Worst Call?

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it appears that the officiating this year has been mediocre at best, more likely atrocious, and possibly incompetent to criminal. And I’m not just counting all of the calls that have gone against the Eagles and the no calls that haven’t been flagged on their opponents. It’s a league wide problem only highlighted by the Eagles.

 

To wit, Ken Hamlin’s helmet to helmet hit on Matt Schobel was an inexplicable no call. If Hamlin does that to a quarterback he’s probably ejected from the game. But against a defenseless tight end there’s no penalty? I’m still waiting for the fine he should incur from the league office.

 

But the award for the worst penalty of the week has to go to the intentional grounding called on Kyle Orton last night (coincidentally, it impacted the Eagles since it cost the Bears a scoring opportunity and with the Bears loss knocked the Eagles out of the playoff picture).

 

Orton threw a pass 20 yards DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD while in the pocket. But because he underthrew his receiver by 10 yards the officials bizarrely ruled it intentional grounding. Now the apologists will point out that the Bears were also called for holding on the same play that the Vikings declined, but it’s important to note that they accepted the intentional grounding because of the loss of down provision. The Bears were then forced to punt on 4^th down.

 

I have never seen an underthrown pass that landed 20 yards downfield called intentional grounding, though I might again this year with these refs.