Oct 6th 2008 9:39PM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: Saints, Vikings
During tonight’s Saints-Vikings game in New Orleans, Reggie Bush took a handoff and was met near the line of scrimmage by Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway. Greenway grabbed Bush’s facemask and pulled, jerking Bush’s head toward him, and then knocked the ball out of Bush’s arm.
The Vikings jumped on the ball, but that shouldn’t have mattered. The Vikings would be called for facemasking, the Saints would accept the penalty, and they’d have the ball, first-and-10. Right?
Wrong. The officials missed the facemasking. How they missed it I have no idea: This was a blatant facemask, the kind of clip you’d show to someone who didn’t know anything about football if you wanted to explain what facemasking was. There is absolutely no excuse for the officials not calling it.
But they didn’t call it, and the fact that the crew that missed the call is led by referee Ed Hochuli is going to be another black mark on Hochuli’s record. Heading into this season, Hochuli was probably the most highly respected referee in the NFL. But between his horrendous call on Jay Cutler’s Week 2 fumble and tonight’s blown call by Hochuli’s crew, that reputation is gone.
Of course, the real culprit in all of this is the NFL, which continues to have absolutely idiotic rules when it comes to instant replay. If you’re going to have instant replay at all, why isn’t facemasking reviewable?
