Tag: referee

Oh so now Jared Goff has a problem with bad officiating

Oh, so now Jared Goff has a problem with bad officiating. The ex-Rams quarterback now knows how Saints fans felt when his Lions lost after a bad call:

The big discussion of the NFL world today is the officiating of last night’s football game between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys. A crucial mistake at the end of the game helped cost the Lions the win and caused quarterback Jared Goff to change his tune on bad officiating.

“It sucks. It’s unfortunate man. I don’t know if I’ve had this feeling before, where you feel like you won but you didn’t,” said the Lions quarterback after the game, per The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy.

So what was the problem? Multiple Lions offensive linemen approached referee Brad Allen during the game to disguise which of them was the eligible receiver — something that Lions coach Dan Campbell alerted Allen to before kickoff, as is standard procedure. The play was intended to fool the Cowboys defense, but it confused Allen instead, and Detroit was set back by a penalty when the wrong lineman was flagged as an ineligible receiver downfield.

It’s unfortunate, but as New Orleans Saints fans know all too well, the “human element” of the game leads to this kind of heartbreak. And it certainly made an impression on Goff, whose words took a turn from his reflecting on the 2018 NFC championship game.

While appearing on the Pardon My Take podcast, Goff shrugged off Saints fans’ concerns of a missed call in the infamous 2018 conference title game when he was a member of the Los Angeles Rams. On the missed pass interference against his former teammate Nickell Robey-Coleman, Goff scoffed: “No, it wasn’t. Was it called pass interference? I’ve had a million pass interferences that weren’t called. Who says he makes the field goal, too? I know he’s automatic from (that distance), Lutz was, but I don’t know.”

Goff has also gone on the record and said that the Saints “had a chance” to win the game despite that no-call, but his Lions had a chance, too. After losing a two-point conversion to this officiating gaffe they tried again from a further distance, but this time they couldn’t get the job done. Now Goff knows how the over half lives when the referees aren’t doing their jobs.

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NFL assigns one of it’s flag-happiest referee crews to pivotal Saints-Bucs game

The NFL assigned one of its flag-happiest referees to Week 17’s pivotal Saints-Bucs game. Land Clark’s crew averages the second-most penalties per game:

The NFL assigned one of its flag-happiest referees to Week 17’s pivotal game between the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Land Clark’s crew averages the second-most penalty markers per game (13) with 106 fouls going against visitors and just 89 drawn by home teams. That’s a tough break for the Saints as they travel to Raymond James Stadium for what could be an elimination game in their fleeting playoff hopes.

Clark’s crew has been on hand for three Saints games since he was promoted to referee a few years ago; New Orleans is 1-2 in those matchups, most recently losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier this season. The Saints were only fouled three times for 34 yards that evening while the Jaguars drew five penalties for a loss of 42 yards, but it didn’t make much difference in that 31-24 loss.

Like most officials, Clark’s crew is vigilant for offensive holding fouls (2.47 per game) and false starts (2.33), but they have also called teams for a lot of unnecessary roughness penalties (1.13). Both New Orleans (5.9 penalties per game) and Tampa Bay (6.1) have drawn their share of infractions this season, so each squad needs to be on its toes. The Saints will be eliminated from the NFC South title race with a loss, so their margin for error is razor-thin. Hopefully head coach Dennis Allen and his staff are preparing the team appropriately.

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Veteran referee Carl Cheffers assigned to Week 15 Saints-Giants game

Veteran referee Carl Cheffers has been assigned to Week 15’s Saints-Giants game. New Orleans has more wins with him on the field than any other referee:

Veteran referee Carl Cheffers has been assigned to Week 15’s game between the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants, which should be good news for Saints fans. The black and gold have more wins with Cheffers on the field than any other referee, having gone 14-4 since 2008.

That’s not to say Cheffers is playing favorites; the infractions he and his crew look for may just happen to be things the Saints do a good job avoiding. Or, more likely, most of his games with New Orleans fell during the winningest era in franchise history with Drew Brees and Sean Payton calling the shots.

At any rate: this year, Cheffers’ crew is averaging the seventh-fewest penalty flags per game (11.5) with a near-even split between home teams and visitors. They’ve fouled teams more often for false starts (28 of them) and offensive holding (24) than anything else, but the handsy Saints secondary must watch out — Cheffers’ crew has thrown 11 penalty flags for defensive pass interference in as many games.

New York averages just 5.4 penalties for 44.6 yards per game each week, which ranks in the bottom-10 in the league in both areas. New Orleans is averaging 6.1 fouls (which is 18th) and 55.5 yards per game (9th-most, troublingly), largely due to those defensive pass interference infractions. No team averages more yards lost per game to DPI penalties than the Saints (16.8). They’ll need to be careful in coverage and keep it clean.

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Twitter reacts to Chiefs’ brutal loss to Bills in Week 14

Users on Twitter had some feelings about the #Chiefs’ brutal loss to the #Bills in Week 14.

The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Buffalo Bills in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday after a late touchdown was nullified by a rarely-called offensive offside penalty on wide receiver Kadarius Toney.

While the controversial call by the referees was a huge part of Chiefs Kingdom’s angst after the game, Kansas City’s performance against Buffalo was frustrating to watch in its entirety. Without Isiah Pacheco in the backfield, the Chiefs offense looked listless, and an early interception thrown by Patrick Mahomes gave the Bills momentum as early as the first quarter.

Fans posted about Kansas City’s disconcerting showing on social media after the game and made their feelings about the loss clear. Some used humor to cope with the Chiefs’ defeat, while others were a bit more direct with their anger about Kansas City’s latest collapse.

Check out some of Twitter’s best reactions to the brutal Week 14 game against Buffalo below:

Referee Alan Eck assigned to his second Saints game this season

Referee Alan Eck assigned to his second Saints game this season

The New Orleans Saints will play their second game with referee Alan Eck on the field this season in Sunday’s matchup with the Carolina Panthers; they last saw him in Week 6, during their loss to the Houston Texans. Eck was promoted to referee this summer after previously working as an NFL umpire and side judge for seven years.

Eck’s crew averages fewer penalties per game (11.4) than most squads around the league, but he nearly met that total back in Week 6. New Orleans was fouled 7 times for 83 yards against just 3 penalties for 29 yards on the Texans.

Why such an imbalance? Pass interference penalties on Paulson Adebo and Marshon Lattimore cost the Saints 45 yards, and the offensive line combined for another 25 penalty yards (Erik McCoy and Trevor Penning were fouled for holding, Max Garcia had a false start). Derek Carr was flagged for intentional grounding, too.

Hopefully the Saints can cut down on those penalties; they’ve drawn exactly 6 fouls for 50 penalty yards in each of their last two games coming out of the Week 13 bye. Negative yardage and lost opportunities have held them back all season and time is running out to make up for those mistakes.

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Twitter reacts to controversial officiating late in Chiefs’ matchup vs. Packers

Twitter wasn’t thrilled with referees during the #Chiefs’ matchup against the #Packers in Week 13.

The Kansas City Chiefs did their best to make the end of their matchup against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football interesting in the fourth quarter.

After a litany of injuries and a comedy of errors on both sides of the ball, Kansas City got the ball with just over a minute left in the game facing an eight-point deficit.

First, Patrick Mahomes scrambled to his right to convert a first down and was met on the sideline by Packers safety Jonathan Owens, who hit him hard. A personal foul was assessed, and Kansas City seemed to have been bailed out by the referees in a crucial situation.

Then, receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling was bear-hugged by a Packers defender deep downfield when targeted by Mahomes, and no pass interference penalty was assessed.

Fans went ballistic on Twitter in reaction to the inconsistent officiating.

Check out their top reaction to the call below:

NFL assigns referee Clay Martin to Week 13’s Saints-Lions game

The NFL has assigned referee Clay Martin and his crew to officiate Week 13’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions:

The NFL has assigned referee Clay Martin and his crew to officiate Week 13’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions; Martin has been on hand for just three Saints games since being promoted to referee in 2018, but New Orleans is 2-1 with him on the field. Detroit is 2-3.

And Martin’s crew averages the second-fewest penalty flags per game among the NFL’s 17 officiating staffs (10.7), with an emphasis on offensive holding fouls (30) and false starts (20). That’s the good news. The bad news is that Martin’s staff have penalized home teams much more often (63 times) than visitors (44) this season, so the Saints won’t have any benefits of hosting this game.

Dennis Allen’s Saints team is not as disciplined as Dan Campbell’s Lions squad. Detroit has been fouled 62 times in 11 games, for a total loss of 578 yards; New Orleans has drawn 70 penalty markers for a combined 642 yards in 11 games as well. Take that down to per-game averages and the Saints are being fouled 6.4 times for 58.4 yards each week. The Lions are being penalized 5.7 times for 52.5 yards. The Saints must mind their hands and play clean football on Sunday to avoid those penalties and stay out of their own way.

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Referee Brad Allen assigned to Saints-Falcons matchup in Week 12

Referee Brad Allen has been assigned to Week 12’s Saints-Falcons game. His crew averages the second-fewest penalty flags per game in 2023:

Here’s your Week 12 referee assignment: veteran referee Brad Allen and his crew will officiate the New Orleans Saints’ upcoming road game with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. The Saints are 5-3 in games with Allen at referee, while the Falcons are 5-6, dating back to his debut in 2014.

Allen’s crew is known for letting the teams play; they’re averaging the second-fewest penalty flags per game this season (10.6), with an emphasis on offensive holding fouls (16 in 9 games) and false start infractions (15), as well as defensive pass interference (9). But on the whole they’ve stayed off of cameras and let the two teams play ball.

And that’s good news for the Saints, who are averaging the fourth-most penalty yards per game (59.2) this season. The Falcons are averaging 49.3 penalty yards each week, which is close to the league average. The New Orleans defense is yielding more yards by penalty (33) than any other defense around the league, so they’ll need to watch their hands and play a clean game on Sunday.

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NFL assigns referee Adrian Hill to Week 10 Saints-Vikings game

The NFL has assigned referee Adrian Hill to Week 10 Saints-Vikings game. New Orleans is 2-1 with him at referee, while the Vikings are 2-3:

Don’t expect many penalty flags to fly on Sunday. The NFL has assigned referee Adrian Hill to Week 10’s game between the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings — and Hill’s crew averages just 10.5 penalty markers per game, fourth-fewest among the 17 officiating crews.

If you’re curious, the Saints are 2-1 in games with Hill at referee, who was promoted to the post back in 2019 after nine years as a field judge, side judge, and line judge. The Vikings are 2-3. This will be the first game in 2023 either team has played with Hill on the field; the Saints haven’t seen him since their Dec. 27, 2021 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

But that doesn’t mean this will be a penalty-free game. Hill’s crew has fouled visiting teams 50 times compared to just 34 infractions on home squads. They have thrown more penalty flags for false starts (15) than anything else, so the Saints need to be mindful of that when they have the football. They were fouled just once last week for a season-low 5 yards, which was a false start penalty on tight end Juwan Johnson.

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Twitter reactions to egregious officiating in Cowboys’ loss to Eagles

The Cowboys didn’t lose because of the officials, but they certainly didn’t get a fair shake in the Week 9 loss. A look at how folks reacted on Twitter. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys didn’t lose because of the NFL referees. Let’s get that out of the way first and foremost. In every game, there are a multitude of plays that can be called either way and once the ball starts rolling in one direction, it’s easy to pay attention to every greivance on one side and ignore the ones on the other.

However, the calls the refs made, and others they didn’t make, certainly made the Dallas Cowboys’ efforts more of an uphill battle than they did for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 28-23 game on Sunday afternoon.

There has been a long tradition in the NFL where the Cowboys are constantly on the short end of the officiating stick; actual studies have been done on this in the past. However, more often than not, as long as time is left on the clock, the results almost inevitably end up being back in a team’s control.  Sunday’s loss had numerous examples of the Cowboys being screwed by the calls, but also messing up themselves.

Dak Prescott stepping out of bounds on a two-point conversion was not the ref’s fault. Tyler Smith false starting on first-and-goal from the six yard line was not the ref’s fault. Either of those things

What was the ref’s fault? Plenty. There was the lack of an offensive pass interference call when Devonta Smith used an arm bar to create separation for his TD against DaRon Bland. There was the lack of a DPI call when CeeDee Lamb was grabbed on a deep ball the very next play.

There was the DPI called against Stephon Gilmore on an uncatchable ball that landed well outside the sideline on a throwaway. There was the penalty on Chuma Edoga for not declaring eligible that negated a Tony Pollard TD. Three plays later there was an overrule that claimed Luke Schoonmaker was down before crossing the goal line. The refs threw a flag for illegal hands to the face but picked it up when the replay showed there was clearly hands to the face.

Again, the Dallas Cowboys had a chance to win this game despite these officiating errors, and they didn’t come through. But the refs were really bad in this game and as such, the reaction on social media let them have it.