San Diego/Denver

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

Well, everyone is piling on the Chargers fan here. I never said Hochuli wasn't human, I just said he cost the Chargers the game. Which he did. It wasn't the Chargers porous defense or any other "if" scenarios posted. The Chargers recovered what should have been a fumble. They shouldn't have been put in the situation to let Cutler get another chance to score and then go for two. That should have never occurred. What led up to the score being what it was is irrelevant. The call cost them the ball, and cost them the game because they would have easily ran out the clock. Game over.

And I'm not just some fan, I've refereed football and basketball in addition to all the baseball I've umpired. I've never made a call that horrible in my life in any sport, so stop trying to defend Hochuli as "being human." He's a human that cost the Chargers the game, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Every sportscaster on ESPN seem to agree. What the defense did or didn't do earlier in the game all came down to a great play by the defense being overturned by a BAD CALL. Does San Diego need to improve on defense? Of course they do, but it isn't the reason they lost this one.

I peruse the Baseball forum. Anytime anyone blames an umpire for a loss or for costing his team a run that person gets ripped. Guess it's just a different standard for other sports, right?

Originally Posted by fljet

You guys need to get of Ed's nuts. Regardless of the fact that denver and san diego EACH torched each others defense, there was no reason to blow the whistle and rule and incomplete pass. The PASS WENT BACKWARDS for christ sakes. Jay Cutler was not endanger of getting whacked either.

For those of you who did not watch the game there was more to it than the last play. let me recap the blunders of the whole crew.

1st qtr: replay equipment not working, chargers lost a possesion inside their own 30 on a b.s. play (MOMENTUM SWING)

3rd qtr: phantom holding call on chris chambers, did not even touch the guy negated a 40 yd run to the denver 2, SD ended up having to kick a field goal

4th qtr: The Hochuli debacle (EVEN BIGGER MOMENTUM SWING, NO TIMEOUTS TO SETTLE DOWN THE DEFENSE)

all game Ryan clady the LT holding our ROLB (not one call made)

If I was ed I would have found a way to have thrown a flag on Denver on either the final 4th down play or the 2 pointer to redeem myself, having known that I just completely hosed a team that fought back from a 21-3 deficit and obviously would have won the game had I not choked.

LATER to all of you CHarger haters. Im not even that pissed, we started 1-3 and made the AFC title game in 2007

Now please go to your DVR and let us know about all the BAD OR MISSED CALLS that went if favor of the Chargers.

[hawkishowl20]

As far as I can tell, Hochuli did everything right short of having x-ray vision. (Outside the wording issue discussed). He couldn’t see through Cutler. The arm made a throwing motion and Cutler dropped the ball for no clear reason (Wet? Fatigue? Pump fake?). From Hochuli’s angle it may have looked like the ball ricocheted off the defender. He might have been out of position but he would have to have been outside the numbers for a better angle. He doesn’t have three camera angles during the play. He said he made a mistake which is the right thing to do. Don’t let a crazy mob stop you from doing the right thing. I don’t know what Turner’s comments mean. “Unacceptable”…to Turner perhaps, well whatever. Things like this happening late in games with the game on the line are naturally treated as a big deal because it’s so easy to simplify it into “Hochuli bad” or “Hochuli lost game.” That is the sort of template TV guys love because it causes emotional response in a few seconds. This isn’t a rule dispute it’s a case study of handling a mistake and Hochuli passes. The hypothetical “should the ignoring whistle in replay if immediately recovered rule be changed to apply to this situation?” question is interesting.