Taking nominations, worst ref call (or non-call) of the year

[junkman]

I'm looking for game impacting calls, or non-calls that had a significant negative impact in the game. So while in the Denver game, the Ryan Clady strangleholds on Quinn and the Rodney McLeod hit were bad non-calls and bad calls respextively, they didn't have a pivotal impact.

I'll nominate two to get us started.

~~~~~~~~~~

Week 6, San Fran game, still early in the 3rd and the 49ers have a 3rd and and 1 from the 11 yard line. On the play, Kaepernick rolls out to his left (Quinn's side) and throws an 11 yard TD to Bouldin over the outstretched hand of Janoris Jenkins. But there were 3 (three!) clear and egregious holds on the play that were no called:

1) Aaron Donald immediately bursts through the line, but Alex Boone (75) grabs him by his waist and throws him off to the side.

2) Robert Quinn on the pass rush is literally spun around by Joe Staley (74) and thrown to the ground. Adding insult to injury, they actually call QUINN for a defensive holding on Joe Staley. Seriously, WTF!!!

3) Michael Brockers spins out of a double team, but then gets horse collar dragged to the ground by Kilgore (67).

Each one of these infractions was both egregious, obvious and play impacting. The fact that at the end, the refs called holding on Quinn... geez.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/20141...ameinfo|contentId:0ap3000000410690&tab=videos

~~~~~~~~~~~

Week 3 against Dallas Cowboys aka America's Team, the Rams have screamed out to a 21-0 lead, but have whittled it back down to 21-10. Early in the 3rd quarter at their own 32, the Cowboys do a play action fake and leave 8 players in to block (max protect) while the Rams rush 5 (after initially bringing a few more as a run blitz, but then drop into coverage). Tony Romo launches a deep pass to Dez Bryant for a 68 yard TD.

1) Alex Ogletree comes on a blitz and is literally tackled by Whitten (88) as he rounds the left edge. This was the LESS obvious of the two penalties.

2) The BAD one, Kendall Langford frees himself from the traffic in the interior and has a clean run at Tony Romo. But Cowboy T Doug Free (#68) drags Lanford to the ground by the inside of his left shoulder pad a mere yard or so from Romo. If this was done to a RB, they probably would have looked at whether or not it was a horse collar tackle. It certainly isn't a legal blocking technique.

Yes, I know the Rams secondary fell asleep on the play, but that still doesn't excuse the Dallas penalties. Of course, Dallas finished the comeback and won the game. But a holding penalty there would have gone a long way to killing off that drive.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/20140...ameinfo|contentId:0ap3000000397970&tab=videos

 

[BigRamFan]

Wow! Where to start? I don't have the same level of detail that you do @junkman but there was another play in the cowgirls game where Langford made a textbook play on shedding a block on his way to sack the QB but was called for defensive holding.

 

[TheDYVKX]

I'm still pissed about the Jared Cook "OPI".

 

[RamsJunkie]

The accumulation of all the holds that Quinn has had on him is insane. Its blatantly obvious every week over and over again and It has only been called like twice. Quinn would have broke the sack record this year but I guess Godell put a call in to the refs to make sure that didnt happen and that Quinn didn't injure every QB he plays against. because he probably would if they didn't let the OTs tackle and mug him every play.

 

[TheDYVKX]

Wow! Where to start? I don't have the same level of detail that you do @junkman but there was another play in the cowgirls game where Langford made a textbook play on shedding a block on his way to sack the QB but was called for defensive holding.

Wasn't that Eugene Sims? I agree though, was a bogus call.

 

[BigRamFan]

Wasn't that Eugene Sims? I agree though, was a bogus call.

You may be right. I will try to re-watch the game tonight to see. Not sure that I can stomach that again though.

 

[FRO]

The roughing the passer on Romo was clearly the worst to me. That was a third down and they were out of field goal range. That penalty gave them new life and an easy field goal. We didn't get a makeup call either.

All calls should be challangable.

 

[Legatron4]

It has to be without a doubt the OPI on Jared Cook vs the 49ers. That completely turned the game around. Also, even though we won the game, the holding on Tavons punt return touchdown when they knew they clearly fucked up when they said he was out of bounds.

 

[FRO]

It has to be without a doubt the OPI on Jared Cook vs the 49ers. That completely turned the game around. Also, even though we won the game, the holding on Tavons punt return touchdown when they knew they clearly fucked up when they said he was out of bounds.

I forgot about that call. Man we get hosed so much.

 

[Angry Ram]

There was also one game one, the Vikings OT had a false start and they called Chris Long for offsides.

Robert Quinn also got called for holding against SF Monday. WTF was that? Speaking of SF, the Frank Gore "non-fumble" and the out of bounds on Tavon.

That Eugene Sims "holding" takes the cake tho. That has to be the worst call in Rams history.

 

[Noregar]

The bad calls against the Rams this year are almost too many to quantify but there were definitely some notable game changers although determining the actual outcome had the calls not been made still requires some speculation.

It is hard to pick out the worst of the worst (Sort of like a being a turd inspector in a s**t factory), but I would vote for either the phantom hold against Sims that BigRamFan noted or the missed holds against the Dal-ass' O-line that junkman noted. I think just eliminating either one of those negative plays changes the outcome in favor of our Rams. The premature whistles in the 49er game (Tavon's TD return and JL's TD fumble recovery) were both really bad and would have been tops on my list had the Rams lost. Fortunately our Rams won in spite of the refs mistakes thanks to the Refs actually doing their job and making the correct calls at the end of that game (much to the chagrin of 49er fans).

 

[Noregar]

Additional note: I can understand the human error element but so many of the call this year have been so blatantly bad that one has to wander at times if they were not deliberate (1+1=3).

 

[Ram Quixote]

The bad calls against the Rams this year are almost too many to quantify but there were definitely some notable game changers although determining the actual outcome had the calls not been made still requires some speculation.

The OPI on Cook requires no speculation. We would have certainly kicked a FG, maybe got 7. Most certainly, the long TD at the end of the 2nd Quarter never happens. Which means Kaperdick never gets that confidence boost, nor the momentum to start the 3rd quarter.

 

[LesBaker]

The accumulation of all the holds that Quinn has had on him is insane. Its blatantly obvious every week over and over again and It has only been called like twice. Quinn would have broke the sack record this year but I guess Godell put a call in to the refs to make sure that didnt happen and that Quinn didn't injure every QB he plays against. because he probably would if they didn't let the OTs tackle and mug him every play.

OLmen, including the Rams, have learned how to hide it. We can see it because of the angles the cameras give us. The refs don't have those angles and the new unis don't show fabric being stretched and tugged as much as the older ones.

It's not that the refs are refusing to call it the guys doing it are good at it. Just like the SEA backfield. They know where the refs are and how to aviod getting caught.

 

[Noregar]

The OPI on Cook requires no speculation. We would have certainly kicked a FG, maybe got 7. Most certainly, the long TD at the end of the 2nd Quarter never happens. Which means Kaperdick never gets that confidence boost, nor the momentum to start the 3rd quarter.

What was just described above is an example of speculation. As we just saw in the last game against the chargers, the Rams are at the 4 yard line with a minute left in the game. One could speculate that the Rams would win it or tie the game at that point and yet Hill throws the INT and they lose. I think the call against Cook that you noted above was bad as well and it did change momentum but to definitively state that the final outcome of the game changes as in winning and losing is still speculation.

 

[Selassie I]

When there are so many... it's really impossible to pick 2 or 3. There are just too many to choose from. At the game's Highest Level, the officiating is the worst. Explain that one.

@kdemoff

I'd like to request that the PA booth at The Ed start playing circus clown music each and every time the refs huddle together, get under the replay booth, and say anything over their microphone. I believe that would add to the Game Day Experience in a positive way while the fans are forced to swallow the types of calls that we have seen continuously throughout this season. Please send them a clear message. Thank You Sir.

 

[RamFan503]

The calls have been just plain bad all year. Maybe that is why it is very difficult to pick one or two.

I think the one I will NEVER get out of my mind is the roughing call on that textbook sack that Brockers had against Chicago last year. That was THE worst call I have ever seen in my life.

 

[Ram Quixote]

What was just described above is an example of speculation. As we just saw in the last game against the chargers, the Rams are at the 4 yard line with a minute left in the game. One could speculate that the Rams would win it or tie the game at that point and yet Hill throws the INT and they lose. I think the call against Cook that you noted above was bad as well and it did change momentum but to definitively state that the final outcome of the game changes as in winning and losing is still speculation.

All I'm saying is that with just under 3 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter, the Rams had momentum without the OPI call. The 49ers didn't. And they wouldn't have got it because the Rams would have run the clock down. That's not speculation. That's Fisher's MO.

 

[jrry32]

Jared Cook OPI...easily for me. There was nothing even remotely approaching OPI and then to add insult to injury, they called T.J. McDonald for defensive holding two series later when he did the same thing the DB did to Cook on that OPI play and Davis actually pushed off.

Not only did they blow the Cook call in embarrassing fashion but the same official looked like a total hypocrite when he called a similar play by the TE the opposite direction...and both calls happened to go against the Rams. What a fucking asshat.

 

[Jumava1968]

To many to name and I don't think my ulcer can take reliving them all.But I will say that the Dallas and SD games were wins taken away by these bad calls.There has to be some kind of hidden agenda behind all these blatant bad calls against us.Whatever it is the refs are not doing a very good job on hiding it because some of these calls are so obvious but they just keep doing it.Its frustrating because we should have a much better record.Maybe if we had a marquee Qb and not a small market team we would not be constantly fucked by the NFL