It was a bad call. It's one of those things where you can call holding on an offensive lineman on any play, but you don't see that obviously.

The ref was clearly calling the penalty because of Al Harris' reputation for doing that. If it was any other corner, he probably doesn't call it.

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I agree.......

Can anyone explain how ESPN.coms Kevin Seifert got a job dealing with football?

I mean honestly I think the Packers writers aren't smart when it comes to the X's and O's .....

and honestly I'm not sure if Seifert understands football 101.... he's horrible...

He compared Kevin Williams horrible play at 4-3 DE his rookie year as proof as to why the Packers were making a huge mistake putting Raji at 3-4 DE he's rookie year. Hello 4-3 DE and 3-4 DE are very different position. 3-4 DE is more like a 4-3 DT than a 4-3 DE. And Raji role in college fits 3-4 DE more than 3-4 NT.

Then he said the Vikings back-up WRs are as good or better than the Packers WRs. So there three back-ups are better than Jones, Nelson and Swain... and the funny thing is the Vikings then cut there #4 WR for a street FA.

Now this? The guy just has no cluw about football...... none.....

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Obviously, it was the wrong call, but maybe it had more to do with job distribution by the refs than anything else.

When ref. 1 misses the illegal formation, all ref 2 sees is that Hester gets bumped after 6 yards. So yes, it was quite a screw-up, but after missing the illegal formation call, I can't give the referees too much grief.

It was an illegal formation, Hester should not have even been downfield. As soon as he went more than one yard down field he was inelegible downfield.

The flag should have been thrown on Hester, we would have declined and the Bears would have punted.

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The VP of NFL in charge of officiating has said:

(As he essentially shrugged his shoulders)

The call was incorrect. (Pack that, you fool Seifert)

The ref was 20 yards downfield when he made the call (With a straight face he used this as justification)

The import of changing the rule to make it less severe of a penalty (discussed
many times in competition committee, he said) would encourage DB's to "take advantage" of the reduced impact of a violation.

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I am even more angry about this than I was originally. Seifert and his bullshit is infuriating enough, but when I reflect on how much of a "game changing" and ridiculously poor call this was---we are talking about not only a failure to make a correct call on the WR being off the line of scrimmage...we are also talking about a "free play" for the offense, in addition to the penalty itself.

Our DB's are targeted by the opposition as players designated to "watch"--- by the officials. It all goes to our bump and run history, coupled with Al and to a lesser degree Charles having established a reputation as "muggers" in this league...Rightly or wrongly. The refs have memories, and do listen when opponents and/or coaches point shit out. Then you bring in the moron factor established by Ahmad Carrol, and the crap just descends to a reputation of thuggery by our defensive backfield.

That call disgusts me greatly. Seifert disgusts me even more greatly for having the chutzpah to look at that, start digging in his rulebook, and proclaiming it as legitimate...if that isn't some sad homerism, I don't know what is.

This in the same game where asswipe almost took off Rodgers head in a no-call. Enjoy your vacation, Urlacher.

That crew sucks ass. I'd like to know which crew it was. The NFL can take their explanation letter and go wipe a baby's ass with it, btw.

I don't think the play is blown dead immediately for illegal formation, so even with the bad call by the official, the penalties should have offset.

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Where did you see that, Foster? Love watching the NFL Official Review segment on NFL.com. Was it aired on NFL Network recently?

One positive note about the penalty. It let he Bears drive continue, which eventually allowed for scoring and the clock usage to work the way it did. Had it not been called, there is no telling what would have happened. It very well could have changed the game enough that GB would have been the one in the last minute being down.

Hopefully this call will lead to some changes, switching the illegal contact call to be more of a responsibility of the linesman or line judge instead of the Field and Side Judge or leads to the Side and Field judges starting position closer to the LOS instead of 20 yards downfield.

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Ya- It was on last night and again this morning on NFLN.

On a side note... we must get far and away the highest percentage of "wrong" calls that could be/were game changing on NFL Network's Official Review. I wonder what the numbers are. Over the past few years it has been borderline ridiculous.

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