Carl Cheffers has the Thursday night matchup on CBS and the NFL Network.
Clete Blakeman’s crew is off this week. We are looking into a rumor that referee Pete Morelli and his crew will be moved from the Sunday night game into a Sunday afternoon slot to avoid undue exposure after issues the crew had last Sunday. We haven’t confirmed this, so we will update the post if that is necessary.
Update: We have confirmed from a league source that Morelli will be moved to Eagles-Patriots, and Ron Tobert’s crew moves to Sunday night
Thursday, Dec. 3
- Packers at Lions CBS NFLN — Carl Cheffers
Sunday, Dec. 6
- Texans at Bills — Tony Corrente
- 49ers at Bears — Jerome Boger
- Bengals at Browns — Jeff Triplette
- Ravens at Dolphins — John Parry
- Seahawks at Vikings — Terry McAulay
- Panthers at Saints — Brad Allen
- Jets at Giants — John Hussey
- Cardinals at Rams — Bill Vinovich
- Falcons at Buccaneers — Ed Hochuli
- Jaguars at Titans — Gene Steratore
- Chiefs at Raiders — Craig Wrolstad
- Broncos at Chargers — Walt Coleman
- Eagles at Patriots — Pete Morelli
- Colts at Steelers NBC — Ron Torbert
Monday, Dec. 7
- Cowboys at Washington ESPN — Walt Anderson
Image: Michael C. Herbert/Saints
From Football Zebras editor Ben Austro
Get it now at your favorite online or local bookstore. More information at thinkyouknowfootball.com
Morelli’s crew was reportedly reassigned to Eagles at Patriots.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/12/01/report-morellis-crew-reassigned-to-eagles-patriots-game/
It’s a strong bet that Morelli’s off SNF and on Eagles/Patriots. Now the question is whether or not Torbert’s eligible for Steelers/Colts.
Woo! John Hussey will say teams’ names since both are New Yorks
Morelli is such an idiotic screw up. Everyone thought the female on the crew would be bad. Turns out the whole crew is bad. Watch him get the super bowl this year!
Is Ron Torbert going to work the Pats Eagles game on Sunday
Why is Morelli’s crew assigned to the Pats/Eagles game? Their assignment should be to study the rule book. Maybe get their eyes checked. Why the Pats’ game? Oh yeah, cause they want them to lose. Well guess what! It looks like Gronk is not going to be on the field. They won’t be able to call OPI on him. So frustrated right now!
Please look at the list of the crews in the NFL and please tell me they don’t hire there own. Some many with the same names and relations as sons of former referees and brothers and such. Walt Colman VI, Hoculi son, Seeman. Are you kidding , need to fire the whole bunch and start over. Lol
The NFL referees are one big happy family. If you look at the roster your say the same last names all over the place. Father and son’s brothers are you kidding me? Hochuli, Coleman , Steratore, Seeman, Bergman, there are three Paganelli’s. Talk about hiring your family I think there’s a word for that it’s called nepotism.
Fuck you, libcuck. They are called the REDSKINS!
And, just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse for the Browns, they get Jeff Triplette for Sunday’s game with Cinci!
“Born and Punished in Cleveland, Ohio!”
At least relatives may hold other relatives accountable because of family pride.
Goodell never holds any of his staff and officials accountable for anything. Yet he is quick to be judge jury and executioner on players, often based on evidence that would not past muster in a court of law.
Boger has a second game at Soldier Field this year?
The NFL continues to progress in every area except how the game is officiated.
Titans and Jags with incompetent Steratore in charge. Sounds about right however I would have Gene work the concession stand.
Switch tolbert crew and pete crew make sense
Man when is Blakeman going to cover a Monday Night Game
I recently found this page and it interesting to see who the referee is for each game, for the coming week of games. I have a question for all the regulars in here with all the controversy this year with the officials, what is everyones opinion on who the best Referee is in he NFL or the whole crew in general?
Hochuli, Coleman, McAulay and Anderson are the best. Boger, Vinovich, Steratore, and Triplette are the worst.
Somebody with more experience than officiating DIII college football – please explain to me why the face masking call was made by the referee AND DEFENDED by Mike Carey. Rule 12, Sec 2, Article 5 – (titled) GRASPING FACEMASK says “No player shall twist, turn or pull the facemak of an opponent in any direction.”
Rogers was clearly taken down by the shoulder pad & the facemask contact was purely incidental. Casebook play A.R. 12.12 even supports a no call.
I’m sure if everything was reversed and Detroit would have been driving for the win, there wouldn’t have been a call.
Is block from behind also a penalty on passing plays? It happened on the Hail Mary play.
DR- I wonder if big name QB’s get the benefit of those calls even if it looks close. It was hard to tell form the camera angle.
DR- any kind of face mask contact is a penalty. I saw a better pic and it has to be called. I don’t like the fact that the league- under the guise of player safety- has all face mask calls at 15 yards. It used to be 5 and 15. Bad move IMO……
The facemask call was a judgement call that could go either way. I will say that in the famous playoff game between Arizona and Green Bay where Warner and Rodgers lit up the scoreboard, the final play of the game where Rodgers was sacked, stripped, and Arizona scored should have been nullified by a blatent facemask that nearly ripped Rodgers’ head off, and the officials completely missed it. So sometimes you get a break, sometimes you don’t: https://youtu.be/Zm7XG_VDOq0?t=2m26s
Horrible and inexcusable call on that facemask at (what should have been) the end of the Lions-Packers game. The ending made great TV, and I’m sure the NFL Network and the league itself are overjoyed with that result (and Phil Simms seemed positively ecstatic) but none of that excuses an anticipated “phantom” call that undeniably cost a team a game. As a Lions fan I have come to expect that other teams, particularly league/media darlings like the Packers, will get the benefit of the doubt over my team almost all the time, but that facemask call was just blatantly and completely wrong.
Regarding the last TD of the game: it’s well known that the referees will allow any pushing and shoving on a hail mary – WHICH NEEDS TO CHANGE. (Especially when Golden Tate is in attendance.) But I watched it pretty closely on replays, and it didn’t look like anyone committed any fouls – everyone was playing the ball, and I didn’t see any deliberate pushing. I certainly could have missed something through.
Dave C – “any kind of face mask contact is a penalty” This is wrong. The rule says there has to be twisting, turning, or pulling of the facemask in order to be penalized. And clearly the Lions player made only incidental contact with the facemask and did none of those things. There’s even an Approved Ruling note appended to the rule which makes it specifically clear that this sort of contact is not to be penalized. Rule 12, Section 2, Article 5 reads:
“GRASPING FACEMASK
No player shall twist, turn, or pull the facemask of an opponent in any direction.
Penalty: For twisting, turning, or pulling the mask: Loss of 15 yards. A personal foul. The player may be disqualified if the action is judged by the official(s) to be of a flagrant nature.
A.R. 12.12
Third-and-10 on A30. Runner A1 runs to the A33, where he is tackled by B1, who incidentally grasps A1’s facemask on the tackle, but it is not a twist, turn, or pull.
Ruling: A’s ball, fourth-and-seven, on A33. No Foul.
Actually, I’d like to address a play that’s probably not going to get much scrutiny here, because the officials got it right: the fumble into the endzone recovered for a touchdown. This sort of thing is deceptively complicated, because (and you can correct me if I’m wrong) the rules for field position for a fumble recovery change depending on the down and the time left in the game. Last year we even saw a Green Bay game where the Packers turned the ball over and the opposing team subsequently fumbled it forward and recovered it downfield on the same play, leaving the referees with a tricky knot to untie (which they ultimately got right).
Here’s my question: why do we have to make it so complicated? I know that the NFL has added rules over the years in response to teams taking advantage of situations, but why not simplify the rules and say that any fumble recovery by the offense is taken back to the spot of the fumbling player? I think this would be fair, easy to call, and would make for a more understandable game. Just my two cents!
So, since there clearly was no foul on the play, Blandino as much as admits that his refs would get that facemask call wrong “almost every time” http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/12/04/blandino-an-official-makes-that-facemask-call-every-time/
Maybe he needs to go have a few more drinks on Jerry’s bus.
Face mask should not have been called in lions/GA game. The defender’s thumb barely grazed the face mask. Seems every game that is played at night ends in controversy.
Eastsidel-that confirms my suspicion that nickname quarterbacks always get those calls. And that is BS. No one has still addressed the block in the back issue in front of Rogers on the Hail Mary play. Was this also a penalty that wasn’t call???
* correction- that should be big name quarterbacks not nicknames.
Crustyretiredref where are you?
Gotta to love all the outraged commentators who can not imagine a referee making a mistake without the referee being incompetent or part of some NFL conspiracy. Presumably they never make mistakes at their jobs.
Jr – it’s not that officials aren’t allowed to make mistakes. I just wonder why when mistakes are made, very very rarely do the people in charge admit it. They always justify what was done. On your other point, if I made the kind of money they make at a part time job, I would expect myself to not make mistakes. Or if I did make a mistake that changed the outcome of a game, there should be a way to change that mistake.
When Jim Tunney or Red Cashion made a mistake you had confidence that the rest of the contest was going to be damn near perfect. When today’s stooges like Steratore and Boger screw up, its only going to get worse.
When teams do well the following year said teams receive lots of national games. the NFL needs to follow the same course, give high profile national games to officials who do well and give the low profile games to the mediocre refs.
Officials are just like everyone else, they make mistakes and like everyone else they are not eager to admit it. They have the means to check and correct their mistakes by video review and would probably be better off if they could use this more often. Perhaps it would be good for the game if they allowed more challenges by head coaches. In the interests of player safety it would also be good if they ejected all players who commit personal fouls as this would deter those players from committing them.
Suspend without out pay or fired….those should be the only two options for MAJOR/SIGNIFICANT errors that have a dramatic impact on the game. No questions. Replacements were collectively better. Weed out the nepotism, too. Thinking about changing my last name.
What is the opinion on Tony Corentte crew ?
I want to make it clear I have absolute respect for every official working in the NFL. I know a few of them personally. They all got to the NFL because they have excelled in their endeavors thus far. I realize some are better than others but I know they are all better than me or I would be there instead or where I am.
But I do know they all get downgraded when they do something wrong or miss a call….I just want these analysts and the supervisors to stop defending them in public when they are almost certainly downgrading them for that same call. There is a definite lack of transparency.
If they make a call that changes the outcome of a game, the analysts and supervisors should just admit it, make the field official own it and move on.
WOW does Dean Blandino know how to give gifts or what, Jerry Jones’ favorite referee Walt Anderson on MNF…can the Cowgirls get any luckier (??)
Not so far as they’re flagging Dallas pretty good. Plus their not at home to get the hometown calls lol……
I bookmarked this site with a note to self. Walt Anderson – Under / Dog… Hmmmm
*Had bookmarked last year
A subject no one wants to talk about — the rush by the NFL to have more officials on the field of color. Sorry, I don’t care what the color ones skin is, but I do care about ones ability to expertly officiate a professional football game. The overall quality of officiating has declined concurrently as the number of unqualified black officials has increased. It’s a shame to see what used to be the epitome of officiating decline to an incompetent level. The NFL is guilty of not providing adequate training for the newer officials. As well as, lowering the grading standards that was used for years.
First 2 assignments for week 14
MIN @ ARI- G. steratore
NYG @ MIA- C. wrolstad
Bobby Lane…I agree. Now HIGHLY unqualified women of color are in too. Look at the MAC. I Black women stood up to introduce herself at the summer meeting of the MAC and Big Ten officials and stated she had NO COLLEGE EXPERIENCE AT ALL! On her schedule? A non-conference BIG TEN GAME !