Bad calls plague NFL season

By Alex Barrett


This NFL season may forever be known for many things; Miami’s improbable playoff run after last season’s 1 win outing. The Detroit Lions, finally becoming as bad on paper as we knew they were on the field. New and stoic coaches patrolling the sidelines. Possibly, and hopefully, the end of Adam Jones’ career.

But there’s one thing that I will always remember this particular NFL season for —and that’s the horrifically blown calls. It started early, and never looked back - and affected almost all of the officiating crews; even those tagged for being the elite flag-tossers of the league.

The first of many, an early meeting between Denver and San Diego, was most likely the sorest spot of Ed Hochuli’s lengthy career. With one minute and change remaining in the 4th quarter, an otherwise decorated official of over 10 years was involved in the worst call of his career, and it was only exacerbated by the fact that it changed the outcome of the game. Even after reviewing a clear Jay Cutler fumble call on the sidelines, Hochuli returned to the field, ruled an incomplete pass, and Cutler capitalized; scoring the go-ahead touchdown after what was sure to be a clincher for the San Diego defense.
While this was a huge call in the game, it was proven to be instrumental all the way to the last game of the season, where the Chargers had to play the Broncos in a rematch to decide who went to the post-season. Had the Chargers been the benefit of a correct call, the game could have been used to rest starters for San Diego’s playoff push.

Speaking of the playoffs, you would think that the zebras would taper it down and make sure calls were right to the best of their abilities, right?
Then you can’t overlookthe Titans playoff game against the Ravens, where bad calls ran rampant.
Now, Tennessee lost this game because of their 3 turnovers in the redzone. But it wasn’t helped by the fact that an obvious forward pass call was botched on third-and-long, allowing the Ravens to run out the clock instead of facing a punt situation, which would have given the Titans ample time to drive for a score.

Even in the Eagles game, a streaking Kevin Curtis was tangled up intentionally, and tripped. No flags were thrown for pass interference against the Cardinals. Curtis almost made the catch to spite, but the no-call erased an almost 70 yard gain through the air. None of these were tough calls to make, every single one of them were reviewed, and still were called incorrectly.

Unfortunately, referees aren’t super-soldiers, they are going to get just as many calls wrong as they are right, but this clearly needs to be addressed by the NFL’s competition committee in the off-season.

And with Jeff Fisher’s Titans on the receiving end of one of these erroneous calls, you can bet the Committee head (Fisher) will bring the problems to light as soon as possible. So let’s say a prayer for the next NFL season, hoping for better, more accurate calls from veteran officiating crews; especially in game-changing scenarios - and just maybe, a better vision plan from the NFL benefits package.