Bad Officiating

As previously mentioned, last week's Giants game was poorly reffed. Herremans got called for a "cut" block because the defender was currently "engaged" with another lineman. The reality is that this "engagement" consisted of the center extending his left hand to give him a single chest shove before turning to his right (away from Herremans and the defender) to double team another Giant.

Of course, Asante Samuels' "helmet to helmet" hit was questionable as well. Samuels lead with his shoulder and it was a bang-bang play. The revealed the flaws in the NFL's attempts to limit head blows. Ellis Hobbs was carted off the field after a sickening helmet to helmet hit on a kickoff return. As Cris Collinsworth said, it wasn't a penalty. But why wasn't it a penalty? The Giant tackler lowered his head and hit head to head. Just as interesting is why the Samuels hit was a penalty and this wasn't. Presumably it was because the NFL is more concerned with head hunting of WRs and not of ball carriers. But I also wonder if helmet-to-helmet penalties are only called when the defender is "defenseless?"

Which brings us back to the Samuels' penalty. Was the Giant receiver caught the ball on the play in question. Can a receiver really be considered defenseless when he makes the catch? (also see Collie, Austin, November 13).