Just like boxing or MMA. If you think the judges are biased or can’t figure crap out, you make sure you don’t leave the game in their hands. If you are winning/ losing by 3 points, you are just asking for them to screw something up.
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The Packers were winning by 5. They attempted to go up by 7 points, but the replacement officials gave Rodgers a slick K ball for the 2 pt conversion. The Packers didn’t leave it in the refs hands by intercepting Wilson. Bogus penalty overturned it. They didn’t leave it in the refs hands by playing stellar pass defense. Bogus penalty negated that. They didn’t leave it in the refs hands by intercepting the final pass of the game. Bogus replay call overturned that. What more do you want?

I’ll say one more time that I truly believe the calls will even out, and the Pack will be the beneficiary of a terrible call sometime soon – but in this specific case, don’t try to claim the Packers could have done more. They played very good football against one of the NFL’s elite defenses in the second half. Come on, man.

1) The incident at the end overshadowed a really good game. Seahawks defense breaking records in the 1st half and the Packers fighting back and taking the lead in the second. Too bad it got ruined !

2) The Pack had the ball and the lead with less than a minute left. One first down and it was game over. They put themselves in the position for the outcome to happen. Also Jennings should have swatted the ball away like a well-coached professional player.

3) My Hawks can make the plays, but they can’t make the calls too. Don’t trash-talk the players and fans for what Goodell’s flying monkeys have wrought.

The problem I see is that they take the time to make a statement and never admit the failure of the officiating. We need to understand that these officials range from HS refs to one that was let go from the Big Ten because of his performance. For those that think this is whinning, listen to the commentators from ESPN and the assesment they give; many of these people have a long history in the NFL and recognize the harm that this type of thing does to the game, players, fans and good officials.

The old saying that “any press is good press” never holds truer. Would a “normal” Monday night game be splashed all over the interweb? Would a “normal” game essentially be “front page headline” material.

While to the fan of the NFL this bad call is a “black eye” on the game, I’m pretty sure that the NFL home office isn’t really fretting too much. Their sport is getting talked about, it’s a great story arc to the season, and for the pure entertainment aspect of it, it’s wonderful.

I’m pretty sure advertisers are not threatening to pull their commercials…jerseys are still getting bought. And while ticket prices for games are simply ridiculous, people are still gonna watch the games at homes, bars, etc.

In 2 weeks this will be forgotten…hell, in about 3 days this will have been forgotten.

They didn’t overturn the call. No “incontrovertible evidence”? I would assume if the refs on the field ruled it an interception, the replay booth officials would not have overturned that call either.

There is no guarantee the regular refs would have gotten this one right.

2. The offensive PI was obvious in slo-mo replay but in real time on a jump ball in the endzone you won’t get that call 9 out of 10 from ANY official.

What are u going to do when the “real” refs come back and blow calls routinely in the future as they have in the past?

Congratulations on making everybody Raider fans.

A bad call in the 1st quarter can decide a game. If the game was another 2 minutes, Seattle could have lost on a bad call.

The last call did not decide that game though. The whole thing was a mess.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you for the most part – and like I said, I do honestly believe these (and this call specifically will even out). I cited the bad calls in that Viking game (and yes, they were bad calls) because I believe that was an example of things evening out from the Dolphin game. The Packers almost certainly would have won that Dolphin game without the bogus illegal formation play.

All I’m saying is it’s not a direct comparison, as last night the awful call came on the very last play of the game, when the Packers had literally no ability to respond (outside of Twitter). While I agree lots of teams have lost games almost directly because of bad calls, it’s rare for events like last night to happen where you can literally pinpoint the one call that irrefutably decided the game.

And again, all that said, I don’t believe they should reverse the call today or anything – and I do think it will even out over the season. The Packers will get a break sometime in the next 13 games that will likely benefit them to the point where it’s significantly easier to win. That doesn’t change how bad the calls last night were though.

As for the holding in the second half – I didn’t see it (and maybe I had my Packer fan blinders on, to be fair) – but Clay Matthews gets held every other play and it’s rarely called. Not to mention that there was a ridiculous amount of holding (again) on that last hail mary play – in addition to the offensive PI non call.

Let’s look at last night from a non-emotional perspective (especially since it doens’t mean anything to the normal viewer anyway).

Was there pass interference on the last play: Definately. But, both the broadcast former ref admitted that rarely if ever gets called on the final play, and Gruden has said many times that it doesn’t get called…even if he wouldn’t answer Tireco. Would the regular refs have called it PI…debatable, but probably not.

Let’s not forget that GB was the beneficiary of a PI call that was not a PI allowing them to score earlier.

Now for the catch/interception. Here is what I saw: The defender had his hands on the sides of the ball and the receiver had one hand between the defender’s arms under the ball, and the other on top of the ball by the time they hit the ground. That’s a tough call for anyone to make (let alone a nation of sports media begging for a controversial call to happen). The ruling was a simultanious catch. If you actually look at the replay and see the receivers left hand under the ball, it’s understandable to see that call being simultanious. From there, it doesn’t matter if there is instant replay or not. The call can not be overturned. It’s the rule. That rule doesn’t matter who is reffing the game.

From there, it all got out of control…which is the biggest problem I had. The refs didn’t know what to do, but they also have league representation which must not have known either.

It’s not like some regulars don’t know what the rules are either. Genius Belichick said he was trying to find out if the field goal was reviewed. By rule, all scoring plays are reviewed. They don’t need to take 10 minutes if the initial review indicates there isn’t enough to overturn the call.

Gruden last night said that the touchdown should be reviewed. Really? Especially since, once again, all scoring plays are reviewed.

You’re talking about a call made that simply kept a drive alive during a tied game. Those happen quite frequently. While the Viking game affected actual points being scored or taken away. If called correctly and the Viking game turns into a Packer loss the Packers don’t make the playoffs so they can’t get to the Super Bowl.

I aslo notice you don’t include the constant holding by the Packers’ O-line during the second half. You’re not going to call all of it, but there was way too much blatant holding that simply had to be flagged and wasn’t.

In any case, every team in the league has lost more than one game due to a bad call or calls, this one included. But this game doesn’t even hold a candle to some of the games I’ve witnessed over the years.

Fire all the officials, locked out and replacements. Start hiring FULL TIME officials from a pool of Division 1 officials, locked out officials, and competent replacement officials. Pay them well with 401k retirement and require ongoing training and evaluation. Have a pool of trained officials that would replace bad officials that continually score low during game evaluations.

This is the only way to return the integrity to the game and improve the product at the same time.