Craig Wrolstad is the referee for the Thursday night AFC West game between the Chiefs and Raiders. In addition, Gene Steratore is working the Super Bowl LI rematch in Foxborough, Mass., and Brad Allen is working the third London game of the season between the Cardinals and Rams.
The Lions and Texans have a bye with the crews of Pete Morelli and John Parry off this week.
Thursday, Oct. 19
- Chiefs at Raiders CBS NFLN — Craig Wrolstad
Sunday, Oct. 22
- Cardinals vs. Rams (London) — Brad Allen
- Buccaneers at Bills — Clete Blakeman
- Panthers at Bears — Walt Anderson
- Titans at Browns — Terry McAulay
- Saints at Packers — Jerome Boger
- Jaguars at Colts — Jeff Triplette
- Jets at Dolphins — Walt Coleman
- Ravens at Vikings — Carl Cheffers
- Bengals at Steelers — Bill Vinovich
- Cowboys at 49ers — Ron Torbert
- Broncos at Chargers — John Hussey
- Seahawks at Giants — Tony Corrente
- Falcons at Patriots NBC — Gene Steratore
Monday, Oct. 23
- Washington at Eagles ESPN — Ed Hochuli
Hasn’t Morelli’s crew already had an off week this season?
Every crew gets 2 weeks off a year. The first one was an unplanned one, and this week was already scheduled. It’s not clear if this crew will make up the lost week, and it might not workout that they get the rescheduled TB-MIA game. We’ll see when we get there
Morelli blows …
The fix was in. https://ibin.co/3eR6UB6IPqHg.jpg
My God, last nights Chiefs Raiders game was the ultimate in how the NFL uses the officials to determine the outcome of the game. There were too many horrible non calls, and too many terrible penalties to even go into. Just one example, the first one of many for the night, and one so obvious it makes the head spin was Amari Cooper pushing the defender in the back, who falls down while Cooper catches a TD and (barely) gets the ball over the pylon. An official throws the flag for the obvious offensive pass interference, and then the officials pick up the flag and call no penalty at all. The announcers say something about the Chiefs defender “stumbling” (as if his “stumbling” was what made him fall forward to the ground after being pushed from behind by Cooper). The many replays they then show of whether Cooper gets the ball over the pylon (and not a mention of the non-call on the obvious push-off) shows, over and over again, from many camera angles, that Cooper pushes the defender in the back.
I’m sure there is some technical reason or justification for why the officials picked up the flag and did not call offensive pass interference. “Judgement call”. What ever. But to anyone watching all of those replays of Cooper pushing the Chiefs defender in the back, it doesn’t matter. It was an obvious penalty that was called, and should have been called, but for some reason, was taken back. This handed Oakland 7 points that ultimately decided the game in their favor.
And that is just one example. There were so many in the game (not all against the Chiefs, but most went in favor of the Raiders) that there is no doubt the officials decided the outcome of that game, not the players and coaches. No other professional sport allows its officials to, on a week-to-week basis, actually impact the outcome of the game. Only the NFL tolerates this. Which makes one wonder, as Luke Thornburgh mentions in his comment above, if the games are not being fixed and rigged, on purpose, for what ever reason.
After that terrible non-call on Cooper’s TD I turned to my two friends who were watching the game with me and said – “there is no way the Chiefs will win this game.” In the first quarter, at 7-0 Raiders, with 54 more points yet to be scored in the game, I was right.
The NFL is a joke, and it’s officiating is the biggest joke of all. No wonder people are turning away.
Agree with “Vanowensbody” and I’m not a Chiefs fan —- that game was an officiating debacle that reminded me of some 8-man HS game crews in Idaho. It felt as if the officials were not in control and were always playing catch up.
Between Gronkowski’s ‘new found move’ to get a PI call (see Jets game) to what we were seeing last night in push offs and holds by mostly TE’s and defenders, the league needs to revisit how they call this. We have given receivers protection from ‘contact’ after 5 yards yet we allow muggings from both sides under ‘hand checking’ etc.
Absolute garbage game calling last night. Can you make it more obvious that you were helping out the raiders? NFL is garbage because of this and only a matter of time before it goes under.
Can anyone answer a question.
As per crew assignments…. each crew is assigned a replay official. So if the Brad Allen crew has a replay … does that mean that Jim Lapetina does the replay … or are the challenge calls sent to a specific person in the Park Avenue office?
Just curious about what the role of the replay official that is assigned to each crew. Thanks in advance for the input.
I believe a good amount of the officiating problems stem from the fact that a large number of fans gamble on games and have been for quite some time. There’s no way the officials are consistantly this incompetent. Just my theory. It (the bad calls) is turning people away from watching games. I don’t think making officials full time will solve any problems. These aren’t hard calls they’re blowing every week. What do you all think?
And will Hochuli and crew throw as many flags Monday night as last week???
Is it true Pete Morelli has been assigned to Chain Gang duties in the Canadian Football League?