The four head officials in last weekends games were:Seahawks @ Green Bay - Mike Carey
Jaguars @ Patriots - Jerome Boger
Chargers @ Colts - Gerald Austin
Giants @ Cowboys - Peter Morelli
The officiating crew that came away with the most critism was by far Gerry Austin's crew in Indianapolis. It appeared that those officials were the ones that were involved in some sort of conspiracy theory trying to help the Colts earn a bid to the AFC championship game. The other team that I heard fans of complaining about today were Cowboys fans, but as Chris Myers said on his radio show - The Cowboys lost that game themselves. Those fans have nothing to complain about except for the fact that their players flat out quit on them. The Chargers had to deal with a handful of calls they thought were unfair and they were on the road; however, they were able to fight back and win. Considering Dallas was hit with 11 pentalties, I can understand their frustration, but it was at home, and in the fourth quarter it appeared they gave up and threw in the towel. Many people are saying their offensive line let them down, and I think it's amazing how the leader of that unit - Tony Sparano - is such a highly preferred head coaching candidate.
There will always be blown calls and no calls, and other calls that shouldn't have been called and so on. I would have to say that Mike Carey and his crew did the best job considering the conditions they were forced to work with.
Here is the breakdown of pentalties for each game:
Team - Number of Pentalties and Yards, (resulted in first down)
Chargers - 10-79 (2)
Colts - 5-54 (4)
Jags - 5-42 (3)
Pats - 6-74 (1)
Giants - 3-25 (2)
Cowboys - 11-84 (3)
Seahawks - 4-28 (3)
Packers - 5-47 (1)
I'm still not quite sure why these four guys were chosen to officiate these games. We'll have to wait and see if there will be different refs for next week.
In case you were wondering, the officials for Wild Card weekend were:
Jacksonville @ Pittsburg - Scott Green
Tennessee @ San Diego - Ed Hochuli
Washington @ Seattle - Walt Coleman
New York @ Tampa Bay - Walt Anderson
There are 17 head officials, so far 8 of them have worked a playoff game. We will see if the next 2 will be the best of this group, or will it be the best from the rest. Personally - I think Ed Hochuli and Mike Carey are the two best.
6 comments:
Any word on the crew for Lambeau this weekend? Where is this info posted? I am traveling to Green Bay from California for the game. Thanks!
Hey Anon - I am working on trying to find that out. As of now - my best guess is the decision hasn't been made yet. The info is available at nfl.com once the games begin.
To clarify... the decision probably has been made, just not released. I'm not sure if or when the info is released. For all I know, no one (outside of the NFL inner circle) even knows til gameday. Have fun and a safe journey!
Referee magazine had a story a few months ago that the information is released to the teams only 60 minutes prior to game time. The NFLRA (referee's association) has liaisons in each city to meet the crews and they are taken to a separate hotel.
Determinations are made round by round and these are "All-Star" crews - the best at each position - Referee, Umpire, HL, LJ, FJ, SJ, BJ, etc...but officials, I believe, are prohibited from working consecutive rounds, a la Major League Baseball...
Wow... that's surprising and interesting. thanks for the update Kevin.
Personally, I would think that the bookies in Las Vegas would want to know sooner, but maybe the studies show that it doesn't make a difference who is officiating.
Thanks, I have met tony Steratore when he came to the bay area for the raiders game and wondered if he and his brother were going to ref the packers game. Really nice guy and big fan of napa wines.
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