Film Room: Bad Calls from Broncos’ Div. Loss

As a CB/S/OLB, there’s nothing that rubs me the wrong way more than the PI and “defenseless receiver” penalities in the NFL.

At any level, any other level, you don’t get calls like this. But in the NFL, if the defense tries to make a play or a hit, boom, penalty. Don’t you dare try to play the ball as a DB and NEVER, EVER, hit somebody in the NFL.

And touch a receiver while he runs his route? Unheard of. Expect a fine for that.

watching this video made my wonder if the nfl could do any sort of investigation on this? its rediculous to me that MAYBE 1 of those calls could have gone either way. by the way. love the title of this. “kill bill vinovich,” im down haha

During the actual game I was irritated at some of these calls/no call’s. I understand that it’s the playoffs and they tend to let the guys play alittle bit more, but also felt that some were blatant BS. After the game, I thought the ref’s had a slight hand in swinging the game Baltimore’s way, however I felt the fault still laid on the Broncos as a team (let’s say 15% ref’s/85% team). After watching that video, which was obviously biased in Denver’s favor as it didn’t show Denver getting away with stuff against the Ravens, I will say that a scary trend developed and now, I do hold the ref’s alot more at fault than before (more like 50%-50%).

There are 9 calls, if I counted correctly, in that video. The only one I think is really a judgement call is the Tuck Rule. I saw it as a fumble then, and still do now. The DT no call PI could have gone both ways, the CB appeared to trip DT, and DT appeared to push off slightly. As a football fan, I say it’s a good no call. However, as a Broncos fan, I would have loved to have had that called DPI.

The kicker practicing during a TO was total BS. The ref even saw it, waved it off and then said, ‘ehh..eff it. It’s cool’. That would have made it 1st and 25 and way out of field goal range.

The other 6 are scary and are where the ref’s really dropped the ball. Yup, all 6 occured on 3rd down. 3 allowed Baltimore to continue the drive (Carter’s PI, Champ’s PI, and Boldin’s Incompletion), 2 were no calls that ended Denver’s drive (Manning’s pick 6, Suggs PI) and one was essentially the drive killer with Kuper’s holding call.

Wasn’t there a block in the back on a punt that got Bolden hurt as well, that went uncalled??? I think there was one offsides called on Von in which he timed the snap perfectly, but was called for offsides anyways. Surely there was a ton of holding going on against Von and Doom tho. Those guys get mugged every week and the opposing OL never gets called for it.

I knew it was pretty bad when I was watching the game live, but pretty amazing that more and more seems to be shown that went against yet broncos. It’s very maddening.

I agree. My daughter and I use facebook conversation during a game and she and I caught everyone of those terrible calls. It usually effects both teams roughly equally but it was so one-sided against the Broncos it was ridiculous. Hope every one of those clowns gets demoted or fired for next season!

What pisses me off the most is that the rules states “the defensive player has just as much of a right to the ball as the offense does”. If you watch Carter’s PI, the kid is always looking at the ball and – in my opinion – was in the best position out of anybody on the field to catch that pass.

But ticky tacky aside – I didn’t understand why the refs took 10 minutes to go over an illegal hands to the face call to “make sure they got it right”, but when the game is close and in freaking OT the refs never were within 5 yards of each other before calls were made.

And one final point before I but this all to bed – When a CB touches the ball in front of your hands and doesn’t turn your body AT ALL – you should put that in a book of clinc 3rd defense. Champ really stepped up at the end of the game and was f-ing robbed.

Hey, @AZDynamics:disqus. I’ve started up my own blog now that BT has died, would love to see you drop in. http://jonheath.net

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