I can't bring myself to give Saskatchewan credit for that win. They were the recepient of biased and myopic officiating.
What if Dominguez had deked the Als' back and scored a TD instead of having the ball knocked out of his hands? The refs, no doubt, would have said he was in bounds. The linesman was right there, for gawd's sake, and the replay was far from "conclusive."
Butler gets called for roughing the passer after an Als' interception. Anyone could see that Joseph was in the grasp of at least two defensive players when he still had the ball. There was no late hit. Meanwhile, they showed a replay (more than once) of Shultz coming through and knocking down Calvillo when the latter had clealy thrown the pass. An obvious late hit...no call.
These examples of instances that directly altered the course of the game.
In conclusion, if the ref is going to be anal and decide to a be a critical factor in the outcome of a game, both sides should equally suffer, not just one.
There is only word to describe the referee's performance: DIsgusting!
I agree 100% Danpel the Al's screwed because of good awfull officiating. Is it possible the league is sick of Montreal representing the East in the GC and telling officials to make sure they lose so there beloved Argos will win the GC? I know this opinion is a little far fetched but come on peewee refs can do a beteer job then most cfl refs.
Alas, we must ponder the question first asked by the Bard many centuries ago:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous officiating,or to take arms against a sea of flag-happy, dung-brained CFL referees.
While the officiating was flat-out awful, as an Als fan, I have to say it: if we can't win in a game where we forced SEVEN turnovers, we have no business complaining about the officiating. This offense needs to be blown up and rebuilt in the offseason. Whoever becomes the head coach needs to take a close look at every member of our offense and offensive coaching staff, and that includes Calvillo, Strasser, Bellefeuille, Chiu, and other person we may think is untouchable. Enough already, no excuses. We have only two games left to play this year and our offense, if anything, is in worse shape now than it was when we started the season. Even if we get by Winnipeg -- which is by no means certain -- we are going to get killed by Toronto in the division final with this kind of sloppy, lazy, unmotivated play.
In that last article, George Black says that the 2 reviewed calls against the Als "could have gone either way"... The replay has to be 100% conclusive to overturn a call! By his own admission, the refs overturned 2 calls on non conclusive (50-50) evidence! Either the refs are biased or the CFL does not know how to apply ITS OWN RULES! BUSH league!
Indy, I'm 50% with you, I'm not sure what you were getting at in the first link, but in the second link, the comments about instant replay going either way has me a bit confused too! I thought it had to be conclusive to over turn.