Yet with those examples, we still won.
Rodgers fumble, which lead to the Eagles TD, the Underwood Blunderwood, the Jones drop....yet the pack overcame those and still pulled out a win.
Seriously, i bet you could call a penalty on almost all plays. A hold, or whatever.
I didn't see too many bad missed calls. No more then normal, at least.

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One very badly missed call was the blatant hold on James Jones on Brandon Jacksons 16 yard screen TD.

I ain't complaining though.

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One thing bothering me, can someone explain to me the punt in the 1st half that we got pushed into the ball and how the hell that works?? I'm sure it was a legitimate call, but what the hell? I surprised you don't see more teams trying to push a player into the ball in this situation. Just doesn't make sense, or is this one of those 'stupid' non-rules in the nfl?

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As I said in my original post, I believe the officials made the right calls in both cases. I created this thread mainly to address Bill Michaels' assertion that the officiating was terrible in this game.

In reality, the penalty called on the two-point conversion attempt (illegal touching of a forward pass) isn't exceptionally rare. It was just the circumstances under which the call occurred (the 2PC) that made it so unusual.

That call also forced the coaches to make an unusual decision that I don't believe has a parallel in any other penalty situation, which I'll get into with my thought experiment post.

Overall, I'm not sure what Bill Michaels was complaining about. During the game, I commented to my wife several times that I was pleased with the hands-off approach the officials took to the game. Even though I noticed a few holds and pass interferences that could have been called, I find games with fewer assessed penalties far more enjoyable to watch. The game is controlled violence: let it be so.

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I didn't see the injury on TV since I was forced to listen to a dying AM radio station on my 4hr drive home. However, I told my wife that I'm sure the trainers were on the field telling him to "lie still" and "take your time" to get off the field. Who wouldn't give your own team a little more time to get set with a play or two...especially if that is all you would be able to contribute since you had a "legitimate" injury.

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You raise an interesting point. By rule, if the team has no remaining timeouts, they must remove the injured player "immediately." What constitutes "immediately"? At what point could a team be charged with delay of game for taking too long to tend an injured player on the field, and who would make the determination that the injury was not serious enough to warrant such attention?

Those are choppy waters into which I am sure no official has ever dared to venture, because the backlash would simply be too violent. I'd venture to guess there's no "case law" or precedent on that issue. I doubt there are even any written guidelines.

Cue Wade complaining about how legalistic fans have become . . . 😉

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I believe Quarless took a helmet-to-helmet from Samuel that was not called.

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Yes, but I didn't see it until after the second or third slow motion replay from a different angle. In real time, it looked like Samuel led with his shoulder. I wouldn't be surprised if the league fines him after the fact, though.

We're lucky that Collins did not get flagged for that hit on Celek when he was defenseless. Collins was smart to go for the midsection rather than up high, but I don't believe that excludes the possibility of a penalty. It was borderline by the standards they use nowadays.

Instanbulpacker: Celek was not milking his injury. He took a huge hit. I don't think it would have been to the Eagles' advantage to milk it anyway. The defense tends to get more fatigued than the offense in those situations, so the break was probably more beneficial to the defense.

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Collins on Celek, there was nothing to be lucky about. That's exactly what the video on how to hit a defenseless player says to hit someone. Hell, it'll probably be in next years video, lol.

It also looked like Collins pulled up too.

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I for one am glad the refs didn't toss a flag on the Vick flop after a light tap from Pickett. Talk about trying to draw a penalty.. Vick must have thought it was practice and the red jersey is still pulled over. 😉

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