Tag: bad nfl officiating

Browns Get Robbed In Oakland.

If you read this site regularly, you know we are not nor ever have been a fan of the way the NFL is officiated.

We have claimed for years that the NFL officials are the worst in professional sports, and today’s Browns-Raiders games demonstrated exactly why we think that.

Did they Browns play great today?  No.  Did the defense give up a boatload of big plays in the second half and overtime?  Yes.

However, late in the game the Browns did enough to salt this game away and denied a victory on the road because of the officiating.

First, a play in the fourth quarter when Myles Garrett and Genard Avery sacked Raiders’ QB Derek Carr, and it was clear that the ball popped out immediately after the Cleveland defenders hit him.

Larry Ogunjobi was picking up the ball to start running toward the end zone as the whistle blew.  The call was Carr was in the grasp and the play was blown dead.  Blown dead without the ball being in anyone’s control.

Later, with less than two minutes to go, the Browns stopped the Raiders on downs and took control of the ball on the Oakland nine yard line.

Three running plays to force the Raiders to use their timeouts were used, and the third one appeared to give Cleveland a first down, which would have allowed the Browns to run out the clock.

We thought it was a bad spot in the Raiders’ favor to begin with, but the measurement gave Cleveland the first down anyway.

But a review of the play moved the spot back further and forced the Browns to punt.

Our understanding of the rule, is there has to be irrefutable evidence to change the call on the field.  We were not shown any evidence on the broadcast.

Even former the former NFL officiating supervisor, Dean Blandino, was on the FOX telecast, couldn’t believe the call was overturned.

Given another chance, the Raiders tied the game and forced overtime.

Just so we don’t come across as sour grapes, there was other calls in favor of the Browns which were terrible.

The crew blew a whistle early on a run by Marshawn Lynch, costing the Raiders a long gain in the first half.  And a terrible roughing the passer call gave the Browns a first down, also in the first half.

The problem is the consistency and a need by many crews to affect the game.  Check the box scores every week and see how many games have more than 10 penalties called on each team.

One of the things that made the Browns-Jets game so fun to watch (besides the Browns finally winning) was there were only 11 penalties in the entire game.

Were there other things?  Of course.  The Browns’ receivers dropped a lot of passes, particularly in the first half.

They had a 28-14 lead, and had two critical turnovers which led to 20 unanswered points by Oakland, which gave them a 34-28 advantage.

Still, the Browns fought back and overcame this and should have won the game after turning back the Raiders at the goal line.

They lost the turnover battle for the first time this season, committing four, including a pick six in the first quarter, while forcing just two interceptions.  Of course, they forced a fumble late too, but it was taken away.

All in all, the Browns have made football exciting again for fans in northeast Ohio.  They are a competitive team.

The next test is at home against the Ravens next Sunday.  For the first time in a while, it’s something to look forward to.

JD

Late Mistakes Cost Young Browns

Young football teams tend to make mistakes.  This was never more evident than the Cleveland Browns’ 31-20 loss to Washington this afternoon.

Hue Jackson’s crew got off to a poor start, trailing 14-0 early, before rallying and actually carried a 20-17 lead into the fourth quarter.

However, the young Browns turned the ball over three times at the end of the game, two on fumbles and an interception by Cody Kessler, and Cleveland fell to 0-4 on the season.

One reminder.  They’ve played three of those four games on the road.

One of the dangers of having so many young players is there are no veterans to teach the younger guys how to close out games.  The Browns have had a chance to win the last three contests, but are still winless.

It will be up to the coaching staff to get these guys to eliminate the errors costing them in the win column.

Here are this week’s positives and negatives, with a new category–bad officiating.

Positives.  The Browns came into the game in the top five in rushing and showed why today.  They had 163 yards on the ground, with another 100 yard game by Isaiah Crowell (15 rushes, 112 yards).  They probably should have had more than 28 attempts.

Cody Parkey rebounded from his debut and made two field goals including a 51-yarder.

Another Cody, Kessler, played well too.  He completed 28 of 40 throws for 223 yards, and helped the offense convert 8 of 12 third downs.  As long as he plays like this, there is no reason to play either Josh McCown or even Robert Griffin III for that matter.

And the offensive line did a good job with John Greco going back to guard and using Austin Reiter at center.

Defensively, Jamar Taylor continued to show well, getting an interception for the second straight week.  And the newest Brown, Cam Johnson had two sacks.

Negatives.  For the first time this season, the defense couldn’t stop the run, allowing 145 yards, at an average of 5.6 per rush.

The defensive line had a poor game and Danny Shelton took a step back with just three assists.

And even though Cleveland had three sacks, for most of the game they couldn’t put pressure on Washington QB Kirk Cousins.  Of course, they didn’t have a lot of good pass rushing situations.

Ray Horton’s unit also had no answer for TE Jordan Reed, which isn’t good news considering New England’s Rob Gronkowski is up next week.

Today’s horrible officiating.  The NFL needs to change the pass interference call.

First, they should be no call on any under thrown ball, because the bad throw is causing the contact.  That was the case on the 50 YARD PENALTY against Jordan Poyer in the first quarter.

Another bad PI call came against Joe Haden in the fourth quarter.  Both Haden and the receiver were bumping each other, but Haden drew the flag.  A no call would have been correct there.

And lastly, Duke Johnson’s fumble in the fourth quarter appeared to be recovered by…Duke Johnson.  The official ruled Washington football.

Of course, Jeff Triplette’s crew is one of the leagues worst, so what can you expect.

Our point is the Browns are inexperienced as it is, and can’t afford to have bad calls go against them as well.

So, the Browns come home next week to take on the mighty New England Patriots.  It should be another good measuring stick for the young Browns.

Yes, they are 0-4.  However, many teams at 1-3 and stagnant would love to trade places with Hue Jackson’s group.

JD