Poor Officiating in Raiders-Niners Game. Late in the second
quarter, the officiating crew in the San Francisco-Oakland game blew
three calls in about 30 seconds.
First, they missed a clear case of roughing the passer against the
Raiders. Jeff Garcia had been thrown to the ground roughly after having
clearly thrown a pass. The rushing defender had two or three steps to
stop and didn't.
Second, on the next play, the Niners tried a screen. The Raider defender
pushed the receiver while the ball was in the air. He knew it. He threw
his arms in the air. No flag.
Then the Niners punted and got called for illegal touching. The call was
right; Rumph touched the ball first after having been forced out of
bounds on the return. But to miss two calls with significant potential
impact only to call one with no meaning at all -- a really stupid
techical rules violation which in thse case wouldn't have mattered
because there were three other Niners within touching distance of the
ball -- just shows a poor sense of priority.
Halftime as I write this and the Raiders are up 13-10. The Niners' D is
holding the highly rated Raiders' offense nicely. But the Niners aren't
scoring, either. Everyone expected a high-scoring game here. Not so far.
2:49:22 PM 
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