Officially, referees had trouble in Cardinals vs. Panthers game

TEMPE, Ariz. — It did not really come as much a surprise, nor did the news do much to make things better.

The Carson Palmer fumble that was returned by Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis for a first quarter touchdown was not, in fact, a fumble. It was an incomplete pass, and though that was obvious to anyone who was watching the game on TV, the official in charge of instant replay could not tell.

“There was a network feed problem to the coach’s booth; they did not have the proper feed for instant replay, so they shut it down — this is my explanation — they shut it down to fix it and that’s when the play occurred,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said Monday afternoon. “So there was no instant replay feed. It was confirmed a forward pass, an obvious forward pass, but no one had an instant replay feed to look at it.

“So, the replay official upstairs went with his naked eye, so he went with the call on the field because there was no video to watch at that point in time.”

That makes sense, for the most part, but it is a tough pill to swallow for a team that went in needing a win and was almost immediately in a 7-0 hole because of a technical glitch that benefited the home team.

As for how the league’s explanation made him feel, Arians answered, “What do you think?”

Fair enough.

The coach said the officials admitted at halftime of the game, once they had a chance to see a replay, that the call should have been overturned. It was of course little consolation for Arians, whose team lost the game 30-20 and fell to 3-4-1 on the season.

The disastrous play was not the only call that went against the Cardinals, as in the second quarter, facing a 3rd-and-11 at the Arizona 16, Panthers QB Cam Newton connected with tight end Greg Olsen for what was ruled an 11-yard grab. However, replays showed he did not get both feet in bounds and therefore, had Arians thrown his challenge flag, the pass would have been deemed incomplete.

Yet, he never challenged, and instead of settling for a field goal attempt, three plays later the Panthers scored a touchdown to go up 21-0.

As Arians explained Monday, the coaches who are responsible for letting him know if he should challenge saw a very quick replay during the window with which they had to alert him, and only after the next play was run did they get a slower look at it.

“So there was no chance to challenge that play for the coaching staff, and the guys upstairs did their job,” Arians said.

Unfortunately, there were some pretty obvious occurrences of the officials failing to do theirs. The crew that consisted of head ref Walt Coleman, line judge Kevin Codey, back judge Terrence Miles, umpire Carl Paganelli, side judge Alan Eck, head linesman Derick Bowers, field judge Terry Brown and replay official Louis Nazzaro made some pretty obvious errors, and not all of them worked against the Cardinals.

On one third quarter play, Newton threw a pass from the pocket and was immediately taken down by Cardinals defensive lineman Calais Campbell, who hit the QB below his knees. Newton appeared to be in some pain after the play, and had words for the officials, who did not throw a penalty flag.

In the part of the rule book that discusses protecting the passer, the NFL says:

No defensive player who has an unrestricted path to the quarterback may hit him flagrantly in the area of the knee(s) or below when approaching in any direction.

After the game, Newton did not hold back in his critique of the officials, saying the way he is being treated with regards to being hit has taken the fun out of the game for him.

“I mean I showed a lot of frustration today and I apologized to the referee who I was talking to but I don’t think there is a person that can go through what I go through and still keep their head,” he said.

Arians said Monday he does not think Newton has a case for not being protected well enough, though he admitted Campbell hit Newton low on the play.

“Whether he was blocked into him or not, that’s up to the officials to decide,” he said.

Those were the two must high-profile mistakes, though they were not the extent of questionable officiating. In one fourth quarter stretch the Cardinals, after reaching the Carolina 46, were flagged for three penalties in four plays, with a fourth flag being thrown because Palmer voiced his displeasure to an official.

The result was the Cardinals, who were once in Carolina territory and driving, were facing a 2nd-and-44 from their own 20.

“All I said was, ‘Are you freaking kidding me, that’s three flags in a row,'” Palmer said Sunday. “Then he took his hat off and threw another one. I have to keep my composure there. I have said a lot worse to refs without getting flagged. I let the frustrations of some of the penalties that they were calling affect me and I lost my cool and I can’t do that.”

Rarely one to show too much emotion either way, Arians said it must have been a case of “enough is enough” for his quarterback.

In all, the Cardinals were flagged 10 times for 88 yards in the game, while the Panthers earned five penalties for 40 yards. To blame the referees for their loss would be wrong, though just as coaches and players are expected to be sharp, the same can be said of them. Nobody is perfect and mistakes will happen, though some of the missed calls seem to be rather egregious.

Also, the Cardinals and Newton are not the only ones to have voiced some frustration this weekend. The Seattle Seahawks, who lost to the New Orleans Saints, were not particularly happy with some calls, and Washington’s Josh Norman was not bashful in his assessment following his team’s tie with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Asked what he attributes the league-wide frustration with officiating to, Arians chuckled.

“Are you trying to get me fined,” he asked, with a smile. “I think it’s something that has to be addressed. Now that I’ve been on a couple competition committee meeting calls so far, and it’s always a topic that they’re very concerned with.

“We’re all very concerned with it.”

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