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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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