The Daily WTF: Ravens Rip Refs

Shortly after the New England Patriots defeated the Baltimore Ravens 27-21 in Foxboro on Sunday, the game was already caked with controversy.

John Harbaugh and some of the Ravens defensive players began taking shots at the referees for a couple of poor roughing the passer calls, which saved New England drives.

The first call came when Haloti Ngata was right in the face of Tom Brady. He released the ball, and a split second later, Ngata’s hands made contact with Brady’s helmet. The yellow flag was quickly followed by raised hands in disgust along Baltimore’s bench.

John Harbaugh even drew a second penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, barking in the ref’s ear like an angered pitbull.

Later on, Terrell Suggs was trying to avoid hitting Brady, and in so doing dove to the ground toward Brady’s legs. After his shoulder pad grazed Brady’s right knee, the All-Pro quarterback pointed to his knee and asked the ref for a flag. The ref obliged and the 15-yard personal foul was called.

Ray Lewis is quoted as saying, “It is embarrassing to the game...Brady is good enough to make his own plays, let him make the play.”

After Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs’ roughing the passer call, former Patriots safety and NBC analyst Rodney Harrison “called out” his former teammate, saying with a grin that he should “take off the skirt and put on some slacks.”

The jabs at the refs went beyond the questionable calls, though.

In reference to a Willis McGahee run on fourth-and-one that was measured short of the first down marker, Ed Reed went as far as to say, “the spots were terrible.”

The Daily WTF goes to...

I can’t hand out just one of these today. There’s just too much “WTF” for one person.

Roger Goodell gets some of the heat here. Troy Polamalu is exactly right in his assessment from a year ago that the NFL is “becoming more and more flag football, two-hand touch,” even going so far as to say that the NFL is becoming like a “pansy game” and that the fines are more about money than player safety.

Ironically, he was fined for those remarks.

Let the guys play. It's hard enough to reach the quarterback, having to constantly wonder whether you have to stop or if you have enough time to reach him without getting flagged makes players hesitant in their pass rush.

While I do agree with these and more comments about how the NFL is becoming soft, rules are rules for a reason. Tom Brady went down in week one last season because someone hit him low.

Obviously, he’s going to be looking for people doing it again. No one can really blame him for that.

The Ravens, however, took the weak way out. Instead of mentioning Mark Clayton’s drop on a fourth-quarter, fourth-down pass which hit him right between the “8” and “9”, they went right to digging into the refs for a couple of bad calls.

Would those bad calls have won or lost the game? No; even Ray Lewis admitted that. Perhaps converting on fourth-and-one earlier on would have helped win the game? Or maybe Mark Clayton making that catch?

The referees get the final WTF. They can’t seem to get it right with these calls. ESPN pointed out a missed call earlier in the same game, where Patriots defensive end Ty Warren took two large steps into a fierce tackle after Joe Flacco had already released the ball.

Brian Cushing laid a vicious blow to JaMarcus Russell’s head, clearly after the throw, which also went unflagged.

On WEEI radio this morning, Tom Brady remarked that those calls go both ways. He mentioned a couple of similar calls earlier on in the season that went against them (probably in reference to the Buffalo game).

There seems to be no measure of consistency with these rules, as with many others. Pass interference calls are too often missed and/or unclear. Some days, players can get away with a lot more than they can other days.

As evidenced this weekend, that can be said for plays, not just days.

WTF, guys?

Sources:

Patriots.com
ESPN.com
WEEI.com