The Refs and this “rigged” league

[Big Blitz]

You will not convince me otherwise after that joke last night. 
 

The network (thus the league) had its narrative ready and did everything they could to make the team that lost at home to Vegas and Pittsburgh relevant again.  
 

Robert Kraft was in attendance.  Is that normal for him on road games?
 

You will not see a playoff game with 11 TOTAL penalties let alone 11 on one team.  Yea they threw some on NE in the 2nd half but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t “fix it” later.

 

 

THEY THREW A FLAG ON THE FINAL KICK RETURN.  That was just in case we returned it for a TD.  

 

Holding calls that were beyond questionable and will NEVER be called in January.  
 

Our WRs NEVER are interfered with.  Amazing considering how much man we see.  
 

NE never held on ANY passes - did I miss one?   
 

 

This isn’t a “blame the refs” for the loss either.  You can take it that way but we had a chance to win.  Then Shakir got mugged and the network did a great job showing why that wasn’t a DPI.  Total joke.  
 

Not a blame the refs.  You just won’t convince me otherwise that when this league needs something done for a team it will get done.  
 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Big Blitz

[Breakout Squad]

The officials were atrocious. I’m still too raw about that game so I’ll leave it at that. 

[Sojourner]

Officiating was atrocious throughout. Game should never have been defined nor decided by them though. 
 

Bigger mistakes and awful play contributed to the loss more than the refs. 

[Bruffalo]

Allen is 1-5 when Hochuli is officiating. 

 

A 16% winrate when a certain referee is running your game seems suspect. Especially when you have a league wide win rate of just about 70%. 

 

Not a single holding call on the Patriots all night. Just throwing that out there.

 

Definitely not the only reason we lost, but a contributing factor when you look at all the ticky tack penalties that easily could have gone uncalled. 

 

EDIT: I just realized that the 6-0 part about the Patriots is incorrect. They're 6-3. Still a damning juxtaposition considering they have been garbage for the last 4 seasons. 

 

 

Edited 19 minutes ago by Bruffalo
They're 1-5 with Hochuli, not 1-6.

[RobbRiddicksTDLeap]

Sadly, I think it’s less about getting New England back on top, and more about the needs of the gamblers. The refs kept that game close, and it was blatantly obvious. 
 

Obviously, you have to overcome all obstacles, and the refs don’t excuse the lack of execution in the secondary.
 

But momentum killing penalties play a huge part in keeping a score close for covering a spread or a betting line. 

[James Can Cook]

“Sports Entertainment” brought to you by Draft Kings.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

I actually have never seen a crew nit pick the oline like that ever. The interior holding calls were not holds. None of them. Even the illegal procedure and false starts were not good calls. 
 

they called the pats for that one false start on 3rd and inches, and their lineman didn’t even move. It was like he was taking a breath and they called it. 

[bmur66]

For entertainment purposes only

[Wayne Cubed]

I sent a message to my dad who was at the game that this seemed like a Week 1 game, in terms of officitating. The officials are always super strict in the begining of the season to set the tone. Odd for a week 5 game in prime time.

[Dillenger4]

11 minutes ago, Big Blitz said:

You will not convince me otherwise after that joke last night. 
 

The network (thus the league) had its narrative ready and did everything they could to make the team that lost at home to Vegas and Pittsburgh relevant again.  
 

Robert Kraft was in attendance.  Is that normal for him on road games?
 

You will not see a playoff game with 11 TOTAL penalties let alone 11 on one team.  Yea they threw some on NE in the 2nd half but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t “fix it” later.

 

 

THEY THREW A FLAG ON THE FINAL KICK RETURN.  That was just in case we returned it for a TD.  

 

Holding balls that were beyond questionable and will NEVER be called in January.  
 

Our WRs NEVER are interfered with.  Amazing considering how much man we see.  
 

NE never held on ANY passes - did I miss one?   
 

 

This isn’t a “blame the refs” for the loss either.  You can take it that way but we had a chance to win.  Then Shakir got mugged and the network did a great job showing why that wasn’t a DPI.  Total joke.  
 

Not a blame the refs.  You just won’t convince me when this league needs something done for a team it will get done.  

Are you being serious? Most of the calls were blatant and correct. A few about the lineman being off the line were "iffy" - but cmon man. We got our teeth knocked out by a good football team. Deal with it.

[Just Jack]

Not sure how true this meme is...

 

[Prospector]

I texted my son in the 1st quarter that the refs are going to keep us from scoring too much. It was plain to see they had a plan from the start of the game.

[blacklabel]

I go into every game expecting the usual awfulness from the officials and I've been able to pretty much just shrug and move on from every ridiculous call because that's just the way it goes.

 

That said, the refs were out of their minds last night. They'll say they wanna call a tight game but that seems kinda silly when they call 11 penalties on one team and 0 on the other thru an entire half. When they're calling super weak holds that happen on virtually every play and you're only throwing the flag on one team it just makes them look incompetent. Not that they care. 

[Boatdrinks]

1 minute ago, Bruffalo said:

Allen is 1-6 when Hochuli is officiating. 

 

The Patriots are 6-0 in that same time frame. 

 

A 16% winrate when a certain referee is running your game seems suspect. Especially when you have a league wide win rate of just about 70%. 

 

Not a single holding call on the Patriots all night. Just throwing that out there.

 

Definitely not the only reason we lost, but a contributing factor when you look at all the ticky tack penalties that easily could have gone uncalled. 

 

 

 

 

Now , the Bills poor play was largely the reason for their demise. However as soon as I heard it was Hochuli, I groaned. I knew the Bills were in for a lot of offensive holding calls, ticky tack defensive penalties etc. only the most flagrant of fouls would be called against NE. For fans who don’t remember Hochuli, he’s the Ref that watched the Eagles rough Allen on a pass play and promptly threw a flag. Incredibly it was a flag on Allen for grounding as the pass fell short of the LOS. Yeah, that guy. The Bills have no one but themselves to blame as they were sloppy with procedure penalties and turnovers. 

[blacklabel]

6 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

I actually have never seen a crew nit pick the oline like that ever. The interior holding calls were not holds. None of them. Even the illegal procedure and false starts were not good calls. 
 

they called the pats for that one false start on 3rd and inches, and their lineman didn’t even move. It was like he was taking a breath and they called it. 

 

I think it was one of their TEs that twitched a tiny bit.

[harryS]

5 minutes ago, RobbRiddicksTDLeap said:

Sadly, I think it’s less about getting New England back on top, and more about the needs of the gamblers. The refs kept that game close, and it was blatantly obvious. 
 

Obviously, you have to overcome all obstacles, and the refs don’t excuse the lack of execution in the secondary.
 

But momentum killing penalties play a huge part in keeping a score close for covering a spread or a betting line. 

 

I really doubt there was heavy action on the Bills to cover the spread.  Especially after the Bills had already failed to cover the previous two weeks against the Dolphins and Saints.  If anything, I would guess the public was on NE if it wasn't an relatively even split.

[Bruffalo]

Just to further my point:

 

In the games Hochuli has been the referee for the Bills, he's called:

 

-11 penalties in 2025 in 1 game.

-11 penalties in 2023 in 1 game. (Philly Game) 

-5 in the divisional round of the playoffs in 2023

-6 penalties in 2022. This is the only game we won. 

-10 in 2018 opener.

-13 in 2018 against Miami. 

 

The Bills average penalties per game between 2018-2025 is about 5.5-6.5. So we're seeing something way off the norm. It's anomalous for sure.  

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Bruffalo

[Success]

The refs took over the game. No flow.

 

Some of those calls were really phantom, too - and then they missed very blatant ones. That miss on Shakir near the end turned the game completely, and the narrative would be very different today if they called that PI.  It was right out there in the open, and they missed it.

 

[Bruffalo]

12 minutes ago, Just Jack said:

Not sure how true this meme is...

 

It matches what I looked up when I looked at each Bills/Hochuli game individually. I haven't taken the time to look at other referee groups and Allen's win percentages but I'll bet the Hochuli crew is a huge outlier. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Bruffalo

[oldmanfan]

I have to say I was throwing my phone around all night after calls, but on replays most of the time they were justified.  The PI on Tre was obvious.  It just seems with Hochuli’s  crew that they want to be visible, they think they are what fans come to see.  Refs should be invisible.