Rams Saints hit

In the CFL you can review pass interference. From what i been watching on tv (on TSN), it sounds like the nfl and cfl are probably going to have some conversations on how to possibly adapt this to the nfl. Its only been around for a few years, but it started due to a similar situation, an obvious PI that changed the outcome of a playoff game.

 

I have a feeling that is just TSN trying to make the CFL seem relevant.

"heh heh, we will show those NFL guys with their little balls how to do things"

 

Good God look at all that denim lol

 

Canadian tuxedo

 

One of the problems people bring up is coaches throwing a challenge on a big play right before the 2 min warning because, why not? Throw a challenge and say there was holding, and due to the nature of the game, there probably was somewhere on the field.

Do you make the coaches specify what penalty they're challenging, including player numbers?

Then there's the question of how would this work after the 2 min warning? Would the booth still buzz down if there's a missed penalty? Would coaches still have to use their challenge on something other than what's currently reviewable? If so, then you'd have every single hail mary being challenged because there's always PI happening in the end zone.

What standard are the penalties held to? Are the refs able to go into super slow motion to see if the defender got there a millisecond before the ball?

I think the answer to these issues is pretty simple, make reviewing penalties only be allowed at regular speed (no slo-mo) with as many angles as you need, and after the 2 min warning, the only reviews that come down from the booth are things that are currently reviewed (catches, turnovers, spot of ball, etc). If a team wants to challenge a penalty, they still need to have one of their challenges and a timeout.

I think that's the only way you can keep penalties from getting too ticky tack, while also not slowing things down horribly.

 

Actually, this perspective is WHY he didn't think the defender arrived early. The play is close to being a bang bang play but the reason we know is because we have a broader perspective to see both players and the ball the whole way. If this official had been about the same yard line and not looking at it from his angle, he probably does throw the flag.

Was it a bad call? Yes. But not as blatant as we've seen. And the tv crew made it look MUCH worse by showing replay after replay from the endzone angle which makes it look even worse as you have no perspective of when the ball passes them.

And frankly, they did not lose the game on the call. There were much worse calls and non calls in the Oilers/Bills playoff game!

 

I think teams should be allowed to challenge any play for a specific reason with the caveat that only something clear cut would change the outcome of the play (so you couldn't just call a holding penalty short of someone getting tackled by an OL). However, no challenges inside 2mins of either half!

Short of that type of change, they need a video replay person who can essentially challenge ANY play...in essence to stop the avg fan from seeing an injustice and the league doing nothing about it. The NFL should not want fans to see a bad call (or noncall) which dramatically affects the outcome of a game...even if the problem is outside the current scope of what is allowed to be reviewed.

They need a way to get the calls RIGHT!

 

More people were watching these games than any other games all year and both winning teams were helped out in a huge way, by a mistake by the refs. The nfl is not alone with these types of calls. It's obvious in every sport, that if you want a fair game, you have to take out human error as much as possible. I'm not even against eliminating refs all together and make all calls from cameras (i know this would be difficult and is a long ways away). But, the inconsistent calls from ref to ref and the different interpretations of rules will always haunt sports. I would really like to see more calls be reviewable and more calls get reviewed from the booth. But, the nfl would never reverse a final score of a game, hell they let the pats cheat and still get to move on even with multiple infractions.

 

This was just awful, the ref should be fired. A bummer for the Saints and their fans, they were robbed.