9. “Double time”

Who loves two minutes warnings? These refs! In week 2, the refs got so excited about the two minute warning in the Eagles/Ravens game that they called for it with 2:05 left. The broadcast cut to commercial, only to come back, have one play run and then have the real two minute warning.

8.  “Hats off to you”

In the NFL, if a player runs out of bounds and then back into the field of play, a member of the officiating crew takes off his hat and throws it to signify that the player cannot be the first to touch the ball. In replacement ref NFL, when a player does not run out of bounds, a replacement ref should throw a hat at the feet of the player, tripping him and then point and laugh. Which is what happened in week three to Cowboy’s Kevin Ogletree.

7. “I’m not reviewing that”

In week three, Joshua Cribbs fumbled the ball, but the refs ruled he was down by contact. Buffalo challenged the play. But the refs told Buffalo that it wasn’t reviewable. While recovery of a loose ball is not reviewable, down by contact is.

6. “Sure we’ll review that”

In week two, Steven Jackson fumbled and the Rams challenged the play. After reviewing the fumble, St. Louis was awarded the ball back, kicked a field goal and ended up winning the game by a margin of three. But if you read the point above, recovery of a loose ball on the field of play is not reviewable. What should have happened? The Rams should have been penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, as the Packers were in preseason when McCarthy tried to challenge a play that was already being reviewed.

5. “I stopped the world and gave a timeout for you”

In week one, Seattle got to take an extra timeout with 30 seconds left in the game. The refs conferenced, and decided that the “extra” timeout wasn’t really extra, since when Seattle actually used its final time out there was an injury and an incompletion so the clock would have stopped anyways.

4. “Can’t stop, won’t stop”

In the week two game between Cincinnati and Cleveland, 29 seconds ran off the clock after Bengals QB, Andy Dalton threw an incomplete pass.

3. “Just giving time away”

In week three, the refs were in a very giving mood to the 49ers. Despite not having any timeouts remaining, the refs allowed San Francisco to challenge a call. They even decided to give them an extra timeout. (not sure where all this extra timeout stuff came from, but I’d like some). Since they now had an extra one, San Fran was then able to challenge another call later in the game.

2. “Mark it off”

The refs don’t only give out timeouts, but they also hand out free yards. In week three the replacement refs called a helmet-to-helmet penalty against Detroit on a Titans incomplete pass. Normally, this would cause the ball to be moved 15 yards from the line of scrimmage, but not with these refs. They decided that marking the yards off from the spot of the foul would be more fun, and gave the Titans 12 extra yards. This all happened in overtime, so the Lions were unable to challenge. The Titans went on to kick the game winning field goal on that drive.

1. “Touception”

Enough said.

There’s so many fun things that these refs have done. Warm memories that will fill our hearts for years to come. Even if they do sign a new deal today, I can’t imagine the regular refs will be back by tomorrow. So maybe if we’re really really lucky, we can add more to this list!

Here is the much anticipated week two podcast. Enjoy.

[podcast]http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/26190/9.18.08.final.mp3[/podcast]

Problems? Click here.

Enjoy, and put him on your daily list of Packer reading.

By: The Vegas

Did that win feel good or what? Sure, it wasn’t all pretty and perfect, but it means 1-0 and a victory over the Vikings. In the end, that’s what matters right now.

You know what else makes me happy? Jared Allen having one of the least productive games of his life, according to #69 himself. He forced two holding calls on Clifton, but I’ll take that over Rodgers being planted in the ground on an Allen sack. Besides one pass defensed, he didn’t record a single tackle or sack. Oh, and Rodgers wasn’t sacked at all, rarely pressured, and when he was forced out of the pocket, he made plays with his feet.

Remember when I asked for good pass protection before the game? Wish granted.

The good: Aaron Rodgers, of course. Efficient and accurate would be the best term to describe his performance. 81% completion percentage. Butter. He only threw for 178 yards, but then again, only passed 22 times and that number would have been higher if it wasn’t for the Moll penalty on the 68 yard touch to DD. But hey, who am I to complain about stats? He accounted for 2 of our touchdowns, had no turnovers, and was great at running the offense. That’s fine by me.

The bad: Penalties. Granted, it was the first game of the year and I guess teams are prone to being a bit sloppy and committing more penalties than usual, but 12 of them for 118 yards? Boy, was that frustrating. During a point in the first quarter, I was happy for them to run a play without seeing the little yellow “flag” symbol pop up on the bottom line score. They got away with it this game, but if they keep that number in double digits throughout games, they won’t always get away with it.

The ugly: Atari Bigby. Atari, I love you man. I even named my fantasy football team after you, bra. But seriously, why did you insist on running around with the ball after your interception that put the game away? GO OUT OF BOUNDS. Fall on your ass. Curl up in the fetal position and never let go of the pigskin. I don’t care what you do, just don’t run around like that in a game when you run the risk of fumbling the ball and giving Minnesota a chance, again. So maybe, this is me just knitpicking, since nothing came of it, but it could have been ugly if he gave the ball away there.

Some other quick thoughts from the game:

QB sneak for a touchdown? Name the last time you saw that in Green Bay. By the way, I loved the classic spiking the ball celebration out of Rodgers afterwards. The spike will always be my favorite touchdown celebration. I loved when Bubba used to do it, southpaw style.
Remember all the praise Brandon Jackson got in the off season? 7 carries, 12 yards, one fumble that could have turned ugly. Yes, I know it’s only one game but he didn’t look good. And why did McCarthy have him taking the carries at the end of the game, when we needed a first to put the game away?

Where’s Grant?

Speaking of McCarthy, I had to question some of his calls throughout the game. Even before Crosby’s kick got blocked at the end of the first half, I thought MM made the wrong call. 30 seconds was on the clock and they had good field position plus one more timeout. Why not take some chances in the endzone there? Rodgers was on fire throughout that whole posssession.

And I still won’t understand some of his calls on third down. Maybe it’s because I’m not a coach or because I want to see the offense pick up a first down, but why run a designed 7 yard quick out pass to Jennings when it’s 3rd and 15?

Even though on the stat sheet we only had one sack, I thought the d-line did an excellent job with rushing the quarterback. Jackson seemed to get rid of the ball just in time on numerous occasions and he got knocked around pretty good by the d-line. KGB and Kampman both looked explosive. So did Montgomery on a few plays.

Peterson rushed for over 100 yards, but besides his one long run that only led to a FG, they kept control of him pretty well. No big runs that really changed the game, which the Vikings can really use in their favor.

No matter all the penalties and other things that weren’t perfect, a win is a win, my friends. And against a team like the Minnesota Vikings, that feels great after Week 1.