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Week 4: Broncos at Titans

The Titans have had several instances of fines and allegations of dirty play to answer to this season. Now Law & Order: NFL has its latest incident where the defense pleads its case to the court of public opinion.

THE CASE

Sen’Derrick Marks, the Titans defensive tackle who was flagged for a low-hit on Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton, argues the case that he wasn’t fined for the hit, therefore it should not have been a penalty. If that logic was totally without foundation, his next allegation was even more bankrupt.

Marks suggests that the fine should revert to the official who threw the so-called erroneous flag, as reported by The Tennesseean:

I guess if I haven’t gotten fined for it then it was a bad call. But I already knew that. I’ll accept the referee taking a fine for me. That would work for me. I think if referee makes a bad call, then I think the refs should get fined for it. … I know where I hit [Orton] at. After I watched film it proved I didn’t hit him too low.

Marks alleges (with coach Jeff Fisher and beat writer Jim Wyatt backing up the defense) that his hit was to the thigh, and that an official should evaluate that accurately at full speed. However, the league already has expressed its enforcement orders, as we reported last year, to the referees in its Game-Related Discipline manual:

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.

All players receive a copy of this manual.

THE VERDICT

The NFL on Friday fined Marks $5,000 for the hit, according to Lindsay Jones at the Denver Post, rendering Marks’s argument moot. Also, since referees are scored as being 98% accurate in their calls, it was likely that Marks did not have a chance to plead his case, even if the penalty was one of the remaining 2%.

But, Marks may be fined again for contempt of officials in his defense.

During the search to replace Mike Pereira as vice-president of officiating, we commented that Pereira’s replacement must have the talent to be the most visible  member of NFL management. By virtue of the weekly “Official Review” segment on the NFL Network’s NFL Total Access, the referee boss would be seen more often by the public than even the NFL commissioner.

Last September, we laid out the qualifications for the next head referee, based on participation in “Official Review”:

This involves presentation skills far more polished than a 10-second announcement over the public-address system. A successful candidate must also navigate and rise above the flood of faux hipness that the network talking heads constantly exude.

Carl Johnson was hired in the offseason to take Pereira’s job in the league office, while Pereira went to Fox Sports as sort of a rules interpretation jukebox. Since the first week of the season, Johnson has been unseen by the public, the “retired” Pereira has remained the de facto expert voice on controversial calls.

The NFL Network has opted to replace Official Review with a new segment simply titled Competition Committee. The segment can be just as simply summarized: one of three members of the NFL Competition Committee has six minutes to (1) discuss the most controversial rule of the week, (2) discuss why the rule is written the way it is, and (3) field lobbying efforts for changing said rule in the offseason. To fill the time, the member of the Competition Committee will often repeat several of the bullet points from earlier in the discussion until the viewer changes the channel.

The first week of Competition Committee featured a discussion of the process of the catch, after the Lions had an apparent touchdown taken off the scoreboard. Colts president Bill Pollian handled the duties (video). Week 2 was hosted by Titans coach and Competition Committee co-chairman Jeff Fisher holding an NFL Network stick mic way too close to his face in a room apparently no larger than a confessional (video). Fisher discussed the perceived inconsistency with roughing-the-passer penalties, but I could not watch the entire thing.

It’s not known why the NFL decided to shift the focus from the judges to the lawmakers, however, Fox Sports is willing to pick up the slack, with Pereira providing the instant Official Review, at least for the games broadcast by Fox.

Week 1: Titans at Steelers

The Tenneseean is reporting Titans coach Jeff Fisher will send a tape to the league office alleging  an uncalled holding penalty on the Steelers that would have resulted in a safety. Titans defensive end Javon Kearse was grabbed by Steelers lineman Willie Colon in the end zone during a second-quarter play.

“Sometimes those things are missed and I was surprised that that one was missed,” Fisher said. “But those types of things in games like these can have an impact on the outcome of the game.” The Titans are expected to bring the play to the NFL’s attention for its weekly review of officials.

Bill Leavy was the referee covering the play.

The NFL homepage ran an Associated Press story quoting the Rich McKay, Falcons president and Competition Committee co-chairman. As it does almost every year, according to the commissioner, the Competition Committee is looking into the competitive balance of the current sudden-death overtime format. The committee met in Indianapolis before the Scouting Combine and are currently adjourned until March.

The review will likely lead to no change in the overtime rules. If there is a change, it would be nothing more than moving the overtime kickoff forward five yards.

Three reasons lead me to believe there is no change: (1) there is no formal proposal submitted for a specific rule change; (2) coaches still favor the system as it has existed since it was implemented in 1974; (3) Jeff Fisher, Titans head coach and the other committee co-chairman, is encouraging more study into any possible changes.

The one thing that keeps coming up is the idea that the coin flip determines the outcome. Of course, this discounts the role of the defense and the special teams—all important parts of a balanced team. However, I propose doing away with the coin flip and giving the option to the team that was last in the lead. In other words, if your team caused the tie, it is the same as if your team lost the coin flip. This also eliminates the possibility of a team tying in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, winning the toss, and scoring on the first possession of overtime.