Well that's just special. What's the hottest topic on all the morning NFL talk shows? The lousy officiating in the Browns/Raiders game...smh Let me make this clear. I know we can't just blame the officials for the loss on Sunday. We lost for many reasons....However, that doesn't change the fact that the NFL officiating has absolutely sucked this year. Not just in Browns games, but across the league. It's just mind numbing sometimes. The refs were abysmal in Oakland yesterday. That was the only game I truly focused on yesterday, and it was pathetic.. We already mentioned the travesty that happened at the end on the reversed call. Just inexplicable. As Nate Burleson mentioned, that's the kind of thing that ONLY happens to Cleveland. So piss poor that the FOX NFL "official" expert called it "Shocking" on the air, that they overturned the spot..... Then how about that quick whistle on Marshawn Lynch's run? That was just comical. Wth was it, two hand tap? lol! What a joke. We dodged a bullet there...Lynch was on his way to another epic beast mode moment and the NFL officials ruined it, thankfully for the Browns... Then there was probably the worse call I've ever seen. How about that quick whistle on the Derek Carr fumble? smh. How the F#@K is he down??? Our LB punches the ball away from him in text book fashion, and somehow that ref blows the play dead immediately and declares Carr down??? I don't think I've ever seen that.... Just brutal....What the hell, man? Has there ever been a worse call? They are ruining the game....They only care about QB safety. That's it. Getting the call right, is secondary.
The Carr fumble, that somehow wasn't, took 6 points off the board for Cleveland...I forgot to mention that. It was clear path to the endzone. So basically, with that play and the Lynch run, the refs took the two best highlight reel plays of the game, and completely shit themselves.... Bottom line: Raiders should have been watching Mayfield take snaps from victory formation at the end, that's all there is to it...It was game over. The refs took the game from the Cleveland Browns...It's a bitter pill to swallow. The forces will just not allow Cleveland fans to enjoy a Sunday.
I absolutely agree that it was a quick whistle, however, everyone is assuming he was going into beast mode, but if you watch it closely the defenders stopped immediately when they heard the whistle. I have seen in more than one place, people stating he would have taken it to the house...hell, I don't know that he would have gotten more than a couple extra yards if the defenders didn't stop on the whistle. I'm not so sure this was a defining moment. However, the roughing the passer call against the Raiders on Mayfield was a terrible call as well. Against us, there was a CLEAR block in the back on a punt return. A lot of offensive holding calls on both sides of the ball. It's almost as if they are allowing holds that aren't so blatant they will get fined for not calling them. I don't know if this is part of the "protect the QB campaign" or what.
Honestly, that looks to me like Lynch was going to bust it. A bunch of Browns defenders taking a bad angle because they thought Shobert was gonna finish the tackle. Instead it was the Do-Si-Do swing your partner round and round, and Lynch was off to the races.
At the risk of being stoned to death. I found this photo on the interweb. I am fully aware that the yellow line to gain the network superimposes on the screen isn't official, but when they had the chains on for a measurement, that line was spot on. Looks like he was shy of the 1st down by about a foot. Now, Carr's fumble on the other hand . . .
Nah, your safe Lym. I'm not convinced on how conclusive that picture is, and I am surprised they felt that was enough to overturn the call on the field..I'm sure if ya put every play under the microscope, you can find plenty of instances where they didn't spot it exactly right.... Put it this way. Do you think they reverse the call on the field if it's one of the NFL's glamour franchises? I don't.
If that was the view they used to reverse the call (and we have no way of determining that), then I think they would reverse the call on the field no matter who was playing.
Well they are singing songs about how poor the officiating was in Oakland yesterday, so I guess that's good enough for me...
I agree it was poor officiating yesterday. I just don't think that 1st down reversal was as egegious as I first thought it was.
It's been a frustrating first quarter of the season IMO. Just a couple plays separate us from being 4-0. That's how I see it, and it's aggravating to be so close...On the flip side, you could also say we are a couple plays from 0-4, and I realize that. We are just very fortunate that we didn't lose in week one. That tie, believe it or not, could end up being huge for us, down the road... This team is highly competitive, but they really do have to look at all the mistakes they made yesterday, and just kick themselves....The drops have got to stop. What demoralizes a team more than that?
When you are up 14 in the second half, on the road, ya gotta put em' away....When ya blow the lead and actually go down by six, only to regain the lead and go up 8 deep in the 4th quarter, ya can't "let em' off the hook!" as Dennis Green would say....The Browns are so close, but they did nothing this week to silence the doubters.
The NFL officials have been AWFUL this season. The worst I can remember....No consistency whatsoever. Complete bias toward the "perceived" better team. These guys need to get their shit together. Did anybody notice during last night's game that Cam Newton did the EXACT same thing that Antonio Callaway did Saturday night with the taunt. Only Cam's was worse, and of course it went uncalled...Thirty seconds left in the half, Newton makes a nifty 6 yard run for a red zone first down. He gets up, goes face mask to face mask with Saints Safety Vonn Bell, and emphatically signals first down. Jason Witten called him out for being stupid, and seemingly oblivious to the fact he needed to call TO, or get his offense to the line in a hurry so he could clock it, but nobody said a word about his obvious taunt. smh... The only consistent with the NFL officiating this year, has been that it's bad... And I'm still pissed about that f------g Raiders game.....I'm sorry,but the Browns are still right in the thick of the playoff hunt if they don't steal that game from us and hand it to Oakland... Next year we take it out of the refs hands.
To me,the Oakland game was worse because they majorly screwed us twice... The placement at the end was a joke. If they can change that one, they could change the spot of every play in NFL history. Complete bull---t! But also there was the horrific quick whistle on what should have been our defensive play of the year. Not getting Ogunjobi's scoop and score ultimately hurt us just as bad as that ridiculousness at the end....But lets face it. They screwed the Browns all year long. That's what 1-31, on the heels of two decades of garbage, gets ya.
The truly worse call of the year however, came at the game I was at. And it got the guy fired....It was actually a non-call. 72,000 people saw the Charger LT Russel O'kung move a full second before the rest of the offense, yet somehow the refs missed it. I'm still not sure why only one guy got fired for that. Wth were they all watching? They were truly lucky that didn't turn into "bottlegate II". It was THAT bad. I thought things were gonna get really ugly. I've never heard booing like that before.
