Can we PLEASE just get a decent officiating crew in Baltimore?
Of course not, as this week the Ravens get stuck with Jeff Triplette. AGAIN.
You may remember Triplette’s crew and the 12 penalties for 98 yards that they threw at the Ravens in their Week 5 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
I can’t put it all on the officiating crew, as a handful of those penalties against Baltimore were totally warranted (Jason Babin’s Illegal Use of Hands and Lawrence Guy‘s Roughing the Passer penalties the worst of the bunch) and inevitably proved to be 100% costly in a game that ended with the Ravens on the wrong side of a three-point loss, but there were still some questionable calls in that game that favored Cleveland (9 penalties for 74 yards in that game).
Overall on the season, Triplette is assessing an average of 8.7 penalties per game on the visitors for 78.3 penalties yards per game. On the home team, the crew is averaging 6.3 penalties per game for 52 yards per game.
How does this stack up against the league averages? Throughout the NFL this season, teams are averaging seven penalties for 60.2 yards per game. This shows a CLEAR advantage for the home team (Triplette’s crew is below league average) and an equally clear disadvantage for the visitors (same crew calls more than the league average on the out of towners).
With the Ravens being the home team, that should provide a MINOR glimmer of hope, but the bigger issue will be Triplette’s crew continuing on their quest to be the most inept crew in the league when it comes to correctly enforcing and recognizing the most basic rules and principles in the officiating handbook.
Baltimore fell victim to Triplette’s incompetence in their game against Cleveland earlier this year, as the crew missed a handful of extremely easy calls, most notably a incomplete pass to Brian Hartline down the sideline (initially ruled complete) and a step out of bounds by Duke Johnson Jr. as he dashed down the sideline (initially ruled a 44 yard catch-and run, reversed to a mere 12 yard completion).
EVENTUALLY the officials got the calls corrected, but it took a few challenges by John Harbaugh (and the HQ back in New York, who was likely face-palming over every call) to get the calls on the field corrected. And in both cases mentioned above, the CBS officiating crew was able to quickly determine the call on the field was incorrect, yet the officials who are paid to get those calls correct couldn’t identify their errors. There was no grey area to be assessed on either call, nor was their any possible way the calls would stand – they were simply egregious whiffs by Triplette’s crew, which is by all measures inexcusable.
With that in mind, Harbaugh needs to start this game against the Chiefs with the red challenge flag in his hand, ready to launch at any given moment.
Unfortunately, the Ravens and winning challenges haven’t exactly been synonymous this season.
Per Pro Football Reference, Harbaugh has successfully won just three of his eight challenges this season, with two of those successful challenges coming in that Ravens/Browns game officiated by Triplette. Since that game, Harbaugh has gone 0-for-4 on challenges, which doesn’t exactly sit well with many fans looking to place blame in a season that’s been nothing shy of an episode out of the Twilight Zone.
Take the poor officiating, sprinkle in a bunch of backups starting for the Ravens, and throw in a dash of losing challenges, and you have the perfect recipe for a potential disastrous day for the Ravens.
