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Ed Hochuli


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i know this call is being discussed in the other threads...but i gotta say he's getting a bad rap. it was a terrible call and he was man enough to admit it. we've all seen terrible calls before, just as bad as this was. and i've seen some refs make bad calls over-and-over. but i always felt a measure of comfort when Hochuli was reffing a big game. he's been very good for many years and i don't think his career should be judged on one bad call. (even if it was a game losing mistake)... :wacko:

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NEW YORK (AP) -Ed Hochuli's acknowledgement that he erred on a call late in Sunday's San Diego-Denver game will mean lower grades for one of the NFL's highest profile referees.

 

``Officials are held accountable for their calls. They are graded on every play of every game,'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Monday. ``Ed has been an outstanding official for many years, but he will be marked down for this call. Under our evaluation system, an official's grades impact his status for potentially working the playoffs and ultimately whether or not he is retained.''

 

The play occurred with the Broncos at the Chargers 1-yard-line in the final minute. Denver quarterback Jay Cutler dropped back to pass, the ball slipped out of his hands, bounced off the grass and into the arms of San Diego linebacker Tim Dobbins.

 

Hochuli ruled it an incomplete pass. Replay ruled it a fumble, but it was spotted at the 10-yard line, where the ball hit the ground, and given to Denver because the rules did not permit possession to be awarded to San Diego because the whistle had blown.

 

Denver went on to score, convert a 2-point conversion and win 39-38.

 

The play also is likely to be reviewed in the offseason by the league's competition committee, which normally reviews all controversial plays.

 

For example, until March 2007, down by contact plays were not reviewable. That rule was changed so that they were reviewable, and if a fumble occurred even after the whistle blew, the team recovering it got possession

 

San Diego coach Norv Turner said he spoke with NFL officials Monday and that the Chargers sent in video of the plays in question.

 

``As for things that occurred during the game, in my mind, they're done,'' Turner said. ``We sent the plays in to the league that we had in question. We expect to get a response back. Anything that we talk about or anything that is discussed in terms of any of the rules or any of the calls isn't going to change the outcome of that game. That game is going to be 39-38, forever.'

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Posted: 29 minutes ago

League will look into changing inadvertent whistle rule

Associated Press

 

NEW YORK -- The NFL will look into the inadvertent whistle rule that required officials to give the ball back to Denver in the final seconds of Sunday's game with San Diego.

 

 

Jack Dempsey / Associated Press

Jay Cutler's fumble in the fourth quarter was initially called an incomplete pass by referee Ed Hochuli.

League spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL competition committee will look into the rule in the offseason, perhaps changing it as it did the "down by contact" rule.

 

The play occurred with the Broncos at the Chargers 1-yard-line in the final minute. Denver quarterback Jay Cutler dropped back to pass, the ball slipped out of his hands, bounced off the grass and into the arms of San Diego linebacker Tim Dobbins.

 

Referee Ed Hochuli ruled it an incomplete pass. Replay ruled it a fumble, but it was spotted at the 10-yard line, where the ball hit the ground, and given to Denver because the rules did not permit possession to be awarded to San Diego because the whistle had blown.

 

Denver went on to score, convert a 2-point conversion and win 39-38.

 

Until March 2007, down by contact plays were not reviewable. That rule was changed so that they were reviewable, and if a fumble occurred even after the whistle blew, the team recovering it got possession.

 

"Officials are held accountable for their calls. They are graded on every play of every game," Aiello said Monday. "Ed has been an outstanding official for many years, but he will be marked down for this call. Under our evaluation system, an official's grades impact his status for potentially working the playoffs and ultimately whether or not he is retrained."

 

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

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Posted: 29 minutes ago

League will look into changing inadvertent whistle rule

Associated Press

 

NEW YORK -- The NFL will look into the inadvertent whistle rule that required officials to give the ball back to Denver in the final seconds of Sunday's game with San Diego.

 

 

Jack Dempsey / Associated Press

Jay Cutler's fumble in the fourth quarter was initially called an incomplete pass by referee Ed Hochuli.

League spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL competition committee will look into the rule in the offseason, perhaps changing it as it did the "down by contact" rule.

 

The play occurred with the Broncos at the Chargers 1-yard-line in the final minute. Denver quarterback Jay Cutler dropped back to pass, the ball slipped out of his hands, bounced off the grass and into the arms of San Diego linebacker Tim Dobbins.

 

Referee Ed Hochuli ruled it an incomplete pass. Replay ruled it a fumble, but it was spotted at the 10-yard line, where the ball hit the ground, and given to Denver because the rules did not permit possession to be awarded to San Diego because the whistle had blown.

 

Denver went on to score, convert a 2-point conversion and win 39-38.

 

Until March 2007, down by contact plays were not reviewable. That rule was changed so that they were reviewable, and if a fumble occurred even after the whistle blew, the team recovering it got possession.

 

"Officials are held accountable for their calls. They are graded on every play of every game," Aiello said Monday. "Ed has been an outstanding official for many years, but he will be marked down for this call. Under our evaluation system, an official's grades impact his status for potentially working the playoffs and ultimately whether or not he is retrained."

 

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

 

I'm not sure what they could possibly do about an inadvertant whistle rule change. I mean, once you blow the whistle, the play is dead. If you blow it and a couple of guys stop running and another guy that didn't hear the whistle goes and jumps on the ball, you can't then go review the play, determine it was a fumble and award possession to the other team when half the players stopped playing before the fumble was recovered. What they need to do is coach the officials to stop blowing the whistle when a ball is loose on the ground, I know in a lot of cases they are trying to protect the players by blowing the play dead, but when there is any doubt, they HAVE to let it play out, you better be SURE its an incomplete pass if you are gonna blow it dead. I agree that Ed Hochuli is the best official out there, and from his view I am sure that it looked like an incomplete pass, but for crying out loud when a guy throws a ball and it lands behind him, you might want to wait until someone jumps on it before blowing the whistle.

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swallow the whistle...seriously what would 3 seconds have done...and on another note...when they look at replay can they HEAR audio too? In this case I am sure he knows when he blew the whistle but if there is no audio and it was another ref then what?...but seriously with the advent of replay just swallow the whistle for a few seconds

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It wasn't as blatant a mistake as botching a play review or anything like that. He thought it was an incomplete pass from where he was standing and blew the whistle - which is done to stop the play and keep players from getting hurt on a play that doesn't matter. The real flaw is in the rule.

 

Hochuli admits he made a bad decision. It happens. We're human. SD still had the opportunity to stop Denver. And then another opportunity when they ran the exact same play for 2.

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I used to be a big fan of Hochuli. Then he refed a Bills Chargers game a couple years ago, I was at. Several odd calls, that I thought were wrong. I was later vindicated when his crew received ZERO playoff games. They graded out so poorly they didn't rate a postseason game.

 

He's cool because he has hugh arms and explains calls in a clear way. But his crew and I believe him are not in the top 5 crews maybe top 10.

 

Mike Carey is the best guy going. Maybe Hocsies crew rebounds, but I will be surprised if they make the postseason this year. If he was dorking looking we'd all be quick to slam him. Like Phil Luckett or Lockett, that dweeb.

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lol Phil Luckett yeah the NFL bounced that dweeb from referee to Back Judge. Now he blows calls from centerfield... As for the Playoffs its a tough call between selecting "All-Star crew's" as they had in the past or selecting the best crews as a whole. Imagine being a good official on a bad crew, you will never get a playoff game and from what I understand If you don't get a playoff game for 3 consecutive years you can be terminated

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swallow the whistle...seriously what would 3 seconds have done...and on another note...when they look at replay can they HEAR audio too? In this case I am sure he knows when he blew the whistle but if there is no audio and it was another ref then what?...but seriously with the advent of replay just swallow the whistle for a few seconds

 

The league has very much focused the refs attention on keeping the QBs safe. I would think that this affects the ref's decisions of when to blow the whistle surrounding the instances when the play should be blown dead around the QB. 3 seconds could mean Cutler's block getting knocked off.

 

Maybe not in that exact case, but project it out and it's easy to see why the whistle was blown. It was a mistake for sure, but an understandable one when you see the play at full speed and consider Hochuli's angle of view. When a ref "swallows he whistle" at a time when he should have blown it and a QB gets knocked out for the season the wolves will howl loudly then as well.

 

I am not sure that the league is going to advocate players fighting for possesion of the ball after the whistle blows either. I guess we will see, but that seems to be a change in direction from their mantra over recent years.

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Not sure I understand all this "swallow the whistle" talk - didn't Hochuli think the play was an incomplete pass (albeit incorrectly)? What does a ref do when an incomplete pass hits the ground and fools are still running around, liable to hurt each other? He blows the whistle - that's what he's supposed to do. It sucks that Hochuli blew the whistle in this case (I actually lost my game in one league as a direct result of Royal getting those extra points), but he really only did what he was supposed to do in the situation. Of course, the fact that he thought it was an incomplete pass is another issue . . .

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Thats pretty much where Hochuli went wrong. From whatever sort of angle he may have had he should have allowed the play to continue and then let the replay decide whether his hand was moving forward or not. That was the first thing he said "It should have been ruled a fumble on the field" but because he did blow the play dead he was therefore bound by a rule which then prevented him from getting the call right. In those instances regardless of whether it is a quarterback or not involved in the play you have to allow a "play on". He knew it, he blew it now you just have to learn form it and move on

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Hochuli admits he made a bad decision. It happens. We're human. SD still had the opportunity to stop Denver. And then another opportunity when they ran the exact same play for 2.

 

Consider it from the point of view that the game was essentially over when Cutler fumbled. i sure thought it was. i celebrated, relaxed....and THEN! oh, sorry. DENVER BALL.

i agree that it was a mistake and it happens. but this is the NFL. you expect a very high standard. not missed calls at crunch time.....or video equipment malfunction when you challenge a play. OMG, its the NFL! get it together.

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I know the feeling of getting jobbed by the refs. I'm an OU fan and I don't think there will ever be a call as bad as the one in Oregon a couple years ago.

 

Edited to add the picture. How in the he!! did Oregon get awarded this ball? Our player has the ball holding it in the air when the ref is still in the pile looking for it.

 

OnsideKick.jpg

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i186/vt7.../OnsideKick.jpg

Edited by vt700guy
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