It was a rough finish for Green Bay in overtime. After winning the coin flip, the hopes of Packer Nation were doused rather quickly. First, Aaron Rodgers just missed Greg Jennings on a deep ball that probably would have won the game. Then, on 2nd-and-10, Darren Colledge was called for holding while a helmet-to-helmet hit on Rodgers went uncalled, setting up a 2nd-and-20.
After a 14-yard gain on second down, Rodgers was sacked (and fumbled) on the ensuing play, and Karlos Dansby recovered the ball and trotted into the endzone for the game-winning score. During the sack and fumble, beleaguered cornerback Michael Adams clearly had a hold of Rodgers’ facemask, but once again it went uncalled. (Side note: I give Arizona DC Billy Davis credit — Adams couldn’t cover anyone in the secondary, so you might as well send him on the blitz.)
Matt Snyder of FanHouse’s Zebra Report had this to say about the two blown calls:
I’m pretty surprised there was no call for roughing the passer here. For the past several years, we’ve seen officials — at the urging of the league office — be particularly protective of quarterbacks. This wasn’t a situation where the defender got blocked into Rodgers or where Rodgers initiated the contact himself. It appeared simply to be a blow to the helmet by the helmet of a defender. In other words, clear roughing the passer.
Why did the official not call it? If I had to mount a guess, I’d say he didn’t see it. The referee (the one wearing the white hat who stands behind the offense) is supposed to be watching the passer. Unfortunately, he was in the process of throwing a flag for holding during that same play. I’d wager that he was still getting the number of the offending player (for the hold) and didn’t see the contact on Rodgers. Please don’t misconstrue what I’m saying as a justification or excuse, though. The referee is supposed to be protecting the quarterback on a passing play, so there is no excuse for missing this contact. I’m just trying to surmise how he missed it.
Two plays later, the Packers lost the game on a Rodgers fumble which was returned for a touchdown. On the play in question, it does appear the defender got enough of Rodgers’ facemask to warrant a flag, in my opinion. The problem here is the positioning. If you watch the replay from behind, you can’t tell where the defender’s hands are — and this was the view the referee had. There’s no way he could see it. No one else would be watching the quarterback, as each official is assigned to a certain grouping of players and the referee is the only one watching the passer. There’s also another layer at play, which is that the referee, in this case, had to watch the ball to determine possession once it was loose. This was just a blind spot that is unavoidable when using a seven-man crew of human officials.
Now, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be a penalty. A penalty is a penalty. As I said, it’s hard to fault the referee for missing the facemask. I do believe he made a big mistake by averting his eyes from the quarterback on the first no-call. On the possible facemask, if anything, this further illustrates an opinion I’ve had in the past that more calls should be reviewable. If that was the case, the final play would have been taken to the replay process and they would have called facemask.
Do I believe that the referee intentionally screwed the Packers? No. This is simple incompetence (missing the helmet-to-helmet hit) and bad luck (being out of position for the facemask). It’s just a tough pill to swallow for Packer fans to have the officials decide such a great game.
I’m sure all Cardinals (and Vikings) fans will now point out that there were calls earlier in the game that went Green Bay’s way, but before you spout off, put yourself in Packer Nation’s position. If this were Kurt Warner who suffered a helmet-to-helmet hit and facemask that weren’t called, and the Packers won this way, how would you feel?
The organization and its fans shouldn’t place blame on the refs in this case. The offense got off to a slow start and, outside of a couple of plays (Charles Woodson’s forced fumble and a crucial stop in the fourth quarter), the defense played horribly all day. If Rodgers doesn’t turn the ball over on the first possession or the defense plays a little better, there’s a great chance that Green Bay moves on. The Packers squandered plenty of opportunities to win this game, but still — it’s a shame to have the referee slam the door shut with two no-calls in overtime.
Now it’s time for Packer fans to move on and start rooting hard for whoever plays the Vikings. Minnesota fans seem awfully smug this morning, but they need to know that the whole Favre escapade won’t be worth it if the Vikings don’t make it to the Super Bowl.
Go Cowboys! (Man, it kills me to say that.)
Photo from fOTOGLIF
I’m seriously trying to avoid this line of thinking because it would be easy to get very chippy about it. Funny things happen. You have to overcome them or stay out of those positions. I’m not going to let myself think beyond that.
We were playing on the road against a former league MVP and last year’s NFC champs. We needed our best game and didn’t start playing it even on offense until the second half. That’s not going to get it done.
I still can’t pull for Dallas. Shoot me. Now that we’re done, I want to see the old man win the big show.
I know. I know. It’s truly horrible. But we’re done. I was really hoping for Packers/Vikings in the NFC Championship game.
Now that would have been theatre.
But it’s not going to happen, and I just can’t stay pissed at Favre anymore. The NFL is a better place with Favre in it, but it was time for him to move on from the Packers.
I hated it then, but I know it now. However it happened, it had to happen some way. In hindsight, I don’t think there was any pretty way for him to leave.
We’ve recovered and put a pretty good team together in defiance of the odds, and Favre is playing his heart out in Minnesota. Boiling the emotions out of it – that’s a pretty good result.
Kurt Warners mask was hit, touched, racked several times during the game, he also had a helmet to facemask hit that wasn’t called. It’s football that shit happens all the time. Get over it and eat cheese fatso!!
Interesting Anonymous…there was only one roughing the passer call in the game and that came in the 3rd quarter against the Packers on the TD pass to Fitzgerald. And the last play of the game was much worse than that one. If not roughing the passer, they should have at least gotten a facemask call.
Hey, had the Packer’s defense not been doing their week 16 and 17 Giants imitation and made a stop or two, it wouldn’t have come down to that last play.
They missed quite a few calls, but those 2 affected the outcome of the game. Write to the league office, and let them know your dissatisfied with their lousy officiating!
I am a Viking fann..Look at my name.
I watched the whole game, the packers were cheated. Penalty’s that should have been called weren’t. First of all Jenkins was being holded and the refs missed that, but then they call him for roughing the passer when the defender pushed him into warner. then on the same play Fitzgerald pushed down woodson=offensive pass interference. so that play was a touchdown. it shouldn’t have been if them penalties were called cardinals would’ve nevr gotten the touchdown. in overtime the pack were called holding while at the same time the cards were making a helmet to helmet hit on rodgers. If the helmet to helmet were to be called the penalties would have been off set and the packers fumble never would have happened! Even when the fumble happened Rodgers was face masked all the way to the ground and the refs just happened to miss that one too. GO PACK GO
Miss one, OK, but two, almost back to back?They screwed Green Bay, PERIOD!!! And it’s not only the responsibility of one, there are seven farging officials, c’mon! Mistakes like that, ruined an excellent season and cheapened the Cards victory. I want to see them fined and suspended, just like the NFL does to players.!
Jeremy: The helmet to helmet, overrules the holding. The holding would have been declined and the H to H imposed.
I’m in Wisconsins and there are people wearing Brett Favre Viking jerseys everywhere! There are probable more brett favre fans in Wisconsin than there are Packer fans right now. How stupid could the Packer managment have been to screw Favre over the way they did but then not want him to not play for another team. Fact: they offered him a 20 million dollar franchise deal to never play for another team and just retire and he told them to shove it – what does that tell you about the man’s love of the game and desire to play? Go Vikings!
Mike — Favre screwed the Packers over by retiring and unretiring twice in the same offseason. Where was that “desire to play” when the Packers needed him that summer? At what point do the Packers quit letting this guy hold them hostage with his will he play/won’t he play antics? Then he retires his way to the Vikings just so he can stick it to his old team?
I can sort of understand Packer fans that are rooting for Favre now that GB is out of it, but those Packer fans who are Viking fans now — that I’ll never understand.
@ Mike
You obviously are in a part of Wisconsin that I’ve never seen.
That is pretty pathetic. If you want to support him, wear your Packers Favre jersey. If you don’t have one, you didn’t care enough about him when he was there, so why put money in the Vikings bank account now?
I was in shock by the end of the game. The calls/noncalls were horrendous. That said, I am of the mindset that the officiating, however good or bad, is just a part the game I love. I try to think of the gritty old timers who played years ago, before the hundreds of rules. I’d like to have seen the first time a quarterback tried saying a linebacker was “too rough” on him. Oh! I bet they had a good laugh! Anyway…Go Farve…Power to the Pack. SCREW THE OFF SEASON!!!
I have to say that moving on from Favre is one of the smartest decisions the Packers organization has ever made. Comparing strictly numbers, Rodgers is better. Granted Favre has much more experience and has more of a play making ability because of that, Rodgers will pick that up in the years to come. Rodgers is having just about the best start of a career for a quarterback ever. It was also Rodgers contract year, we committed to Rodgers once Brett Favre retired… The Packers were good people and kept their word, and went with Rodgers. He has definitely shown the organization that they didn’t make a mistake letting Favre go.
Now for the fan issue, I do see a lot of people in SE Wisconsin wearing purple Favre jerseys. I can understand supporting a player, but liking the Vikings because of Favre is just bull in my opinion. And Viking fans eating him up? This is wrong on so many levels, its like a Red Sox fan loving Derek Jeter. You just don’t do it.
This Cards V Pack game was one of the most terribly officiated games in my life. The bad calls went 75/25 in favor of the Cards, which is obviously bullshit. Scott Green is a terrible referee, this is the 3rd plus controversial call he’s been involved with. The NFL seems more and more rigged as time goes on.
Here’s an interesting article:
SportsDay
Favre scores big on TV
The power of BretTV continues unabated in the Milwaukee television market. According to preliminary numbers, the Milwaukee television rating for the Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings game Sunday delivered the highest rating for a non-Packers, non-Super Bowl National Football League playoff game in more than a decade.
And sorry, I should have been more specific– the packer management screwed Favre (or tried to) still a Packer fan and will be even more so when they dump an idiot or two in the front office. Following him to a team where he has a decent line and more than one receiver to throw to is great.