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Week 13: Steelers at Ravens

Two Ravens players who had hits that were not penalized were fined by the league Monday night.

• Haloti Ngata was fined $15,000 for a hit that Picassoed the face of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and should make sneezing a challenge (video of Big Ben’s crooked nose here).
• Jameel McClain was fined $40,000 for his helmet-to-helmet hit on tight end Heath Miller (video). Miller suffered a concussion and is now under the league’s strict concussion policies before being cleared to play.

The fines, which are usually Wednesday–Friday business, came out less than 24 hours after the game ended. The speed of justice in this case, without a doubt, was to keep the Steelers from complaining about the league’s vandetta against the team. Or, at least to quell the discussion of the “conspiracy.”

Terry McAulay’s crew officiated the Sunday Night Football game.

Week 13: Bears at Lions

As a follow-up to the Ndamukong Suh penalty, referee Ed Hochuli (whose weekday and offseason job is a trial lawyer) explained his call following Sunday’s game, as he saw it:

Q: The personal foul on Suh, exactly what did you call and why?

Hochuli: I felt it was an unnecessary non-football act—a blow to the back of the runner’s helmet in the process of him going down.

Q: Did it have anything to do with the fact he was a quarterback?

Hochuli: Well, the quarterbacks receive more protection, but in that situation, no. In that situation, it was I felt an unnecessary blow, a non-football act as the runner was going to the ground.

Q: If the contact had been in the shoulder or not in the head, would it still have been a penalty?

Hochuli: I really would have to see it. I can’t speculate on something else that I didn’t see. But as I saw it, he hit him in the back of the helmet.

Q: Can you describe why that it is an unnecessary [act]?

Hochuli: When you tackle people, you come in, and you wrap up and come with your arms and things like that. I felt he delivered a blow to the back [of the] runner that happened to be the quarterback. That is why I was down there following it. He’s my responsibility.

As reported in the Detroit Free-Press, Suh had a very responsible answer to the controversy, especially considering Suh is a rookie:

I don’t judge calls. It’s not my job. My job is to go out there and play, get the ball out. It was a great opportunity to attack the ball. It just happened. Whatever. I was going for the ball, so that’s all that matters.

Week 13: Steelers at Ravens

A third quarter hit on Steelers receiver Heath Miller by Ravens linebacker Jameel McClain sounded pretty bad (video and audio), and the Steelers’ faithful were waiting for the penalty. There was none.

Overruled by the main office. This was according to Sports Illustrated/Sunday Night Football reporter Peter King via Twitter. While it doesn’t change the call on the field, McClain could be short a pile of money this week. Al Michaels said during the game on NBC that the vice-president of officiating, Carl Johnson, made that statement.

What appears was called by the officials (without benefit of replay) was that since Miller was falling to the ground, Miller’s helmet came in the path of McClain’s. The replay also shows McClain putting his hands out, albeit weakly, which may have helped his case.

Still, it’s a defenseless receiver, and therefore a penalty. It is not the same as a runner who, under his own power, lowers his helmet and, for lack of a better word, “induces” the helmet-to-helmet contact.

Terry McAulay’s crew was officiating.

And, while most of the defense, the coach, and the owner complained this week that 120 officials have it in for one team, I am sure there will be a lot more discussion this week in the ‘Burgh.

Week 13: Bears at Lions

Ndamukong Suh, the Lions defensive tackle who was penalized erroneously for a horse-collar tackle two weeks ago, encores with another unearned 15-yarder. This time, head referee Ed Hochuli threw a flag on a tackle Suh made on Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. Hochuli, never one to conserve his words, announced the penalty thusly:

Number 90 went to the head [gesturing with a forearm] from the back of the runner with his forearm. That is unnecessary and, by rule, a foul.

As Bad Calls Football.com points out, there was no forearm contact when Suh made the tackle. Furthermore, Cutler was an open-field runner at the time, which removes most of the quarterback-specific protections at that point.

There is video at the link.

Generally, we don’t call out “wrong” calls when they are judgment calls, except Hochuli provided an explanation for his ruling that was proved his judgment was not supported by the videotape. However, these specific calls do not count against the referee’s performance ratings (used for determining playoff assignments), as we’ve reported before, according to the Game-Related Discipline manual from the league:

The Competition Committee emphasizes that whenever a game official is confronted with a potential unnecessary-roughness situation and is in doubt about calling a foul, he should lean toward safety and not hesitate to throw the flag.

The same goes for his phantom horse-collar tackle.

Let us know of any controversial calls in Week 13 in the comments section of this post. We had a few late-week developments that we haven’t had time to report on, so stay tuned. Referee assignments are after the jump.

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Part 1. Equal access to game footage

In 2007, the NFL upgraded its replay equipment to the same standard as the critics sitting in their Barcaloungers. However, each team must have the ability to make a fast decision on a replay that is not determined by a television director or Jumbotron operator.

In a Week 12 game, the Packers had a potential situation to review a catch by Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez. The coaches in the booth, however, were unable to make a decision in time, because the Georgia Dome’s video feed was lagging behind by a play. In a universe where hordes of people were able to verify within seconds that they saw Janet Jackson’s nipple in the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, a team’s coaching staff should be able to render a decision on a replay within 10 seconds.

Also, it is known that stadium personnel do not show a replay of a questionable call on the stadium’s screens that might be an advantage to the opponents. Conversely, they will replay a close call that would advantage the home team.

The technology exists for each team plus the replay booth to be able to rewind the previous play and be able to change the camera angle while replaying. This should include the closed-circuit cameras for the in-stadium displays as well. This removes the burden off of a network television partner to deliver the proper replay at the proper time for there to be a challenge, either from the sideline or from the replay assistant.

It is also strange that, in 2010, there is a video delay of over 30 seconds. The league should be monitoring these feeds (if, in fact, the video feeds are the responsibility of the facility), and if the video lags behind, there must be some way to allow the system to dump its memory and reset itself quickly. When video trails so long when one team has the ball, then that is a competitive disadvantage. If something simple like a coach’s headset malfunctions on one sideline, the other team’s bench must forgo their working ones until the problem is corrected. (Technological improvements have made that measure a relic of the past.)

And, while we are on the subject, can the replay booth get one or two tape decks as a backup? We noted last year that the Dolphins were unable to execute a challenge because the replay system needed to be rebooted. Even though the replay was available on the scoreboard and in the press box, those replays could not be fed through the replay equipment. After waiting the requisite two minutes (seriously, have you ever recovered from a system crash in two minutes?) the Dolphins were returned their challenge unused.

A trip to Radio Shack with less than $500 in your pocket can fix that.