Ninth-year NFL referee Ron Torbert and his crew have been assigned as the officials for the AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals.
Torbert hasn’t officiated a Chiefs game this season, but fans will remember him from 2021, and not in a good way. He was an unscheduled white-hat substitution for John Hussey against the Bengals during their Week 17 regular-season loss. During that game, Torbert’s crew called 10 penalties for 83 yards against Kansas City. It was the second-most penalties the Chiefs had called against them in a single game that season.
If we’re only considering the 2022 NFL season as evidence, Torbert and his crew have been among the best in the league in terms of penalty volume. In 16 games officiated, their 172 penalties called are good for the fourth-fewest in the NFL. That said, once a penalty is called by Torbert’s crew, expect it to stand. Their 20 dismissed penalties are the second-fewest in the NFL this season. They’ve officiated fairly even on the home (89) and away (83) fronts so far this season.
As far as how this crew officiates, they’re definitely not a “let them play” crew and they almost always side with the offense. Torbert’s 17 defensive pass interference penalties tie for the second-most in the league this season. For comparison’s sake, they’ve only called four offensive pass interference penalties all year. The Chiefs lead the NFL in defensive pass interference penalties this season (14) while the Bengals are right around the league average (6). Basically, expect Ja’Marr Chase to continue to get away with pushing off and Chiefs defenders to be penalized for any contact downfield.
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
Nah, I've mentioned certain games as being completely unacceptable several times... the Brady SB, the one Texans drive where dude runs into a safety and draws a DPI (among like 3 other calls that drive), thr regular season Bengals game last year that was just a cluster**** of flags in the 4th quarter (including a terrible DPI). Hell, I was annoyed at the flags in the 2nd half of Bills/Bengals given there were hardly any in the first half, and that the NFL chooses a guy who throws 20% more flags than anyone else to go to the SB.
I've always tried to meet you guys somewhere in the middle, but it just comes back as purposeful bias against the Chiefs and acting like you know what the NFL is doing or what they want, while ignoring all of the contradictions and embarrassment of getting shit wrong (if you haven't heard, the Bills are winning the Super Bowl this year for several reasons, and the NFL really wants to try out neutral site CGs).
I think I'm a lot closer to where you stand. I can think of probably 5-6 games the past 5 years that I thought were blatantly bias against the Chiefs. I have never once claimed to have any sort of knowledge, just suspicions that tend to line up with the league trying to appease the gambling industry and keep the audience entertained with close games using ticky tack calls to do so.
I will admit I was one of the people concerned the league was going to do their best to hand the Bills a trophy, but I'm more than happy to be wrong on that one. As I've said many times lately, I haven't seen any sort of issues with officiating this postseason, and I certainly hope that trend to continues. [Reply]
Originally Posted by notorious:
It's madding that people brush it off when these obvious anomalies exist.
Yeah, it's hard to believe people can't acknowledge shit like this. I mean, the numbers are right there. I remember watching the call against Tyrann in the end zone, and Brady going up to him and talking shit. You know damn well he was saying "You aren't winning this game Ty, it's not happening." You could see it in their body language after that. They literally weren't going to be allowed to play D in that game. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Wisconsin_Chief:
I think I'm a lot closer to where you stand. I can think of probably 5-6 games the past 5 years that I thought were blatantly bias against the Chiefs. I have never once claimed to have any sort of knowledge, just suspicions that tend to line up with the league trying to appease the gambling industry and keep the audience entertained with close games using ticky tack calls to do so.
I will admit I was one of the people concerned the league was going to do their best to hand the Bills a trophy, but I'm more than happy to be wrong on that one. As I've said many times lately, I haven't seen any sort of issues with officiating this postseason, and I certainly hope that trend to continues.
And I totally get the concern over refs completely ruining games, whether it's one sided (Bucs/Chiefs SB) or just a complete clusterfuck (Chiefs/Bengals last year in the regular season, even if that one DPI was terrible)... we finally have a team worth watching, and spending 11 months for the next AFCCG/SB weekends just to get that Bucs SB made me angrier over sports than I had been in probably 20 years (especially since the first quarter was fine).
I don't care if it was unintentional, intentional, point spreads, the mob... to see it happen in the SB of all games with zero accountability that anything was amiss still grinds my gears. :-)
And apologies if I lump you into a more extreme opinion than you have on the subject... I try to separate the more extreme opinions, but over time these arguments all tend to get black and white where you either think the NFL is scripted down to the players knowing when to catch the ball or not and run by the illuminate, or you think refs are salt of the earth amazing and never make a bad call ever. [Reply]
Originally Posted by notorious:
It's madding that people brush it off when these obvious anomalies exist.
It's possible to acknowledge that ref biases exist and impact games, without expanding it to some over-arching NFL conspiracy to affect game outcomes. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
And I totally get the concern over refs completely ruining games, whether it's one sided (Bucs/Chiefs SB) or just a complete cluster**** (Chiefs/Bengals last year in the regular season, even if that one DPI was terrible)... we finally have a team worth watching, and spending 11 months for the next AFCCG/SB weekends just to get that Bucs SB made me angrier over sports than I had been in probably 20 years (especially since the first quarter was fine).
I don't care if it was unintentional, intentional, point spreads, the mob... to see it happen in the SB of all games with zero accountability that anything was amiss still grinds my gears. :-)
And apologies if I lump you into a more extreme opinion than you have on the subject... I try to separate the more extreme opinions, but over time these arguments all tend to get black and white where you either think the NFL is scripted down to the players knowing when to catch the ball or not and run by the illuminate, or you think refs are salt of the earth amazing and never make a bad call ever.
Yeah, with most cases there's many shades of gray but the blackest and whitest are the easiest things to see, so I get it. I understand I'm going to take shit for seeing things the way I do, and that's fine. I'm a big boy who can handle it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't be posting on Chiefs Planet. :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by notorious:
I'm not of that ilk, Wisc. I do think some calls in some games are made to keep it interesting.
The TB-Chiefs SB is as close to a fix as I've ever seen. It didn't help that the Chiefs Oline was gone and nobody could catch a pass.
That's what made it 31-9 instead of 31-23
That was the most annoying part of the whole thing. You call a fair game and the Bucs are likely still going to win. They didn't need the help. So frustrating. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc:
It’s crazy. If the games were steered AT ALL, the game would be against Buffalo in Atlanta.
I don't think games are steered, but this might not be best example. Buffalo came out and went down 14-0 right out of the gate. They were absolutely awful, and pretty much got blown off the field. Refs could try all they want to hand it to the Bills but I don't think they would've taken it. They were that terrible. [Reply]
Originally Posted by wazu:
I don't think games are steered, but this might not be best example. Buffalo came out and went down 14-0 right out of the gate. They were absolutely awful, and pretty much got blown off the field. Refs could try all they want to hand it to the Bills but I don't think they would've taken it. They were that terrible.
Maybe, but it was also 17-10 and the Bengals made another long drive to make it 24-10... call something stupid to give the Bills a chance to make it 17-14 instead, or something stupid to give the Bills the ball back. Instead, they were calling several penalties on the Bills, helping them dig their own grave. [Reply]
Originally Posted by wazu:
I don't think games are steered, but this might not be best example. Buffalo came out and went down 14-0 right out of the gate. They were absolutely awful, and pretty much got blown off the field. Refs could try all they want to hand it to the Bills but I don't think they would've taken it. They were that terrible.
Well then, it shouldn’t be a problem. If the Chiefs play like they’re capable, they should win easily.
What all this reads like is a preemptory excuse for anything other than a blowout Chiefs win.
Also, any type of penalty on the Bengals first 2 drives could have kept the game close. Holding could be called on every play.
If that’s the goal in all of this, then that’s what would have happened. [Reply]
Wasn't Carl Cheffers suppose to rig the Bills/Bengals game to a Bills victory so the NFL could usher in their neutral field championship games? What ever happened with that? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
Wasn't Carl Cheffers suppose to rig the Bills/Bengals game to a Bills victory so the NFL could usher in their neutral field championship games? What ever happened with that?
Their body double for Damar Hamlin was busy that weekend :-) [Reply]
