I agree Bob. And in a game where that's true during the entire game (each team has opposing objectives), we owe it to the teams to be consistent in our manner of calls, and allow the game to come to completion in a natural manner.
This tendency for officials to relax at this point (not all, obviously) is as bad as the tendency for the OL to relax. I see it too often on the field, and I guess this is one of my pet peeves - one that I'll even discuss pointedly with an official that has a lot more tenure than I do. I truly feel that the habit of relaying this particular play to the defense, and then expecting them to not play football, is a horrible one. As you said - the offense's objective on this play (usually) is just to get it over with. Why do we side with the offense on this - we are impartial (supposedly
), and should simply take the minimal step to aid in safety, without taking anything away from the defense.