Pete Carroll and Al Michaels react to the officiating
19 penalties were accepted in the Dallas Cowboys versus Seattle Seahawks game. The penalty yards were an astounding 257 yards (Seattle had 130 and Dallas had 127 - that close numbers seems quite odd and as if the officials had to be aware of how equal the penalties were). There were six penalties that were not accepted. And there were three flags that were waved off. That is nearly 30 plays with penalties or 21 percent of all plays. That is ridiculous.
Plus, there were several questionable non-calls. A pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the end zone was called incomplete after a review while the broadcast team on Amazon was saying they thought it should be a completed pass before it was reversed. One of the people on the broadcast team is an ex-NFL official. Luckily, the Seahawks scored a touchdown later on the drive or the reverse of the call would have cost Seattle 7 point.
In the post-game press conference, Pete Carroll said, "I don't know, you guys saw it a lot better than I did, but there was just way too many penalties in this game, for both sides. We've got to get out of that kind of football." He is right and there are too many penalties overall in NFL games. They detract from the enjoyment of the game.
Al Michaels, like everyone at home, had enough of seeing referee Clete Blakeman during the Seahawks-Cowboys game. pic.twitter.com/vp0MqisbHM
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 1, 2023
Al Michaels during the Amazon Prime broadcast made a spectacular comment in saying, "We’re going to take the rest of the night off and let (referee) Clete Blakeman call the game...You buying?" To which his cohort Kirk Herbstreit simply said, "Sure." When a national broadcast is pointing out that there are too many penalties being called then the NFL has a real issue that must be corrected.