Oakland Raiders: Referees In Mid-Season Form

Being a fan of the Oakland Raiders, I have grown accustomed to the referees making some horrible calls throughout the course of a football game.  When the Raiders take the field they are usually going against two teams.  The opposing football team and the team that wears stripes. 

I can go on and on about bad calls but lets look at last night's game.

The 49ers are in Raiders territory.  It is 4 and short.  The 49ers elect to pass.  They target the best in the game, Nnamdi Asomugha.  On the play Nnamdi takes advantage of the 5 yard chuck rule.  He jams the WR for the full five yards the ball is thrown out of bounds and the refs throw a flag.  They were going to call a PI but since the ball was uncatchable they changed it to a holding call.  WTF? 

Later in the game, again on 4th down the 49ers attempt a pass to Ted Ginn Jr. who is up against rookie Walter McFadden.  The Raiders' CB plays some very good defense on the play yet was called for a P.I.  If you ever heard the term "phantom call" this was a very good example of that. 

We aren't done yet.  On another play Darren McFadden took the handoff from the QB and bursted through a hole towards what appeared to be a lot of room to run.  Too bad a 49er defensive lineman CLEARLY tripped McFadden on purpose, knocking McFadden to the ground.  Where's the flag on this one refs?  Who knows what DMC would have done if he didn't get tripped.  We should have at least got a 15 yard tripping penalty for that one.

Then, late in the 4th the 49ers punched it in for the go ahead TD on 3rd and Goal.  Or did they?  The 49er ball carrier took the handoff and met a wall of defenders just shy of the goal line and went down.  Both side judges came running in shy of the goal line and didn't signal a touchdown until they unpiled everybody.  Yet again, another BS call by the refs.

I almost forgot to mention how many holding calls the 49ers got away with.  No wonder why we didn't register a sack after getting to the QB 12 times in the first two games.

If this was a regular season game I would have lost my mind.

The holding on Nnamdi and the phantom PI on Walt McFadden, both on 4th down, led to 10 points for the 49ers.  Throw in the TD awarded for reaching the 1 inch line (not the goal line) and that is 17 points. 

Like I said, it is just preseason but the referees seem to be in mid-season form against the Oakland Raiders.