Blaming the Refs

Are most all sports' fans like this? If their favorite team loses a tightly contested game, instead of admitting that their team came up a bit short, that they could have improved a certain aspect of their game, they go on blaming a call they perceived to be inaccurate as the reason for the loss?

I'm originally from Nebraska and following their defeat at the hands of Texas A&M on Saturday night, 9-6, all I heard/read from my old friends and other Huskers' fans was how the refs won the game for the Aggies. Some went as far to say that the refs were conspiring against them due to their leaving the conference next year.

I will grant Huskers' fans the fact the penalties, in terms of quantity, definitely leaned heavily in the favor of the Aggies, as they were penalized only twice, while Nebraska was penalized a school-record 16 times accounting for nearly 150 yards. Those numbers are very lopsided, without question. However, of all the calls, the only one I saw as unequivocally awful was the roughing the passer penalty on Cortney Osborne in the 4th quarter, which led to A&M's eventual game-winning field goal. There may have been a couple other questionable calls that could have gone either way, but that roughing the passer penalty was the only one I witnessed, which I had to adamantly shake my head.

Losing tight games is always frustrating, especially when it feels that your team is getting the short end of the stick when it comes to holding calls in football or the strike zone in baseball. However, I don't see how it does a team any good to walk off the field blaming the refs. How is a team to learn, grow and improve if they walk away from a loss believing the referees decided the game?

One reason I believe the referees were so hard on the Huskers last night is due to head coach Bo Pelini's constant tirades on the sidelines. It's one thing to work a ref for a call. It's quite another to get into their face and scream profanities and insults at them. I may not know what the coach said verbatim, but can read lips fairly well and Mr. Pelini didn't shy away from a four-letter word that starts with f, ends with k and rhymes with duck. It may have worked in the coach's favor if he had made his point early, but removed his foot off the gas pedal a bit. He didn't do this and it resulted in a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on him, to go along with several personal foul calls (also 15 yards a piece). In a road night game at College Station, with a young offense, Pelini should have been the calming presence to help the team regroup and believe in themselves to drive for the winning score.

I used to take a similar stance with regard to umpires and refs, that for whatever reason, if my team lost a close game, it was the men in stripes or the guy behind the plate whom was showing an obvious bias against my team. Of course, I was 10 or 11 at this time. The fact of the matter is just like everyone else, referees make mistakes. There are games they probably look back upon, see the box score and think, "Wow, there was really that kind of disparity in the penalties called?" In the end, the bad calls typically (not always) even themselves out. This may not have been the case this go-round, but still, why can't we take responsibility for one's own faults, actions or inaction as the case may be? While it can be argued that A&M didn't deserve to win the game, the same case could be made for Nebraska. Both teams' offenses struggled throughout. The teams' defenses played very well. If Nebraska held an edge in the game, it was in the special teams' department, as A&M punted the ball about as well as a four-year old could and this led to several drives where NU started with great field position. It's tough to win a game when racking up over 140 yards in penalties, but great teams find ways to battle through the adversity. Nebraska also turned the ball over a couple times. They dominated in terms of field position. They had every chance to win the game. One touchdown, one single touchdown would have sealed the deal for them, but neither team accomplished that feat in this game. It wasn't so much won by Texas A&M as lost by Nebraska, but like I said, great teams will overcome adversity thrown their way and NU failed to do that. The Philadelphia Eagles were penalized 10 times for 119 yards against the 6-3 New York Giants tonight, turned it over twice, didn't fair too well in the red zone, yet found a way to come out on top by the final score of 27-17. Some Eagles' fans may have felt that the refs were not calling the game fairly, yet with most of the calls I saw, they were accurate, with the exception of one or two, the same as the Nebraska game. Hopefully this can be a learning experience for the team and they can be focused in time for the Colorado game next Friday. They still have to beat the Buffaloes to win the Big XII North and have an opportunity to represent the conference in a BCS bowl game and while Colorado has again failed to live up to expectations this season, they have won two straight since Dan Hawkins was fired and with a win on Friday, would become bowl eligible, so like the Huskers, CU has a lot to play for as well.

In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see what transpires the rest of this week, as NU Chancellor has publicly stated that he's none too pleased with head coach Pelini's sideline antics this past Saturday night. Defensive Coordinator, Carl Pelini, was said to have gotten into a confrontation with a Texas A&M journalist following Saturday night's game. Lastly, there is a rumor circulating the web that quarterback Taylor Martinez has quit the team. The early reports stated that this rumor came from reputable sources, however the later reports are more mixed. It should be a very interesting week.