Is it me or are the refs blowing calls on purpose?

[BigDaddyFin]

It seems like refs are blowing more calls this year than ever.  The Jay Cutler fumble and then yesterday the Falcons game the punt the guy never touched.  I'm sure there's more blatantly obvious shit other people can think of.  We're only 8 weeks or so into the season and I don't ever remember seeing this many obvious calls. 

[fyo]

There's a problem EVERY year that annoys me endlessly:

Refereeing is incredibly INCONSISTENT.

You can literally look at which crew is reffing the game and get a good idea of how many ticky-tack holding calls and DPIs there are going to be. The individual crews are fairly consistent from year to year, which just makes it that much more annoying. Just sit the refs down and agree on what to call and what not to. It's completely unreasonable that the same guys keep calling shit that other crews don't.

DPI and Holding seem to be the most egregious.

[Dave Gray]

I've got no problems with the refs this years more than any other year.  I think that a lot of the problem comes with these new rules, causing the refs to blow the whistle early, and not let plays develop naturally.  (The Cutler situation).


...but also, when you're adding all of these rules to protect the player that are largely judgment calls, it makes the refs' jobs harder and more open to error.

[BigDaddyFin]

Here's what bothers me the most about the whole thing. 

First and foremost.  The whole litany of penalties that can be called on a defensive secondary.   If you can't get a DB on pass interference, you can call him for illegal contact.  If that doesn't work call him for holding.  Then it seems at times when at times a tipped ball or the quarterback running would force them to have to pick up the flag, along comes "while the quarterback was in the pocket."  Well how can you call pass interference if no pass was thrown in the first place?  They don't call linemen for being downfield on running plays.  It's splitting hairs but still.

Hitting on a defenseless player.   Define defenseless in terms of playing football.  The guy's wearing pads.  Didn't they have unnecessary roughness before?  I've read the rule book 3 times and still it doesn't make any sense.  I'm in agreement with intentional helmet to helmet hits being a flag. 

Don't touch my quarterback.  You can't him below the knees, you can't hit him above his shoulderpads.  It's at the ref's discretion whether or not you hit him late or whether you hit him too dirty.

There's too much open to interpretation.  Then I see some of this shit like the Cutler play against San Diego and I start to wonder if they're fixing games.

It seems like there's a lot more shit they should catch and don't. 

[Defense54]

They did great today!!