Jeff Triplette makes another weird call, and the Colts are the victims this time

Jeff Triplette's calls have had many people wondering what the heck is going on out there. (George Gojkovich/Getty Images) There's no question that the NFL
Jeff Triplette makes another weird call, and the Colts are the victims this time
Jeff Triplette makes another weird call, and the Colts are the victims this time /

Jeff Triplette's calls have had many people wondering what the heck is going on out there. (George Gojkovich/Getty Images)

Jeff Triplette's calls have had many people wondering what the heck is going on out there.

There's no question that the NFL has had an officiating problem all season. More than ever, crews are making strange calls, and more than ever, VP of Officiating Dean Blandino has to go on the NFL Network and explain how yet another crew blew another call. Many believe that the ever-increasing complexity of the league's rule book is the culprit, but there are also times when a ref just loses his bearings and completely blows a call despite having all the time and technology anyone could ask for at his disposal.

And more often than not, when that happens, the referee in question will be one Jeff Triplette, who has been a professional referee since 1999, and a game official since 1996. This despite his  long and undistinguished history of mauling calls that more qualified officials would nail nine times out of 10.

Triplette's latest victim was the Indianapolis Colts, who were playing the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon in a game that had serious playoff seeding implications for both teams. Putting a guy like Triplette in charge of such a game is like having Deputy Dawg guard the Mona Lisa, but the NFL will do what it does. With 1:14 left in the first half, Bengals running back Benjarvus Green-Ellis took the ball at the Indianapolis 1-yard line, and though he came close the end zone, the replay official ruled that Green-Ellis fell short of the score.

Green-Ellis certainly appeared to be tripped by Colts defensive tackle Josh Chapman at the Indianapolis 4-yard line, and though he made a football move after that, he lost his footing, and it looked as if his knee was down before the ball crossed the plane of the end zone. Triplette went under the hood and botched the call as only he can.

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It would be excusable if this had been a bang-bang-play, but Triplette was able to rewatch the play for a good long time (at least as long as it would take to watch half of a Hee-Haw episode). After the replay consultation, Triplette came back out to the field and made his ruling:

"After review, the ruling on the field is reversed. The runner was not touched, and [went] into the end zone. It is a touchdown."

Former NFL VP of Officiating Mike Pereiera, now an analyst for FOX Sports, was not impressed.

Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf, who were calling the game for CBS, appeared to be as confused as everybody else.

"Are you kidding me? Not touched?" Gumbel asked in amazement. "What did he think he tripped on back there?"

It's a common question for this particular official. If the NFL has decided to dock the Steelers a draft pick based on Mike Tomlin's sideline shenanigans because it could affect the Baltimore Ravens' playoff picture, what should the league do to Triplette? He's done playoff games before, so it's pretty clear that whatever downgrading system is in place for officials doesn't apply in this case. TheMMQB's Peter King, who did a marvelous series on Gene Steratore's crew that ran last week, has as much respect for the tough jobs officials have as anybody.

What did Peter think of Triplette's call?

Exactly. It's also disgraceful and indefensible when referees who are clearly not qualified to do their jobs are allowed to keep doing them.

After the game, Triplette tried to explain the reversal, and just created more confusion (via Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star).


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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.