Cutler Should've Been the Goat

I need to vent.

Watching the late football game on CBS between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers has me fuming.

I didn’t start watching the game until early in the 4th quarter, but was told that Denver was winning most of the game until the Chargers rattled off something like 21 unanswered points to make a game out of it.

Jay Cutler was a goat after being picked off by Antoine Cason. It was a drive that started with 14:08 remaining, and lasted nearly nine minutes.

Within roughly the next minute, San Diego went up 38-31 with 4:22 remaining to play once they converted a two-pointer after a Darren Sproles touchdown. Denver got the ball and had a little more than four minutes to score to tie the game with seven or win it with eight.

Denver moved the ball well. Inside the 2:00 warning and on 4th and 4, Jay Cutler dropped back to pass, but threw incomplete according to the ruling on the field. A second look clearly showed that Cutler’s hand was empty even before he made a forward motion, making the play a fumble.

As they should have done, the officials upstairs called for an official review. After watching the play several times, it couldn’t have been more obvious that it was a fumble. San Diego had recovered and thus took over possession.

Or did they?

When the official made his call, he said that the call on the field stood, and that it was Denver’s ball at the 10-yard line. But wait, if the call on the field stood, which was an incompletion, it should have been Denver’s ball inside the five. That of course was utter and complete bullshit, being that it was a fumble. It should have been San Diego’s ball!

After some confusion, the referee announced that it was a fumble, and by rule, the ball was dead when the whistle was blown. A replay showed that the whistle wasn’t blown until after the San Diego player pounced on the ball.

The CBS announcers, being the usual idiots they are, said how the referee made a mistake, but, “Oh well, even he’s human.” While I do agree that referees are human and they make mistakes, that’s a call that can’t be mistaken.

Denver later scored a play or two later and Head Coach Mike Shanahan displayed his balls by going for two, a good decision that resulted in Denver’s eventual victory.

After that botched call that saved Jay Cutler from becoming the biggest goat west of the Mississippi, I was pretty pissed. A few other things after that added insult to injury. When Denver scored the two-point conversion to go up 39-38 with 24 seconds remaining, one of the telecasters instantly said, “Denver wins!”

No you idiot, there’s still 24 seconds left. He later apologized, correcting himself by saying that in the booth they couldn’t see a game clock and thus didn’t know how much time was left.

Another one that lit my flame was after the call, the one announcer said that when Chargers Head Coach Norv Turner gets home, make sure to keep sharp objects out of his hands.

Woah! Now I get the sarcasm and I realize it’s just a joke. Maybe I need to lighten up, but c’mon. Suggesting a coach may go on a killing spree or kill himself after a tough loss on the road is a bit ridiculous. You can make a joke about something like that, I’m all for it, but think of something different. Suicide is no joke.

While I realize that officials don’t decide the outcome of games, this one was pretty awful. San Diego should have been given possession, up six, with less than two minutes to run out the clock. Sure, officials make mistakes, but there are some that simply shouldn’t be made.