A lot has been said about the replacement referees, in the Monday Night Football game between the Denver Broncos versus the Atlanta Falcons things got so bad that the refs were getting blamed for messing up the game flow.
It was most noticeable at the end of the first quarter. The Broncos had just fumbled. There were seconds left in the fourth quarter, six seconds to be exact. The referees were trying to get Bronco and Falcon players off the loose ball that had chased after the ball.
The Falcons came away with the ball, but both teams remained in each other's faces despite the Falcons having gained possession.
There were two seconds on the clock and as the referees were trying to control both sides, Asante Samuel was knocked down and a small fight broke out between the Broncos and Falcons.
It was not a brawl, but things almost became physical as players were holding each other back.
It took the referees almost ten minutes to clear the field and get the game back rolling for just the final two seconds of the first quarter.
Later on in the game, with 8:19 left in the third quarter, the Falcons were attacking and dominating the Broncos defense. There was a holding call against Denver for a hold. Ryan had scrambled for a gain of five yards. The refs added the penalty yarded to the original line of scrimmage where Ryan had taken off, but instead, the penalty yards had to be added to where Ryan landed.
It once again took the referees a while to get this as an extra ref that stands on the sidelines pointed out the error. Matt Ryan was upset as the referees were practically gifting the Broncos time to prepare their defense after the Falcons had cut them up to get all the way into their territory.
This shows that the referees are not only getting calls wrong, but completely affecting teams' flow of the game.
Fans are also bothered as they have to sit through a game that almost went four hours. The first quarter alone took about an hour to get by.
The referees are already painful to listen to on the mic as they make calls. On Monday night, they made it unbearable to watch.
