Seriously, they need to put down the pipe. Can you tell me what exactly Anwar Stewart was guilty of that got him the facemasking penalty? Honestly, wth was that?? Neither Cuthbert nor Suitor could figure out the infraction.
The Cahoon catch. He catches the ball, maintains possession, takes a few steps, is tackled by a defender, his knee hits the turf, and THEN the ball comes out. That's an incompletion? Smoking crack does not pay. Once the player's knee hits the turf, the play is over. What is this 'surviving contact with the ground' nonsense?
I am not even saying this because the calls went against the Als. I'm saying this because the officiating just seems to be getting worse and worse across the league. It's bush league and it embarrasses everyone when an official calls facemasking on a player tackling the QB BELOW THE WAIST. Unless Anwar Stewart is a mutant with expandable arms, there is no way he could have been guilty of facemasking.
I really dont get the logic behind those calls. The guy who called the facemasking penalty should not be working as an official in the CFL making calls like that. Facemasking is one of the easiest penalties to identify even going at the speed the game does there should be absolutely no excuses for that.
The Cahoon catch I was very surprised was overturned. Plays like these are very frequently challeneged in the NFL and the key thing the announcers go on and on about is whether or not the receiver performed another "football action" after landing and before the ball came loose. A football action constitues something like running, taking a knee, throwing a lateral etc. Cahoon on this play took several steps as seen on the replay then got hit and his knee went down and after that the ball came loose. A completion shouldnt even be in question in this case. Cahoon turned and moved with the ball securely in his hands. A fumble would be a more legitimate argument than an incompletion. I do not understand that call at all but I can forgive it more than that facemasking call
With the Cahoon call, what's really embarrassing is that they overturned the RIGHT CALL on the field, which was that Cahoon caught the pass and was down by contact before the ball came out. So basically they looked long and hard at the play under the hood for a few minutes, and completely messed it up. That's unacceptable.
You could tell Suitor was completely dumbfounded because he said, "We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one." He rarely says things like that unless the call is so egregious that he has to find a diplomatic way of saying that the officials are on crack.
As I mentioned before. It was so obviously a catch that I was sure Toronto challenged the fumble. Even the commentators were analyzing the replay to see if it was a fumble, not an incompletion
Every week, the officials embarrass the league with their shoddy, sloppy, inconsistent work. Higgins has to improve the officiating. If the CFL wants to make significant gains across the country and expand its fan base, it can't have cracked-out officials blowing calls game after game, week after week. Once or twice, fine. But there has been at least one brutal call per game almost every game this year.
IMO the solution to the video review is have a control room where a group of officials can review it together along with the onfield official…This way instead of all the pressure being on the head official there would be a consesus and they hopefully will get more calls right…
Problem I see is the game is just too fast for most officials, they can't keep up with the play. There is no way Jake Ireland can keep up. Half the officials are seniors or overweight. Its embarassing. The guy who kicked out Armour didn't even see the play and he looked like he was living on Beconators... Maybe Wendy's is the culprit
I really wish I could see the evidence they had to overturn that catch they need to have conclusive evidence to overturn the call on the field I would really like to see the correct evidence used to overturn the correct original call
There was no conclusive evidence. That overturned call is just the latest embarrassing proof that the officials in this league don’t know their asses from their elbows. It has nothing to do with the speed of the game or the age/conditioning of the refs. Those clowns got together, looked under the hood for a few MINUTES at the play from every available angle, and made a call that was completely, egregiously wrong. That’s a lack of competence and training and nothing else.
There was absolutely no facemasking on that play with Stewart it was clearly thrown in response to the tackle on Bishop but the tackle was around the waste and legs my only explanation is that the official thinks bishop's face is where his is on this play.
The Cahoon catch was the right call originally. He caught the ball, landed, took 2 steps with the ball securely in his hands, then his knee went down. The play should have ended there he had the ball and was down by contact. After he was down then the ball came loose but by then the play was over. I really cant understand how they managed to overturn the correct call on the field on that one.
Hopefully theres some disciplinary action against at the very least the one that called the facemasking penalty which led directly to an argo touchdown for a tackle on the waist
