2006 - The Year of the Incompetent Officials

[zdorr40]

This game aside, I'd have to say that I've seen more botched calls and just overall incompetence from officials this year than I've seen in my 20 or so years of watching football.

The Oregon/OU debacle heads the list. I see officials constantly stopping play to double-check whether to spot the ball at the 49 yard line or the 50, but then absolutely refusing to re-examine controversial touchdowns. In tonight's game, I see Nebraska not having a penalty called against them until midway through the 3rd quarter. I see blatant holds completely ignored, but ticky-tack pass interference penalties called. I see Austin Flynn catch a ball with both feet in bounds, and then he takes another step in bounds with an official looking right at him, yet he's deemed out of bounds.

Don't get me wrong, I know these guys have a tough job, but they have just seemed really awful this year.

 

[ISUFan22]

Yeah.....we got hoses on the Flynn deal. The pass interference on Blythe was questionable yet I can see why they made it.

I think we're seeing a "deterioration" of officiating for a few reasons...

A. More camera angles = increased scrutiny on both players and officials.

B. Fans continue to look for the easy way out as to why their team lost. Surely couldn't be the actual play on the field.

C. See A.

D. Game speed continues to increase, making it even harder to make calls.

E. Perhaps there are just some poor officials.



Regardless, solid teams don't put themselves in the position to let the officials make the difference and they find a way to overcome poor calls.


Right now our Cyclones are not overcoming much...

 

[zdorr40]

I'm not trying to blame this loss on the officiating. I don't think we win tonight even if those yahoos get all the calls right. I've just see some really bad officiating this year, even in games not involving ISU.

As for tonight, Bruns made a great comment to John Walters on the postgame show. Apparently, the name of tonight's crew chief is John Bible. Brunsie said that even going back to his playing days, he's never seen a John Bible crew call a fair game. That's saying a lot.

 

[HiltonMagic]

why don't they add more refs on the field? hopefully more eyes would mean more correct calls.

 

[EggMcClone]

The replay system is broken. What's the point of having it if coaches only get one challenge and the officials are loathe to replay anything on their own?

 

[zdorr40]

The replay system is broken. What's the point of having it if coaches only get one challenge and the officials are loathe to replay anything on their own?

I agree. The officials stopped play when NU had the ball around midfield in the 2nd quarter to check on the spot of the ball. That was deemed important enough to stop the game to correct, yet they absolutely refused to look at that Flynn catch for the TD. This is an absolute sham. It's like a couple of monkeys humping a football, just no rhyme or reason to anything.

 

[ISUTimm4]

Maybe we should have pulled a UNLV and stayed on the field til they reviewed it??

 

[cpvarley]

One thing I have noticed of late with respect to ISU games both what I have watched there and on TV. Why does the Ref's mic not work? We have spent how many millions on lights, scoreboard, fireworks, sound system blaring music snipettes and sound effects, but I have to watch the hand signals for the official call?

 

[ISUAlum2002]

One thing I have noticed of late with respect to ISU games both what I have watched there and on TV. Why does the Ref's mic not work? We have spent how many millions on lights, scoreboard, fireworks, sound system blaring music snipettes and sound effects, but I have to watch the hand signals for the official call?

I wondered about this too. I know the ref's mic was working in the UNLV game, as I couldn't hear him explaining the reviewed call toward the end of the game over the crowd noise.

But a televised game on ABC, and we don't have a mic on the ref? WTF is that? The hand signal for false start can also mean illegal formation, and I also wanted some more explanation after the booth reviews.

 

[ce1]

The Blythe interference was questionable, no doubt. But it was called.

My parents were pointing out tonight that it seemed like ISU was so deflated by this call that they quit playing hard, and after thinking about it, i think they're right. It seemed like that was the last gasp of anything meaningful by the offense, like they lost something to rally around.

I'm not a offensive coordinator hater, and i don't want to pin all our problems on Barney Cotton. But here's where i think ISU screwed up in this game. They come off the offensive pass interference, now 1st and 25, with a sweep left. It was like they were conceding the offensive series with that play. I think the coaching staff screwed up by not going downfield a second time. The message they sent the team was too conservative, at a time when the team, esp. the offense, really needed fire lit under them. ISU never recovered from this play, and i think a good amount of the blame for that would be a coaching staff that didn't turn around and attack for a second straight play in a row.

 

[Wesley]

Yeah.....we got hoses on the Flynn deal. The pass interference on Blythe was questionable yet I can see why they made it.

I think we're seeing a "deterioration" of officiating for a few reasons...

A. More camera angles = increased scrutiny on both players and officials.

B. Fans continue to look for the easy way out as to why their team lost. Surely couldn't be the actual play on the field.

C. See A.

D. Game speed continues to increase, making it even harder to make calls.

E. Perhaps there are just some poor officials.



Regardless, solid teams don't put themselves in the position to let the officials make the difference and they find a way to overcome poor calls.


Right now our Cyclones are not overcoming much...

***********************************************
David lettermans TOP TEN why Refs are deteriating.
************************************************
10. We now have more fopotball rules and regulations than laws to interpret.

9. The refs look to be getting older and more senile.

8. Night games are tough to call with rose colored glasses.

7. Illegal immigrants have to work somewhere on weekends.

6. The refs are people to and trhey make mistakes as they pull their trouser on one lkeg ast a time.

5. The Redville fans have infilitrated the refdom and now routinely control the league through poor officiating.

4. The refs are really in training for high school football.

3. Half of them are actually lawyers.

2. Refs have an unwritten golden rule to make at least four bad calls a game so they can get a play review and some rest time (which is why they had to change the clock rules due to lengthy play reviews).

1. The refs used to work for the Wiorldwide Wrestling Federation.