Referee Ron Torbert's crew assigned to work Chiefs-Bengals game
 

Oh great, almost as bad as Cheffers.

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.

https://chiefswire.usatoday.com/2023...nnati-bengals/

The playoffs are different. This means nothing.

Cheffers
Blakeman
Smith
____________
Everybody else <---- As long as we are here, it should be okay

People are preemptively bitching about officiating without even knowing that playoff crews are different from regular season crews. It's fascinating.

Exactly.

Who cares?

Torbert only handed them the game last year, no biggie.

Torbert's CREW actually calls the penalties. They won't be there. Playoff ref crews are not the same as regular season ref crews.

LMAO

No matter who it is, CP declares the sky is falling

All this hand-wringing about refs is just silly.

Play the game and win. It's that simple.

It's preemptive self-soothing

Right? People are pretty funny sometimes. Short memories, I guess.

So far, you are correct. Officiating has been fair and consistent.

I hope to high hell you remain correct.

Just stop. If you're so firmly convinced that there's some grand conspiracy, stop watching.

I remember when the NFL sent in Clete Blakeman to ensure the Bills got the #1 seed

It's not just that.

In the playoffs, they use "all star" crews.

Ron Torbert himself isn't responsible for calling penalties. His crew does. And his crew won't be at the game.

The Chiefs could win the SB and people would cry about Cheffers reffing the first game next season.


And not complain in September, but the day after the SB, because the league will want to set the tone for 2023 because they hate the Chiefs and will make sure they don't win it all again.

I agree, hope it stays that way.

Is that what I said? Not being naive to what I've seen in the past does not equate to me believing in a grand conspiracy. It means I watch with my eyes and believe what I see on the field. The proof is in the last two weeks, where not one game was really tainted with a game changing call.

Hoping for the same this week.

Eh the first game of the season wouldn’t bother me. Too early.

Sure, and if they lose it again largely because of him (like they already have once) you will be here in September telling us all we are crazy for thinking he will screw us. Again.

You believe that officials (and the NFL) operate as agents to steer games towards specific outcomes.

The only proof that you've seen in the last 2 weeks (and in the regular season in general) is the referees are human and therefore potentially incompetent.

That's where the inconsistencies come from. Not from some need to steer games for profit or whatever.

I consider this a good thing. Never understand officials throwing flags and then picking them up. If you don't SEE it, don't CALL it. Not that complicated.

You think Cheffers crew called a fair game in the SB against Tampa?

You think Cheffers even mattered once Fisher went down in the AFCCG?

We lost a game where we scored 9 points and Mahomes was literally running for his life largely because of the refs?

Uh yeah at least a little. A record number of penalty in the first half to completely neuter us. Brady runs after HB and HB gets a UC flag. Yeah I remember at least being able to somewhat move the ball in the beginning of the game, but the penalties kept us from gaining momentum. Idk if we could have won, but that game was never called fairly.

Are you freaking kidding me right now? The Chiefs were right there in that game until Cheffers started handing Brady free TDs, allowing the Bucs to tee off on Mahomes when the Chiefs had to go into full on desperation mode.

"Even mattered once." Freaking unreal. :rolleyes:

Even players were tweeting how they were doing KC dirty!

Again, why are you watching?

If you're so convinced it's rigged against the Chiefs, what possible pleasure could you get out of watching?

We were down 21-6 at half time. At what point were we "right there in the game"?

He changed the entire tone of the game when he started handing Brady free points. The Chiefs were playing really well before Tyrann melted down after that pathetic penalty.

It's astounding to me that some of you don't think these players can't sense when they're getting hosed, and that it doesn't effect their mindset and the way the game progresses.

Whatever, it's not worth discussing. Just hope we are also not discussing it Sunday evening.

So you won’t answer if you think that was a fair officiating job? Just call us tin foil hatters and ignore the question?

The same people will say that refs rig the game because they want close scores and to cover the spread.

This is why so many people hate the Chiefs and their fans.

5 straight HOSTED AFCCG's. 2 Super Bowls, 1 Lombardi.

And all we can talk about is how the refs and the NFL hates us.

It's just plain ****ing stupid.

I already answered your question.

NFL refs have day jobs. They're human beings with flaws like everybody else.

NFL refs are largely incompetent. They don't steer a damn thing, they're just not good at their jobs.

Is this the place to start screaming **** over and over now?

/asking for a friend.

We were down double digits the whole previous years playoffs. We’re we wait of it then?

yes but what are refs but football mods and you should always yell at and harass the mods

This is hogwash. You don’t get to be a professional ref by being bad at your job.

It was 7-3 midway through the 2nd quarter.

Then Cheffers started fondling Brady's balls and stopped letting us play defense.

I don't know if they're incompetent but football is just so extremely fast and chaotic that I don't think there's any way to be "good" at reffing it. It's not like college or even high school refs are known for being great refs.

I guess we should give up then. We have no chance. The NFL and the refs are going to screw us.

I'll ask again - why watch if that's the case?

You guys make absolutely no sense. You're basically saying that you're going to bang your head against the wall until it bleeds and then blame the wall.

11 penalties for 120 yards…. Nothing to see here LMAO

Aren't most of the reeruns pimping the ref stuff on here from the DC section?

I have never once said the entire league is rigged or that most Chiefs' games involve officials who are actively trying to sabotage the team.

I just know a screw job when I see it, and I have seen it before from Torborg, so it's concerning he's reffing this game. I get concerned when I see Cheffers or Blakeman reffing as well. That's all.

I'm not expecting any issues based on what I've seen so far in the playoffs.

No idea.

But if you think the ref-blaming here is bad, you should see Chiefs-related social media.

Point out to me where one person in this thread said the Chiefs are definitely going to lose because Torborg is officiating.

Okay then that begs the question - what is the issue?

If they're not actively trying to sabotage or steer a game, what exactly are they doing that's screwing the Chiefs so bad?

It's either rigged or it's not. There's no in-between.

Seriously. Put aside your emotions. Think about it, logically.

What you are arguing makes no sense at all. You're basically just hedging your bets. If the Chiefs win, it's not rigged. If they lose, it is.

There's a huge gap in your logic.

It's not black and white like you claim it is. Not once have I said every time the Chiefs lose, it's "rigged." They lost to the Bengals and Bills this regular season fair and square. Very little issue with the officiating in those games. They have lost plenty of games where officiating was perfectly fine.

However, there have been numerous games where there seems to be a bias against us. I'm not saying it only happens to us, or that there is some conspiracy behind it. With Cheffers, I think it's pretty clear that the guy has a grudge against our organization. I don't even see how anyone can deny it at this point.

In many cases, it is human error. When it's Blakeman calling roughing the passer because Chris Jones brushes Tom Brady's helmet with his hand during one of the most crucial plays and times of the game, I take a little issue with it when he was allowing Mahomes to get pulverized all game without reaching for his flag once. Or a phantom holding call on Eric Fisher when we tied the Steelers on a 2 point conversion in Smith's last year. Stuff like that can't be brushed aside as incompetence like so many of you claim.

Again, I don't go into these games hoping the officiating screws us so I can come on this board and bitch about it. I just call it like I see it, and I've seen a lot of bullshit against this team (and plenty of other teams) over the last few years.

Surely the CJ penalty against Indy that cost us the game was on the up and up!

Again, take the emotion out of it.

If you've seen a lot of bullshit against not only the Chiefs but "plenty of other teams", how is officiating a Chiefs problem? The simple answer is that it isn't. It affects the entire league, as you openly admitted, so there is no bias.

Right, I'm not claiming it's just an issue for us, but look at the calls I mentioned and explain them to me if they weren't meant to actively influence the outcomes of those particular games.

Again, we don't need to go at this ad nauseum. I don't expect everyone to think the way I do. You did come into a thread that was clearly meant to bitch about officials, so I don't know what else you were expecting to see. ;)

I was expecting to see people bitching about refs.

I came here specifically to tell people to stop bitching about the refs.

The Chiefs are going to win this weekend, with or without the refs.

I don't really think the refs are out to get the Chiefs. I do think Cheffers doesn't like them after Kelce's foot locker comment and whether he does it intentionally or not I think it could still have some bearing on how he officiates KC.

Torbert had some ridiculously bad calls in the cincy matchup last year but they are probably in line with how he calls dpi most of the time. I thought the block in the back call on the kickoff return was the worst.

This guy said a lot mumbo jumbo, then decided to have full blown mouth diarrhea in that last paragraph.. Listen bucko, if you're not good at your job you get fired, it's that simple, where's the accountability..

That Superbowl was complete bullshit.


I've never seen one-sided officiating like that in my life. If you look at the year leading up to the playoffs Tampa Bay OBLITERATED the PI and defensive holding calls records.

They have ALL the same receivers, QB, etc. now. The PI and Dholding penalties were normal the year before and after.

What changed for that ONE year?

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’m gonna go with a player joined their team who almost always gets calls to go his way. Except for this season.

It's madding that people brush it off when these obvious anomalies exist.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. :)

It’s crazy. If the games were steered AT ALL, the game would be against Buffalo in Atlanta.

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.

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.

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.

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 :tinfoil:

Ohh hell here we go. THE NFL HATES US !!! THE FIX IS IN!!!!! MIGHT AS WELL NOT EVEN TAKE THE FIELD!!!!!!

Sincerely, Chiefsplanet.com

Some of what you are saying is true these are different "crews" but stop acting like Torbert, Clete, and Carl don't have flags and throw them. Disingenuous at best.

q

ron torbert has never officiated a mahomes home game

if he calls 'em for the home team, we good

Blakeman is the one who personally threw the flag when Chris Jones lightly brushed the helmet of Tommy Boy. Talk about changing the entire course of a game with one flag that never should have occurred.

I'll never, ever forget that one. There's zero excuse for it, except wanting to directly influence the result of the game.

There's no accountability for NFL referees. Are you new to football?