I had planned to start this notebook with an item on the improvements made by rookie quarterbacks in their week two showings as compared to week one, but the ineptitude of the replacement referees manning the Falcons/Broncos Monday night game was so great that the issue almost required response.
Industry observers, media, former officials, players and seemingly everyone else out there had already been commenting on how the officiating in week two took a huge step back after the replacements did a passable job in week one.
For various reasons I didn’t see much of the Broncos/Falcons game last night. But the write-ups are all over the Internet. Pro Football Talk called the officiating performance an embarrassment to Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners. I would have to agree.
As many have said, including Tony Dungy on Sunday Night Football, the replacements seem to have no concept for pass interference, defensive holding and illegal contact. Sometimes players are getting called for barely making any contact – if any – at all. Other times near muggings go uncalled.
I can’t remember which of the national pundits I heard commenting on this as well, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when a running back is clearly stopped and the whistles have been blowing for several seconds, but a gang of defenders continues to drive a ball carrier back 10 to 15 yards to make sure he actually goes to the ground.
Those are the situations where injuries are going to happen and those situations warrant personal foul penalties being called. Those calls are oft-ignored when the regular officials are calling games, but it’s gotten ridiculously out of hand at times with this current crop of replacements. I tried to give the subs a break – after all, it is not entirely their fault they’re in the positions they’re in. But week two was a disaster and it is time for the league and the regular refs to get on the same page and get their issues solved.
On to other issues.
Rookie quarterbacks improve: Of the five rookie quarterbacks starting during the first two weeks, only Robert Griffin III won in week one, while three of his counterparts looked virtually disastrous. The collective performances improved dramatically on Sunday with three more signal callers – Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck and Ryan Tannehill – picking up wins.
Griffin could not pull off a comeback in his second start, though he was hampered in his efforts by wideout Josh Morgan’s temper tantrum. He continues to look far too poised and solid for someone having made just two starts and he is my early choice for NFL Rookie of the Year. Brandon Weeden remains the only rookie starter without a win, but even he improved dramatically from week one to week two. He threw for 322 yards and two touchdowns as Cleveland fell short against Cincinnati, 34-27.
I’m looking forward to seeing Wilson in the Monday night game between Seattle and Green Bay next week. Warren Moon apparently took to twitter Monday saying it’d been quite awhile since he’s been as impressed with a young quarterback as he is with Wilson.
Kudos to Cardinals: I’m still not sure what to make of Arizona, but you’ve got to take your hat off to the Cardinals. They knocked me and about half of America out of survivor pools across the country by hanging on to beat New England. I’m not sold on them yet because of the messy quarterback situation and a running game anchored by the uninspiring Beanie Wells and Ryan Williams. But here are a couple things to note: They’re 2-0 this season despite huge deficiencies on offense including the inability to consistently get Larry Fitzgerald the ball (five catches for 67 yards through two games – no touchdowns). And since dropping to 1-6 last year, the Cardinals are 9-2. That’s too sustained a run to call this a bad team. The defense is for real.
Strange Thursday scheduling: This one game on every Thursday night thing … not so much a fan. Can’t imagine the players are either. The Carolina Panthers have to turn around and play the New York Giants team that just put up 600 yards of offense with three days rest. Three weeks into the season, the Giants will have had 10 days of rest between games one and two, three days rest between games two and three and then nine days rest between games three and four. How do they build any continuity and consistency? And three of those games have been night games. I realize they’re the defending Super Bowl champions, but that seems like overkill on early season seeing them in prime time—especially for a team that is notoriously slow in starting.
Rosenhaus on 60 Minutes: Any time agent Drew Rosenhaus gets a chance to go on camera, he proves himself to be one of the most arrogant characters in the NFL. During the 60 Minutes feature on him Sunday night, he boasted that the NFL would fall apart without him. He illustrated disregard for the law by showing off his skills for texting and Internet searching while driving. And he pretty much mocked the rest of the agent community for its disdain of him.
Rosenhaus did manage to go through the entire segment without referencing how many women he has slept with, unlike the book he wrote several years ago – which without a doubt was the most self-absorbed, arrogantly written autobiography I have ever read. Unfortunately, as much as I can’t stand Rosenhaus’ personality, the attention on him seems to be warranted. He continues to have a tremendous stable of clients and he generally continues to get them tremendous deals.
Rex Ryan seems tired?: I just happened to catch a glimpse of New York Jets coach Rex Ryan’s press conference Monday . He was trying to keep the bravado up, I think in answering a question about those expressing doubts about where the team is headed. “Bet against us,” he says. “We’ll see where that ends up.”
That kind of talk from Ryan is familiar. He’s never been shy about sticking up for his team. But it looked to me like he was tired. This is his fourth year with the team and it’s largely been one, long ongoing circus. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this ended up being his last year with the Jets.
Kneel down controversy: Mike and Mike in the Morning both took Greg Schiano’s side. The game isn’t over. Play hard until the clock strikes 0:00. Brian Billick on the NFL Network took Tom Coughlin’s side, saying charging the opposing quarterback while the team is in the “victory formation” is bush league. We may be in the minority, but we give the nod to the Bucs. The kneel down is, in fact, a football play. Go ahead and play hard on it.
Seahawks’ uniforms: The Seattle Seahawks played a great game against Dallas. The team did not look great in doing so, however. Seattle seems to be the first NFL team to fall victim to the new uniform contract with Nike. Can we just send the duds in this photo over to the Arena League already?
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The refs appeared to be on the verge of losing control during Monday nights game, but that was the exception and not the rule. The situation was born of the fact that players and coaches are doing everything they can to take advantage of the situation.
The plan for the refs in week three has to be “take charge”. Establish early who is in control of the game. Don’t be afraid to call the personal fouls, unsportsmanlike, or even eject someone. The way things are going, it is the only way to regain control. There will be much whining when it happens, but the teams have only themselves to blame. They are trying to see what they can get away with on the field.
I agree with everything you wrote. I think that should have been the plan from the start. These guys should have made a statement in week one. They’re in a hole now. It’s time to boot a couple guys. Give one of the coaches a hook too.
Anyone who says that in the Victory formation, the play should not be hard, should just advocate for eliminating the entire charade when the team with the lead gets the ball back at the end of the game and can run out the clock. Why bother with the action if it’s not going to be real plays?
Also, apparently the Bucs players told the Giants players that they were instructed to do so–so the Giants should not be whining.
Re: Thursday Night game. I think this is the future. Probably Tuesday and Wednesday night too. If they weren’t competing with high school and college games I’d expect Friday and Saturday to be regular games. You don’t hold sixteen of the most popular television shows and then broadcast them against each other in separate markets.
The Sunday Ticket idea is antiquated. People now expect to be able to watch whatever they want, and not be limited by arbitrary geographic markets. And Sunday Ticket loses one of the key advantages the NFL has as a television show: perishability. People are happy to put Breaking Bad on the DVR or wait a couple days for Hulu. Not so with games. A primetime game seven nights a week commands much higher ratings… at least until people get sick of it.
Which is the only real question. How far can the NFL spread games out until there is a negative return?
I think scheduling would be an absolute nightmare with Tue/Wed games. In theory, someone would almost have to at some point play a Sunday/Tuesday back to back, unless you give an extra bye week or something.
Then again, I wouldn’t put it past the NFL to go to an 18 week season to do just that (didn’t they used to do that?)