Terry McAulay, the referee from the first matchup between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, has been assigned to the NFC Championship game.
Why is that significant?
The Packers committed a team-record 18 penalties in their first game with the Bears this season, essentially handing Chicago a win. Those 18 penalties added up to 152 yards and a 20-17 loss.
Overall, the Packers finished with the third-fewest penalties in the NFL, prompting coach Mike McCarthy to call the first Packers-Bears game an anomaly.
“We finished the regular season ranked No. 3 in penalties,” McCarthy said. “I think 4.9 or 5.0 penalties per game. The 18 penalties in one game, we look at that as more of an anomaly. I know it is more of an all-star crew. Terry is the referee. He has obviously been selected for this game for good reason.
“I don’t think this game is going to be about anomaly officiating. These are two very good teams that earned the right to be in this game, and this game will be about the football teams.”
The NFL selects officials for the championship games and Super Bowl based on merit. The officials that earn the highest grades in the regular season get to work those games.
McAulay will be joined by an all-star crew, which won’t necessarily be the same as the one the Packers saw in week three.
Regardless, the Packers have cleaned up their act considerably since that game. According to the Journal Sentinel, the team has averaged only 3.5 penalties per game over the last 12 games. There were eight games in which they committed three penalties or fewer.
Hopefully, the trend continues.
Last updated on November 17th, 2013 at 12:24 pm
That guy was not very good to us, I believe he did not always make fair calls. How the heck are they decided?
great… now i’m going to be worried the flag is going to be thrown at penalties that aren’t even there
Agreed. I don’t think it will be a problem, but it will still be in the back of my mind.
Here it comes. Unless the Packers win, it was a fixed game. Just give them the Halas , give them the Lombardi and give them a bottle..waaa waaa waaaaaa….
P.s., I am not a Bears fan. Just tired of the crying..
That wasn’t an anomaly. It was a horribly officiated game where the majority of the horseshit was amazingly tilted in one direction.
The refs at this point have gotten the message from the NFL- don’t throw flags.
The Bears’ DBs practically raped every WR that came off the line of scrimmage for Seattle, a technique that is especially successful when you are playing on a shit field. So, it might actually benefit the Packers if the refs are willing to call some penalties and not just let everything go like they pretty much did in the Seattle game.
Now i cant celebrate a touchdown until about 30 seconds after the touchdown…???
The other concern is that the Bears have been talking about how their receivers will be playing “physically”. Translation, they will be running bullshit routes to initiate contact deep downfield so that we get flagged for illegal contact. Cheap? Absolutely. Will it work with this piece of shit ref? You better believe it.
The pack suck and they cheat when they are overmatched hence the 18 penalties. every single penalty was legit. why else would the same ref be in this game?
I don’t blame the refs for the loss to CHI at Soldier earlier this year. They did not do enough to overcome thier mistakes (penalties) I’m not worried about the refs changing the game because if you are a good team you can overcome adversity. Matt, you call it cheating because you are a Jaded Bears fan but I’m pretty sure that the Packers didn’t plan on commiting those penalties. Green Bay did however play impressively enough to win on the road with so many penalties to slow them down. Unfortunatly James Jones couldn’t conceal the ball well enough and fumbled due to an athletic play by Urlacher.
Good luck to you guy’s, I’m looking forward to this game, it will be historic and I’m glad that the Pack and Bears get to duke it out as the best remaining teams in the NFC. Peace!
And yet they still almost won the game. The Bears suck and unless the game is fixed they will lose.