Black's Beauties

Wow. What a terrific first half of football on Saturday. Real shame that, once again, the officiating played such a big part in deciding the outcome in the second half. All fans should be scared of Black's beauties and when they might roll into town to call another pille of crap like they did Saturday.

Case in point.

  1. Missed interference calls on both teams.
  2. Missed holding calls, primarily against Montreal
  3. Missed offensive off-side calls, again, primarily against Montreal (their recievers were one or two yards over the line of scrimage before the ball was snapped all afternon)

The piece de resistance, however, came in the third Quarter with the absolute bogus chop-block call against Ottawa. Even the CBC commentators called the call an Äffront" against all fans in the league... the proper word is BS. Evidently, Mr. Black has charged his officials with calling at least one penalty to coincide with the weekly garbage he posts on the CFL website.

Video replay cannot fix poorly trained officials. Be afraid. Be very very afraid of officiating like we saw on Saturday.

Give it a rest will ya

The officiating is what it is. For the most part they get the call right. I never use the officiating as an excuse, bad calls go against both teams and good teams overcome them.
As for that game. Ottawa was given a TD and about 80 yards of real estate on back to back bogus pass interference calls and I'm not going to whine (even if they lost).
And in my opinion it was a chop block, and I don't care what Walby said, I can't believe that guy still has a job.

I agree that the interfernce calls were bogus .. As I said, the officiating was attrocious on both sides of the ball... It's a reall shame that what loolked like a realy promissing game had to suffer such bogus officiating.

As for giving it a rest, unless fans stand up and say something, we'll all continue to suffer with that kind of BS. ...

Was the chop block thing well called??, I'd tend to go with the opinion of someone whose actually played the game .. I also find it interesting that I'd never heard of that being called once either this year or last until the game on Saturday. ... what a coincidence that it coincides with Mr. Black's blabber on the CFL site ..

The Montreal player was trying to deal with the player directly opposite him when the Ottawa player dove at his knees from the side, while the other Ottawa player was pushing him straight on.

But you're right, the officiating must improve and instant replay is a MUST next year!

I would LOVE to see IR brought in.

Want to make a game boring!!!!!!!!!!! (Long delays- idle time waiting seemingly forever!!!!!!)Bring in instant reply. Besides, who would people have to get mad at if instant reply was brought in???? Half the fun is taking your frustration out on lousy officiating!!!!

CFL Rules

hahaha.. maybe in Riderland. The rest of us really are mad when we complain about the refs and really do want it fixed.

I don't think IR would slow the game down at all. it certainly doesnt in any other league. What's needed is a system that says each team can have two or three "freebies each "game. After that, they can still call for IR, but if the initial call is upheld then it would cost them X number of yards for delay of game.

They also need to look at what gets called. They ruined the Saturday game by not letting the teams play. Calling marginal things and letting the bigger ones go. Holding, for example, is pretty difficult to see and call at the best of times. yet it seemed every other play from scrimmage during the second half was a hold. Talk about slowing the game down. Call it if it's blatant, but show some discretion if not.

It's true that the refs are human and prone to mistakes. Admitting that doesnt excuse sloppy performance. If I blow lots of calls at work, I either get fired or demoted. Why doesnt that happen for the officials. The same bad ones are officiating today as at the start of the season. When was the last time we heard of a ref being dismissed for incompetence? :shock:

Is this all whining? You bet. But again, if we as fans don't say something, well be stuck with the same old BS for years to come. We've suffered for years. Now its time for things to change. :x

That game was horrible as far as reffing went. Poor Ottawa had more than its faire share of bad calls against. Joe Paopao must have been thinking "Can you believe THIS will cost me my job?".

What about the No yards call when absolutely no one was around Clinton Jones ? The chop block was another terrible call.

And on the Als' first drive, Sylvain Girard was completely interfered with but no call was made.

On an almost related note, for the very first time of the year, Montreal wasn't the most penalized team on the field. Not having Mike Word in the roster helped a lot.

In this league, when you are a winning team, you get the calls. A losing team, you dont get the calls. Its been this way in the CFL since I've been watching, which is a LONG time (30+years).

Edmonton rarely, if ever, has a bad call cost them for any reason. Ditto Montreal. Ottawa - its a weekly occurance. And thats just the way it is.

Seriously, have you ever watched a Renegade game and said 'wow, the ref really blew that one, what a break for Ottawa'. Never!

SR2121, I don't know who you cheer for, but I assue you don't like the Esks nor Als. Otherwise, you would also notice the bad calls against these teams.

The Refs are quite fair in their incompetence. The bad calls are shared quite equally against all nine teams.

As a matter a fact, it's usually Montreal or Edmontion leading the league in penalties against!

That's only because they try to cheat the most.

Not necessarily Calgary4Life, because good cheaters are cheaters who knows how not to get caught. It's no surprise to anyone that Ed Philion is our dirty guy in Montreal. But how often do you hear his number called by the refs? About four or five times a year. That guys knows when to take his cheap shots and when to refrain from being a bad puppy. Not to mention, he's never offside, which is appreciable.

Third and Ten - I'm actually a Renegades (ex RR's) fan. Its very, very possible I am just delusional after 25 years of losing. Very possible.

It is funny though - the Renegades/Argos game last month; after that fumble fiasco......when the Renegades ran it back for what looked like a touchdown, I said to myself 'finally, finally, Ottawa gets a questionable call go our way'. And then 30 seconds later, you hear Cuthbert say "now, wait a minute...the referees are huddling." ...I knew it was too good to be true...

Actually, I think the refs in this league automatically look for more penalties from the 500 and under teams. The approach is these teams will do almost anythiing to win. That's why the Renegades have struggled, it's also why teams like Saskatchewan and Calgary that are barley above that mark may never break out of the vicious cycle.

Whatever training there is doesn't seem to have much bearing on actual game experience or perfornance. I hate to use the word "quota"but I do think the refs set out to look for things for certain teams.

Does this come from George Black?? I'm not sure what Mr. Black's credentials are, but boy have there been some great officials in the past associated with this league who don't seem to have been considered for the position of head of officiating.

They would go a long way to restoring creditbility in this league and for the officals if this league would look at a few such individuals. What are Mr. Black's credentials and who are his cronies? Those are the questions we need to ask.

I tthink there's a lot to what SR2121 says. The big question is, why should you have to have winning record to get competent officiating in this league??

Would IR fix this problem?? It seems to be critically needed, but the malice likely goes much deeper. I still think this league needs to look at all aspects of how this game is officated and put some real effort into making sure we get competent officiating. Without that, the credibility of this league will wither away.

If you have to have a winning record to get the calls in your favor, why are three most penalized teams in yards against Edmonton, Montreal, and Toronto. Kinda shoots some holes in your theory doesn't it?