We’re not blaming this Commie loss on the refs, so nobody in the Facebook or Twitter comments needs to respond with “stop it” or something else similarly stupid.

From the department of “more than one thing can be true” –

  1. the Eagles didn’t do enough to win and shot themselves in the foot over and over again
  2. the zebras were also ass

We’ll spend plenty of time talking about #1 this week, but starting with #2, I’d like to share the quotes given by the refs.

For some context here, after each game, one of the writers goes down and speaks to the head ref, and the quotes are dispersed throughout the group. This is called a “pool report,” and Monday night Zach Berman spoke with Alex Kemp:

The two plays I’m asking about are the personal foul at the end of the game and then the fumble by Dallas Goedert earlier in the fourth quarter. On the personal foul, what did the officials see on the play and what prompted that to be a penalty?

“That was my call. I had ruled the quarterback had clearly given himself up. Therefore, he is down and a defenseless player. The contact by Philadelphia No. 55 was not only late but also to the head and neck area.”

So, the penalty there was for the late hit and for a hit to the head, not one or the other?

“It is one and the same. The late hit was to the head and neck area.”

On Dallas Goedert’s fumble, what was seen there and why was there no face mask call on that play?

“We didn’t see a face mask on the field. As far as the review, we were reviewing whether he was down by contact or whether it was a fumble and then whether the Washington player who recovered the ball was also down by contact.”

I would also like an explanation for the fuckin’ fugazi call on the Chauncey Gardner-Johnson hit, which was clearly inbounds. Maybe the stripes thought he lowered the helmet. I’ll look for an explanation there.

Regardless, it’s incredibly goofy that they go back to review the Goedert fumble, see a penalty on Washington, but are powerless to call it. In some other sports, this is not the case. For instance, if there’s a review in soccer, and the ref is trying to determine if a guy is offside, he may spot a foul in the buildup of the play and just whistle the whole thing dead right there. The NFL really does need to have a mechanism here by which they can address clear and obvious infractions spotted during replay, because that play specifically should have never been allowed to stand.

Pagan went over the Brandon Graham play this morning, but my thing is that the ref didn’t blow his whistle until B.G. was right there, about to whack Taylor Heinicke. It’s kind of an abrupt motion to just stop, kneel, and give yourself up like that. It’s not like a scramble and slide where you can anticipate when the QB is going down and begin to pull up early.

Regardless, Graham has to do better there, and these late hits on the QB are the biggest issue with NFL rules right now. Roughing the passer is currently a dumpster fire and the league needs to figure out a better way to police this, because it seems like we get a controversial and game-changing call every other week.