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NFC Wild Card

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Today’s officials are listed at the end of the post.

• R — #99 Tony Corrente (17th year, 14th as referee)
• U — #31 Chad Brown (20th year)*
• HL — #5 John McGrath (10th year)
• LJ — #130 Darryll Lewis (13th year)
• FJ — #60 Gary Cavaletto (9th year)
• SJ — #56 Allen Baynes (4th year)
• BJ — #119 Greg Wilson (4th year)
• Alternates — Terry McAulay (#77, R), David Wyant (#16, SJ from Jeff Triplette’s crew)

AFC Wild Card

Watch our commentary live here at FootballZebras.com and on Twitter @footballzebras. Click refresh in your browser to receive live blog updates. To interact, tweet us or use the comments section of this post.

Today’s crew:

• R — #34 Clete Blakeman (4th year, 2nd as referee)
• U — #102 Bruce Stritesky (6th year)*
• HL — #36 Tony Veteri (20th year)
• LJ — #45 Jeff Seeman (10th year)
• FJ — #82 Buddy Horton (13th year)
• SJ — #78 Greg Meyer (10th year)
• BJ — #111 Terrence Miles (4th year)
• Alternates — Tom Barnes (#55, LJ from Scott Green’s crew), Lee Dyer (#27, BJ from Terry McAuley’s crew)

It is no secret that we are very much opposed to the NFL’s modified sudden death format for the postseason. (Rather than repeat, see our rant from last year and our other posts.)

Hopefully we won’t have to reference them, but here are the new overtime rules:

• Modified sudden death only applies in the cases where the team receiving the opening kickoff scores a field goal on the opening drive. In all other cases, standard sudden death will apply (a touchdown, a safety, or a field goal after first possession).
• If there is any change of possession or the receiving team does not recover the kickoff, they have surrendered the first possession, and standard sudden death applies.
• If a field goal is scored, the trailing team will receive the ensuing kickoff. Then, if the trailing team…
  • …scores a touchdown, the game ends, and the touchdown decides the result.
  • …loses possession, including on downs, the game ends immediately.
  • …scores a tying field goal, the overtime reverts to a standard sudden death.

Most notably, this year’s crews for the Wild Card Playoffs did not qualify for a postseason assignment last season.

Bengals at Texans (Saturday, 4:30 pm)

Referee Clete Blakeman heads his crew in his first year of postseason eligibility as a crew chief.

• R — #34 Clete Blakeman (4th year, 2nd as referee)
• U — #102 Bruce Stritesky (6th year)*
• HL — #36 Tony Veteri (20th year)
• LJ — #45 Jeff Seeman (10th year)
• FJ — #82 Buddy Horton (13th year)
• SJ — #78 Greg Meyer (10th year)
• BJ — #111 Terrence Miles (4th year)
• Alternates — Tom Barnes (#55, LJ from Scott Green’s crew), Lee Dyer (#27, BJ from Terry McAuley’s crew)

*Substitution: Stritesky from Green’s crew is substituting for Garth DeFelice, who is injured.

Blakeman’s crew was in Houston for a Week 4 game between the Steelers and Texans.

Lions at Saints (Saturday, 8 pm)

Referee Tony Corrente overcame huge obstacles this season, most significantly having being treated for an illness late in the season causing him to miss three weeks. He and his crew received this NFC Wild Card Playoff assignment.

• R — #99 Tony Corrente (17th year, 14th as referee)
• U — #31 Chad Brown (20th year)*
• HL — #5 John McGrath (10th year)
• LJ — #130 Darryll Lewis (13th year)
• FJ — #60 Gary Cavaletto (9th year)
• SJ — #56 Allen Baynes (4th year)
• BJ — #119 Greg Wilson (4th year)
• Alternates — Terry McAulay (#77, R), David Wyant (#16, SJ from Jeff Triplette’s crew)

*Substitution: Brown substitutes from Mike Carey’s crew for Fred Bryan. Bryan is ineligible to work a conference championship or Super Bowl, as he is in his third season.

In last year’s Super Bowl, Brown officiated and Cavaletto was assigned as an alternate. Corrente officiated in last year’s Pro Bowl, with the 2009 AFC Conference Championship being his last playoff game.

Corrente’s crew was in New Orleans in Week 3 for a Texans-Saints game and officiated the Week 2 game between the Chiefs and Lions.

Falcons at Giants (Sunday, 1 pm)

Referee Carl Cheffers heads to the Meadowlands with his regular season crew, with a couple of substitutions.

• R — #12 Carl Cheffers (12th year, 4th as referee)
• U — #96 Undrey Wash (12th year)
• HL — #110 Phil McKinnely (9th year)*
• LJ — #100 Tom Symonette (8th year)
• FJ — #80 Greg Gautreaux (10th year)*
• SJ — #125 Laird Hayes (17th year)
• BJ — #30 Todd Prukop (3rd year)
• Alternates — Scott Dawson (#70, U from Alberto Riverón’s crew), Mark Steinkerchner (#84, LJ from Terry McAuley’s crew)

*Substitutions: McKinnely substitutes from Jeff Triplette’s crew for Kent Payne; Gautreaux substitutes from Walt Coleman’s crew for Jimmy Buchanan. Buchannan is ineligible to work a conference championship or Super Bowl, as he is in his third season.

Cheffers’ crew did not have a postseason assignment last year; he last officiated a postseason game in the divisional playoff round in 2009, which was his first year of eligibility as a crew chief.

This crew worked the Week 2 game between the Eagles and Falcons.

Steelers at Broncos (Sunday, 4:30 pm)

Referee Ron Winter, who was an alternate for last year’s AFC Conference Championship, has the weekend’s final Wild Card matchup.

• R — #14 Ron Winter (17th year, 14th as referee)
• U — #49 Rich Hall (8th year)*
• HL — #52 Julian Mapp (3rd year)
• LJ — #108 Gary Arthur (15th year)
• FJ — #88 Scott Steenson (21st year)
• SJ — #62 Ronald Torbert* (2nd year)
• BJ — #83 Richard Reels (19th year)
• Alternates — Ed Camp (#134, HL from Walt Coleman’s crew), Dyrol Prioleau (#109, FJ from Scott Green’s crew)

*Substitutions: Hall fills in for Tony Michalek and Torbert is substituting for Tom Hill. Both substitutes are from Ed Hochuli’s crew. Torbert is a second-year official, so this is his first year of postseason eligibility.

Hall was an alternate at last year’s Super Bowl.

Winter’s last postseason game worked was a divisional playoff in 2009.

Winter’s crew officiated away games for both teams: a Week 6 Jaguars-Steelers game and a Week 10 Broncos-Chiefs game.

The NFL released its schedule Sunday night for the 12 teams qualifying for the playoffs. We are waiting this week for the assignments for the game officials.

During the season, every official is graded on every single play for the calls that they made. An incorrect call or a missed call is calculated in an overall average score of accuracy. Two years ago, a segment of NFL.com showed the process of evaluating a single play, which involved shuttling the tape 25 times for generic incompletion (video, beginning  at 2:10, and our coverage).

Officials are also graded on written tests of mock plays. The written tests and game accuracy are the objective criteria for ranking the officials.

Separately, each official and the crews as a whole are evaluated in other areas. In school, this was part of the “class participation” grade that changes a B+ into an A–. These subjective factors include the pace of the game (placing an emphasis on getting the right call without game-delaying conferences), professionalism, and decisiveness. Injuries, particularly late-season ones, can be a consideration as well.

The officiating department will then take all the evaluations to determine their playoff assignments under the following guidelines:

• The top eight crews, or roughly half of the officiating staff, will be assigned a game in the wild card or divisional playoff rounds. Each game will also have two alternates assigned to enter the game in case of injury. Alternates are generally placed from crews that did not make the playoff cut.
• Any officials who are in their rookie year with the league will be replaced with an official from another crew. Similarly, a head referee cannot officiate in his first year after promotion to the crew chief, but he is eligible to be an alternate for the playoffs.
• Although unlikely, an official can be replaced on his regular crew if his regular season grade is too low.
• The top three officials at each position will officiate the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. However, an official must have been selected to a playoff game in a previous season and have five seasons’ experience to qualify. In addition, for the Super Bowl he must have also officated a conference championship game.
• Officials in the conference championship games do not serve on a wild card or divisional playoff crew. Those that are elevated to the conference championships are replaced on their regular season crew.
• Super Bowl officials do not officiate in the conference championships, but they can work the first two rounds of the playoffs.
• The league avoids assigning an official to consecutive Super Bowls.

Week 17: Chargers at Raiders

1st Quarter | 9:05 remaining | No score | Raiders ball | 1st & 10 @ SD 42 | video

Chargers linebacker Antwan Barnes contacted an official after an out-of-bounds reception by the Raiders, causing referee Clete Blakeman to eject Barnes.

There was only one replay offered, which did not show the foul. Barnes was tangling with two Raiders on the sideline, which the replay did show. Perhaps the official (don’t know which one) was struck in the separation.

• Bills at Patriots. @cRewFive1 tweeted Patriots head coach Bill Bellichick “ripped the official a new ass. Bitching about interior holding…ran down the LJ…TV picked up a few bad words.”
• Chiefs at Broncos. Discussing an obvious non-call of a Chiefs defender grasping the facemask of Tim Tebow, we tweeted that the umpire and referee were behind the quarterback, and were not in a position to see the foul.

The revelry is not limited to Times Square, as some excessive celebration penalties have been handed out on this first of January:

• Patriots at Bills. Bills receiver Stevie Johnson was penalized 15 yards for revealing a “Happy New Year 2012″ message printed on his undershirt following a touchdown (photo at link). Johnson was benched and will face a fine this week. What separates this from other celebrations, is that this was premeditated, rather than a celebration that momentarily becomes a penalty. Johnson did this in 2010 as well, and Bills coach Chan Gailey benched Johnson for his actions.
• Redskins at Eagles. A group celebration was flagged as being excessive on the Redskins.
• Lions at Packers (video). Packers receiver Ryan Grant apparently did an imitation “snow angel” in the end zone, although the video does not show it. The rules are that you cannot go to the ground in celebration.

Photo credit: Valerio Bruscianelli/The Gothamist

Week 17: Lions at Packers

1st Quarter | 13:00 remaining | Lions 7-0 | Lions kickoff | video

Updated below to include similar play from Chargers–Raiders.

Tough break for the Packers, as Patrick Lee muffs the Lions kickoff in the end zone. Lee remained in the end zone, but the ball rolled out to the 1-yard line. Lee pulled the ball back into the end zone for an apparent touchback.

Referee Walt Anderson had a lengthy conference with line judge Mike Spanier and headlinesman Ed Camp. Camp can be seen very clearly articulating the case for a safety, which is how it was ultimately ruled on the field.

On any play involving a touchback or safety, the ruling pivots on how the ball enters the end zone. If the kicking team puts the ball into the end zone, it is a touchback. When the ball is muffed, even though the direction of the ball changed, the force behind the ball still came from the kick. Once Lee pulled the ball backwards, it was Lee that forced the ball into the end zone, regardless of the fact that Lee was standing in the end zone.

Had Lee left the ball on the 1-yard line and kneeled, the ball would have been dead at the 1-yard line. It was close, but the kneel came after the ball returned to the end zone.

Also a consideration on the play (and confirmed by replay) is if the entire ball exited the end zone. If a point of the ball was still touching the goal line, Lee would have had a touchback.

Good, tough call in real time by the three officials on the play.

Week 17: Chargers at Raiders

4th Quarter | 9:32 remaining | Chargers 31-26 | Raiders kickoff @ 50

Chargers kick returner Richard Goodman allowed a kickoff to hit the ground and roll towards the end zone. He needed to get the loose ball, as either team could recover. Goodman scooped up the ball at the 1-yard line, retreated into his end zone, and barely got the entire ball out of the end zone.

Referee Clete Blakeman announced the ball was out of the end zone and down at the ½-yard line.

Sunday, Jan. 1

• Buccaneers at Falcons: Scott Green
• Ravens at Bengals: Tony Corrente
• Steelers at Browns: Alberto Riverón
• Lions at Packers:  Walt Coleman
• Colts at Jaguars: John Parry
• Titans at Texans:  Ron Winter
• 49ers at Rams:  Jeff Triplette
• Jets at Dolphins:  Jerome Boger
• Bears at Vikings:  Mike Carey
• Bills at Patriots: Bill Leavy
• Panthers at Saints:  Ed Hochuli
• Redskins at Eagles: Carl Cheffers
• Seahawks at Cardinals: Gene Steratore
• Chargers at Raiders: Clete Blakeman
• Chiefs at Broncos: Pete Morelli
• Cowboys at Giants: Walt Anderson

Off this week: Terry McAuley

Credit: Football-refs.com