We are now at the end of the third week into the 100th NFL season, entering the fourth week and one overlying issue still affects the league, the officiating. The officiating crews are making mistakes throughout all the games so far this season. This is to be expected considering it is human nature to make mistakes and miss some calls.
However, it seems like so far this season that more flags have been thrown and more calls are being missed than that of previous seasons. Last season the league set a new record by assessing 3,447 penalties over the 17-week regular season—that is 6.78 penalties called per game, not including declined or offset penalties.
So far this season there have been 721 penalties called that have not been declined or offset, since only three games have been played, we can’t say whether or not this trend will continue. However, if the trend does continue than the NFL will once again shatter a record for penalties called. As of right now the average per game is at 7.51 penalties called per game, that would equate to 3,845 penalties called this season.
The problem doesn’t necessarily lie in the fact that more flags have been thrown, instead it lies in whether or not the penalties called are correct. If all the penalties called on the field were correct then there would be no issue, but this is not the case to this point in the season.
So far this season there have been at least two games that have been decided by the referees. Now they were not completely decided by the refs, but the refs helped place the winning teams in position to win the game. Both were on plays that gave the winning team good field position and set them up in position to score which ended up being the difference in the game.
In week two the Bears against the Broncos ended in controversy where defensive end Bradley Chubb was called for roughing the passer on a five-yard completion with 31 seconds left on the clock which allowed the Bears to get the ball on their 45-yard line instead of the 30. Yes, Trubisky threw for a 25-yard completion on 4th down to put them into field goal range, but with only one timeout that play cost the Broncos the game.
Who’s to say that if the rouging the passer was never called that Trubisky wouldn’t have marched the Bears down the field anyway. We can’t knowingly say that, but the penalty completely changed the momentum of the game. Chubb beat the lineman and hit Trubisky immediately as he released the ball. The NFL backed the call and claimed it was the “body weight” issue in why it was called.
This was not the only questionable call in the game, Bears defensive tackle Eddie Goldman got called for a similar penalty against the Broncos Joe Flacco. Goldman got a clean hit on Flacco but was called roughing the passer due to the “body weight”. This was a clean hit and never should have been called, but it was, the drive ended in a touchdown.
The call against Chubb may have been a makeup call, but with 30 seconds left in a tight game, that is not the time for a makeup call. Neither of these players were fined due to these penalties which is odd. It’s odd because usually in a situation like this these players would be fined for roughing the passer, but neither of these players were.
In week 3 we saw another game that seemed to be decided by poor judgement by the referees. In the Ravens game against the Chiefs there was a pass interference call on safety Tony Jefferson where Patrick Mahomes threw an interception that was reversed due to the call on the field.
The call on Jefferson completely changed the outlook of the game. The Chiefs were ahead 23-13 when Brandon Carr intercepted the pass. After the interception was overruled by the pass interference the Chiefs went on to score a touchdown, the last touchdown they would score.
This doesn’t seem like as big of a play as the Chubb incident the week before to the media and the general public of football fans. However, this call completely changed the game, the Ravens started to gain some momentum in the late 3rd and entire 4th quarter. Again, we cannot say whether or not the Ravens would have ended up winning if this call was never made, but there would have been more of a shot.
Jefferson was running down the sideline with the receiver, the pass was thrown, and Jefferson and the receiver were arm fighting like so many do. However, as the ball was coming Jefferson’s eyes were on the ball. The receiver—not the intended receiver—fell down on the interception and the pass interference was called.
When taking a closer look at it the receiver tripped over Jefferson’s legs which should have negated the penalty. However, John Harbaugh did not challenge the ruling because no pass interference calls have been overruled this season and that is why he did not challenge the ruling.
This was another judgement call where the judgement of the referee was that pass interference occurred. This set up the Chiefs touchdown and proved to be all the points they needed.
This was not the only questionable call in this game either, but this was the most controversial.
These are not the only examples of bad calls by the referees this season, but these may be two of the biggest up to this point. It’s understandable that the officiating will not be perfect in any game because they are only human, and humans make mistakes, but something needs to be fixed with the officiating crew possibly determining the outcome to the game.
We hold players accountable when they make a mistake, why is the same standard not held when the officials make a mistake?
Something needs to change with the referees calling penalties that should not be called, or missing penalties that should be called. The referees are making more calls according to the rulebook, which is good, but at some point with all of these calls the NFL may start losing fans soon.
The referees should not be the determining factor in a game, they should call by the rulebook, but it will come at a cost.
The NFL has a problem with officiating that needs to be fixed sooner than later. If it is not fixed soon than the league can start to lose fans at an alarming rate. At the rate the penalties are being called fans are already tuning out of games, and it looks like this trend could continue. At some point the league will need to address this issue, but as of right now it is not looked as a major point of concern for the league.