Doug’s Weekend Observations – Sept. 9

Here’s everything I saw over the weekend from Arizona (Cardinals and Wildcats) to Washington State. I watched three Diamondbacks games, 10 college football games and 15 NFL games.

1) I love the extra ref on the field for Big 12 games. He wears the letter “A.” As far as I could see, his job is not to officiate, but to help the umpire spot the ball. With so many offenses running the hurry-up, he helps the refs hurry up.

2) Why did West Virginia even bother showing up for its game with Oklahoma? I realize they have a new QB, but if the head coach does that poor of a job getting the team ready, just call ahead and cancel.

3) We now know where beginning football broadcasters and production crew members go to get their feet wet. U of A fans had to suffer through a horrible TV broadcast from the CBS Sports Network in their game at UNLV. I’m sure their defense made it easier to watch.

4) Mack Brown and Lane Kiffin will battle all year for the title of “Most Overrated Head Coach.”

5) The Titans start their season with the third-dumbest play I’ve ever seen in football as Darius Reynaud took the opening kickoff at the 1-yard line and stepped in the end zone for a safety three seconds into the season.

6) The fourth-dumbest play I’ve ever seen was in the same game. David DeCastro went low to block a DT engaged with his center Mike Pouncey. If he would have hit the defender, it would have been an illegal chop block. Instead, DeCastro missed his target by two feet and hit Pouncey’s knee, ending his season.

7) At the end of the half of Pittsburgh-Tennessee game, Ben Roethlisberger was sacked with 41 seconds remaining. Right after his knee hit, he threw a forward pass that was caught by LaRod Stephens-Howling for a 5-yard gain and the clock continued to run until the :11 mark. The head referee blew the call giving the Steelers five yards but the booth requested a review. After review, the ref changed the call to the correct one of a Roethlisberger sack, but failed to check the clock. When play resumed, the referee kept the 11 seconds on the clock instead of the :41 and the Steelers ran out the clock. The referee’s name is Jerome Boger.

8) Lavonte David’s push on Geno Smith was one of the dumbest plays of the weekend but not of all time.

9) The Bengals called a timeout on defense and put 12 men on the field.

10) I thought I’d never see quarterback play worse than Washington State at USC, then I watched Tampa Bay at the Jets.

11) The main goal of the Cardinals this year is to improve to the point that they never see Dick Stockton.

12) I knew Bill Levy got the call wrong in the San Francisco-Green Bay game so, that’s embarrassing for the league that a talk show host knows when the refs are wrong and seven officials don’t. However, I get no credit because my “ruling” was even dumber.

13) Teaching lessons to rookies is important. Losing a huge NFC game in order to teach a lesson isn’t worth the lesson. Mike McCarthy was wrong to use Eddie Lacy so little after the bad fumble.

14) The success of each Harbaugh as a coach will never get enough credit. Jim makes a huge stink about Kaepernick and the read-option yet never runs it. Brilliant.

15) Ndamukong Suh is not worth his amazing talent. He’ll never get it.

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