He Made a Bad Call. Get Over It.

It happens

Ed Hochuli has had a bad week.  As everyone in the football world saw last week Ed improperly blew his whistle as Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler fumbled the ball on a pass wind up, the ball fell right into the hands of the Chargers, it was ruled down and Denver retained possession.  Denver would go on to win the game in dramatic fashion, scoring a TD late and then going for two for the win, not going for the tie.

Ed feels terrible, the league said his performance would be down graded for it and he gamely returned each and every email he received on the matter.

It was unfortunate and now it is time to move on.  Five reasons it is time to put this in the past:

1.  Fans see bad calls all the time.  There is nothing new about a referee making a bad call, it happens every week, between bad calls and bad no calls, it happens in every game.  As fans we see them continually on replay, remember them forever and keep them alive in reminescences as fans and on blogs and message boards.  The problem with this one was that

2.  It was very poorly timed.  This is certainly no fault of Ed's, the final minute, Broncos trail 38-31, second and goal with the tying touchdown on the line.  Jay Cutler's fumble would have turned it over to the Chargers to seal the game.  Instead it was third down and Denver scored.  Chargers fans were right to be outraged over the call because

3.  Earlier in the game an instant replay malfunction cost the Chargers a possession.  In the first quarter a Phillip Rivers pass to Chris Chambers was stripped by Champ Bailey and ruled an interception, Broncos ball.  On TV and in the upstairs officials booth the replay clearly showed Chris catching the ball then his elbow hitting the ground before Champ could strip it.  Somehow the equipment on the field malfunctioned and the play could not be reviewed, the call on the field remained, Denver ball.  Add the two bad calls together and

4.  It makes Broncos fans happy.  In a league where how you win or how much you win by does not count, only the W's and L's, division games, of which this was one in the AFC Jest, get pretty nasty.  As a Redskins fan and a student of divisional football I can tell you I always want the Redskins to dominate and never let the game be close.  That said if that cannot happen and it is a division rival there is perhaps no better feeling than your opponent losing in the last second on a bad call.  There is a joy in knowing that for decades to come simply mentioning that game, or its implications, like if say San Diego surges then misses the playoffs by one game and Denver gets the berth, will make fans of your hated rival red in the face.

But even after all this injustice Norval Turner and chargers fans need to have one more pillow punching session and then move on because

5.  The Chargers should have stopped the final Broncos touchdown and even if they did not Denver went for two and the win and if the Chargers could not stop the touchdown they should have stopped the two point conversion.  Football coaches and players love to talk after tough losses about how one play here or there could not have cost them the game, usually because if the team as a whole had played better the team never would have been in a position to lose the game on one play.  This rule applies doubly here.

It sucks and it was a tough loss, one that puts the team at an unexpected 0-2, that is another reason this is such a big deal around the league, no one expected the Chargers to lose in week one to the Panthers who came from behind and won in the last second so the loss to the Broncos in this way hurts.  And after all I will not say that if this had happened to the Redskins that would not have spent the whole week trashing the rules and the refs.

Yes Chargers fans, it sucks, your team had two chances after that play to win the game and the team could not do it.  Be bitter for one more day and then move on.

Jerral W. Jones:  shut the fuck up.

John Feinstein:  shut the fuck up.

Ray Ratto:  shut the fuck up.

Ed Hochuli working out from here.  Last night I happened to see some of the NFL Network replay of the 1995 NFC Championship between the Cowboys and Packers, Ed was working that game and was a heck of a lot smaller than he is now, he was not always that buff dude.