Officials

[OriginalOutlaw]

OK, I gotta ask. Does anyone get a fair shake with the officials when playing at Sioux Falls? A good game was demolished by the zebras when Billings outplayed the Storm in Sioux Falls. 9 questionable penalties against Billings and only ONE against Sioux Falls? Please...

[BananaCat]

I think it's harsh to blame a loss on officials, unless it comes down to the final play in a close contest and that final call was a terrible call on a game deciding play. You can pretty much call poor officiating at any game, but the great teams overcome. I know that's no solace, but to blame officials is mostly a cop out. If your team had played better, they would've overcome. Even the NFL has its problem with officials, probably the most glaring being the Superbowl of a few years ago between Pittsburgh and Seattle. Seattle had a ton of bad calls go against them, but you can't blame that for the loss. Sometimes you have to overcome the penalties, just or unjust. Great teams find a way to win no matter what, and I've seen the really great teams do just that many times.

[OriginalOutlaw]

Apparently you didn't watch the game. I asked a simple question because other fans have asked the same. The Outlaws outplayed the Storm on their home field, and were not rewarded for their efforts. It's not a cop-out, it's an observation. The numbers back it up.

[exit322]

No, they really don't. 17/23 (74%) passing for Terrance Bryant suggests that Billings should've done a bit better against the pass.

Winners overcome the elements. Losers make excuses. That's just how it is.

[OriginalOutlaw]

9 penalties to 1 were the key numbers. And I think it was actually worse than that. Home field advantage indeed.

[cRUSHer]

OK, I gotta ask. Does anyone get a fair shake with the officials when playing at Sioux Falls? A good game was demolished by the zebras when Billings outplayed the Storm in Sioux Falls. 9 questionable penalties against Billings and only ONE against Sioux Falls? Please...

well ... let's see.

At the BEEF @ Bloomington game(same night),
on the opening kickoff, RJ Rollins(OMA) got pearl
harbored from behind by a Bloomington player
at the Bloomington 10 yard line, in direct view
of not one, but two UiF officials.

It was SO blatant infact, that the BEEF special teams
let up for a millisecond obviously expecting the flag,
but instead the return went deep into BEEF territory
as RJ looked around in amazement at the two officials
who obviously blew it.

The result was a short TD drive for B-ton.

Later, the BEEF were called for a phantom
pass intereference on a well overthrown ball.
The kind you'd need 8' arms to haul in.

So the BEEF took the game out of the officials
hands by keeping the ball in there own.

[old player]

I was at the game and I really didnt think the officiating was that bad. Of the nine penalties that Billings got 4 of them were encroachment on the defense and 2 were because the linebacker was inside the five yard box when he was not supposed to be. You can say all you want about the officiating but if Billings was more disciplined that would not have happened.

I would maybe question the two holding calls but you could call those anytime you want.

In my mind just stop complaining because I have played enough times in Billings to know that it is just as bad or worse up there and if you try and deny it then you are always going to have the next excuse for losing like you always seem to.

[OutlawFan#5]

We have a stat that the Storm are leading offensively ........... ready.....
first downs by penalties. If you know of any other offensive stats as a team they are leading...please let us know.

[old player]

hahahahaha. Great comeback. Is that the best that you can do?? Honestly, that means nothing. They have only played three home games and four on the road. hahahaha. I hope you come up with something a little better than that with your reply to this post.

[Mandingo63]

Funny you talk about the officials in Sioux Falls. They usually rotate the officials every home game, from the crew's that also do the Sioux City and Omaha games. I am pretty sure everytime you go to Billings it is the same crew for every game.

[Boromir2300]

As far as I can tell from the 6-7 UIF games I watched the Rage play in this year, the officiating was OK. There was one bad call in their home game against Sioux City, where the Rage wide receiver caught the ball, was stopped by the defenders and knocked down-the play should have been whistled dead but the ball came out and it was called a turnover-that was a really bad call. However, the Rage won that game and to my knowledge, they did not lose any games because of officials.

To address the one poster's comments-the Seahawks did NOT lose the Super Bowl due to 'bad calls' by the officials! I will agree that the Seahawks made errors at really bad times, such as when they had a valid holding penalty on a pass play that would have put them near the goal line. Or the valid offensive pass interference call on the Seahawks receiver that negated a Seahawks touchdown-he was right in front of the official! A Seahawks wide receiver made a nice catch deep in Steeler's territory in the first half, but he had one foot out of bounds when he caught it. Then Holmgren and Hasselbeck mismanaged the clock at the end of the first half and failed to score.

The Seahawks had no less that five opportunities to score, including getting two interceptions, and failed to execute their offense each time. Then they got bamboozled by the gadget play pass from Randle El to Hines Ward-anyone who has watched the Steelers knows they run gadget plays, and at that time, Randle El and Hines Ward were usually the guys involved in gadget plays-the Seahawks defense inexplicably turned into spectators as Ward walked into the end zone and the Steelers deservingly got the Lombardi trophy. Even the league's head of officiating stated that of the five calls that Holmgren whined about, all but one were valid, and the one that was not valid was a cut block call against Hasselbeck-it was actually a teammate but because of the angle and where Hasselbeck was, he was called-that play had no impact on the game.

At some point, you just have to admit that in that game, the Seahawks played like crap. A superior team can play well enough to overcome a bad call or two-the Seahawks just did not play well enough to win in any phase of the game that day, which even Holmgren himself later admitted. Yes, I am a Steelers fan but don't blame the officials for your team not showing up at the Super Bowl.

[BananaCat]

To address the one poster's comments-the Seahawks did NOT lose the Super Bowl due to 'bad calls' by the officials! I will agree that the Seahawks made errors at really bad times, such as when they had a valid holding penalty on a pass play that would have put them near the goal line. Or the valid offensive pass interference call on the Seahawks receiver that negated a Seahawks touchdown-he was right in front of the official! A Seahawks wide receiver made a nice catch deep in Steeler's territory in the first half, but he had one foot out of bounds when he caught it. Then Holmgren and Hasselbeck mismanaged the clock at the end of the first half and failed to score.

The Seahawks had no less that five opportunities to score, including getting two interceptions, and failed to execute their offense each time. Then they got bamboozled by the gadget play pass from Randle El to Hines Ward-anyone who has watched the Steelers knows they run gadget plays, and at that time, Randle El and Hines Ward were usually the guys involved in gadget plays-the Seahawks defense inexplicably turned into spectators as Ward walked into the end zone and the Steelers deservingly got the Lombardi trophy. Even the league's head of officiating stated that of the five calls that Holmgren whined about, all but one were valid, and the one that was not valid was a cut block call against Hasselbeck-it was actually a teammate but because of the angle and where Hasselbeck was, he was called-that play had no impact on the game.

At some point, you just have to admit that in that game, the Seahawks played like crap. A superior team can play well enough to overcome a bad call or two-the Seahawks just did not play well enough to win in any phase of the game that day, which even Holmgren himself later admitted. Yes, I am a Steelers fan but don't blame the officials for your team not showing up at the Super Bowl.
Better re-read my post. I never said that Seattle lost because of the officials. I said they had a ton of bad calls go against them, but despite that should've overcome. They had many chances to win the game, and the end result is that they didn't do it when the opportunities arose. I'm a fan of neither team btw.