Skins @ Panthers gameday thread

[irish]

Originally Posted by NoCalHail

With a half a day to digest the game there's no reason to say the officiating "cost the game" but I do think with a good certainty that they definitely had a big part in swinging momentum at 3 specific points in the game on very sketchy borderline calls.

Call #1 - The Culliver call. This is the most obvious one, it takes points off the board. It was a big physical play that had the potential to turn the game in our favor or at least put the Panthers in a different position for the first time in the game. If they are calling THAT unnecessary roughness then how on earth did they not call the helmet to helmet hit on Reed on our series before? The defender dove into Reed helmet first and speared him and there was no call.

Call #2 On that Panthers drive that continued because of Call #1 (I believe it was that drive) Panthers were 2nd and goal and the pass is incomplete, setting up a 3rd and goal....oh except they call illegal contact on another very weak justification. This gives the Panthers 1st and goal and they end up with a TD. I'd say this one was more of a "who knows what would have happened" type call because the Panthers did still have 3rd down to score, but if our defense holds and they kick a FG it is a big deal for the defense.

Call #3 - another obvious one, the phantom "hold" by Reed on Cousins's scramble to the 4 yard line to setup 1st and goal. I'm sorry by Reed's arms weren't extended and when you are body to body you can have the jersey in the shoulder pad area. Just another razor thin call that takes away a huge play. 1st and goal, could cut the game to 21-28 going into half time.

Like I said, we don't win the game merely because these calls don't happen, but it really seemed like the team was dejected after this series of events as the game went from competitive to a laugher within half a quarter of play.

The NFL has to do something about the over-officiating, its starting to make the games unwatchable. To me the constant barrage of flags is killing the excitement and flow of the game and after call 3 I turned off the game because I just couldn't take watching the refs continue to insert themselves into the game with ticky-tack calls.