Browns penalties must be hysterical to Ed Hochuli’s crew
I have a tough time explaining why my frustration levels fluctuate so much throughout a Browns season. Some weeks as the Browns lose, it barely registers on the imaginary frustrate-o-meter in my house. I kind of shrug my shoulders, write about the Browns game on Sunday and just move along with my week. Then other weeks I’m dropping the ugliest of linguistic bombs on the WFNY email thread because I’m so beside myself trying to deal with my favorite football team wetting the bed. This week, it felt like they wet the bed after I just removed the water proof mattress liner. This was a two-win football team heading into the game against Dallas. What exactly is it that I expected that would give me this level of frustration? On the WFNY podcast this week, I said flat-out that the Browns could win, but that we were probably talking about a 30% chance of taking it home. Based on those expectations, shouldn’t I have almost been pleasantly surprised that the Browns had leads and forced a superior team into an overtime at home? Logic might dictate that, but this game still frustrated me beyond belief.
Was it the refereeing? I’m sure that had something to do with it. I think the referees got the call right on T.J. Ward’s hit, even though I don’t love the rule. Other than that though, Ed Hochuli’s crew was abysmal. There was a brutal uncalled false start, a pretty questionable pass interference on Buster Skrine when he legitimately located the ball and was working his way back to it just like the receiver. Skrine maybe had earned opposite of the benefit of the doubt by this point in the game after numerous other legitimate penalties, but I still think they got it wrong. On one of the kickoff return holding penalties the ref who threw the flag was laughing while telling Ed Hochuli about it. Might have meant nothing, but as the Browns were trying to not blow a 13-0 halftime lead it rubbed me the wrong way. Then of course is the fumble-ruled-incomplete-pass that would have been a pretty compelling review despite the animated cheering of Dan Dierdorf that it was incomplete. [Read more...]
