What made the IBB worse was that they *did* flag it and somehow the official got talked out of it. And it wasn't some marginal "maybe-side-block" it was clearly an IBB.

What was more surprising to me is that the league representative didn't know the rule. Seattle should have been charged their third and final team timeout after the injury...it didn't matter that the injury occurred after an incomplete pass. The only time they wouldn't charge a timeout after an injury is if the injury came as a result of a foul, if the injury occurred during a down with a change of possession, field goal or during a try attempt, or if the opponent called a timeout. Ideally, the timeout should not have been granted, but once they did, the damage was already done and there's no penalty for an official granting a 4th timeout.

The mistakes that the officials made today are not all that different than what the officials in the NFL made last year. I think that the current officials are just under a stronger microscope. We've seen games where fouls were missed last year, flags waived off that shouldn't have been, you name it and it happened last year. It doesn't matter which official is working, the same mistakes have happened before and they'll happen again no matter which group is working.

I give the guys credit that have been working because in years past the lower level college conferences have been overlooked when it comes to the NFL hiring them. I think the current NFL officials have been doing as good as can be expected and they have proven that you can hire from other conferences other than D-1. It's sort of like the teams that are starting to realize that even some players in lower college conferences are draft worthy. Perhaps now the NFL will realize that a future Super Bowl official may very will be officiating in some D3 conference. There are officials all over the country who are good enough to be D-1 but have fell through the cracks. Some of that has to do with geographics so you get left with working D2 or even D3.

In the Denver/Pittsburgh game the crew blew the 2nd half 2:00 warning. Denvers INT return for a TD ocured with 1:58 remaining and after the TD but BEFORE the PAT attempt they took the 2 minute warning. Procedure there is to try the PAT and THEN take the 2 minute warning before the ensung kickoff.

I find it funny that many out there on this forum and others similar to this are giving the replacements a pass for things that they screw up in a professional game, while if they screwed the same thing up in a televised HS game, they'ed be crucifying them.

Face it, it's not good.

While I would love to see the "real guys" back on the job, I don't think the NFL is rushing to get back to the negotiating table. The replacements really weren't that bad.....Overall I would give them a 7 out of 10....... for this week.

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Does anyone know if the NFL will be mixing these guys up during the upcoming weeks or are these "crews" etched in stone......also I wish Fox would get rid of Mike Perriera until the lockout is over, the bias is very unprofessional on his part..... oh and one other question. Are there any "back up" officials for these guys in case someone gets injured ??????

Thanks guys !!!!

I've found Mike to be quite fair in his assessment. If you follow his Twitter, you'll see that numerous times, he's commenting on good calls made in games...not just the negative ones.

Me too.

Actually I think the evaluations have been mostly negative. I only understand to some extent as these are basically NFL rookies that would never be in this situation regularly. For example it takes a guy years to become a Referee on a crew and in this situation no one had any NFL experience. I think it is a perfect storm for mistakes. I am not so sure I give them a pass because they choose to do this stuff, but it is understandable. The regular guys would not likely make the same mistakes these guys are and that should be expected. This is why I hope this is resolved soon.

Peace

One need not be biased to judge that the replacement officials are inadequately prepared, insufficiently skilled, likely to damage the product, and bad for the game. I'm sure they're wonderful people.

However, I think that judgment is biased. I think the replacements performed well enough that the NFLRA should be nervous. If anything, this week will convince the NFL they don't need the NFLRA. The replacements are only going to get better.

The NFL has already told the ones on strike that it will never get back to the point of "entitlement" but instead it will now be about "accountability". This came from the supervisor of NFL officials. What he stated was that seeing how these current officials are it has opened up some ideas where if an official isn't performing up to standards they could then use some of the replacements as "bench officials". In short, if the ones on strike ever come back, we have someone on standby to replace you if you screw up. As already mentioned, these guys will get better each week. If the lockout doesn't get resolved in the next 3 weeks, they may as well keep the replacements all season. Resume bargaining in the offseason.

That all sounds nice, but they are a bad weekend or call away from outrage. The general public and media is not on the NFL's side with this issue and constantly highlighting the inadequacy of the officials. Just look out the media overreacts when the regular officials do something they do not like? You think the public is going to be like, "Let these guys stay." I honestly do not think so. And these officials are not even close to what would be the replacements if the regulars were to not grade out properly. I know of a few personally that could not work D3 ball on a regular basis and struggled to work a decent high school schedule that are working these NFL games.

Peace

Not trying to argue here, just remembering how in years past how the general public has wanted to hang the crews that "caused their team to lose" and that the NFL should "fire" all the officials and start over. Now that their wishes are partially coming true for the moment we'll see how they like it. Their are mixed opinions on all the fan boards. Some are welcoming the "new blood".