to answer questions. That level of accountability might bring a fraction of change to a profession that is clearly in need of quite a bit more than that.

But, that will not happen. Certainly not before the Competition Committee meets at the league meetings next March. Until then, there will be more bad officiating, more games altered in ways they shouldn’t be, and more fan frustration because the fans are asked to lap the product up without question.

That’s hardly the American way, at least in theory, but it is certainly the NFL way.