Pro Football / Bob Oates : Instant Replay Officials Doing Too Much

When the National Football League added instant replay officials this year, it announced that calls would be reversed for one reason only: indisputable visual evidence that a playing-field official erred.

Indisputable, from Latin, means unquestionable. If there are no doubts and no disputes about something, it’s indisputable.

The NFL’s reasoning seemed sound enough. The problem is that the replay officials weren’t listening.

They’ve gotten themselves into trouble this year by attempting to call plays in which the evidence is clearly disputable.

They’re simply trying to do too much.

The play involving Raider Dokie Williams last Sunday was typical. When he came down with the ball, the Raider receiver was out of bounds, sure enough.

But Kansas City cornerback Albert Lewis was riding him there, and might have been pushing him off the field.

Under NFL rules, it’s a touchdown if Lewis pushed him out. It’s an incomplete pass if he didn’t.

The play was too close, in other words, for anyone to overrule the official on the field, who was only a few yards away from Williams and Lewis, and called it a touchdown.

Indisputable? No way.

The replay official, who called it incomplete, should have let the play stand and the game go on.

One more thing Dept.: The NFL’s club owners this year are attempting something that is a lot more difficult than popularly realized.

They’re trying to adapt advanced, modern, electronic technology to an old, emotional, very human game played by highly skilled individuals who, despite their skills, make lots of mistakes.

Using TV, the league is trying to catch a select few of the hundreds of mistakes that are made in every game.

That is almost impossible.

Even so, it is worthwhile. For years, American sports fans have asked for replay officiating, and they still want it. Every poll shows that.

They hope they’ve seen the last of the occasional big obvious blunder that is beyond the vision of the officials.

But why expect immediate perfection in a complex experiment that’s just ripe for controversy?

Mike Ditka, who coaches the Chicago Bears, is talking about an undefeated season this year.

“It’s within the realm of believing somebody may do it,” Ditka told Chicago reporters this week. “Denver is playing well, and the Redskins are winning in a lot of different ways and that’s what we’re doing.”

Examining the NFL’s remaining games, nobody else expects Denver and Washington to continue unbeaten. For one thing, climaxing difficult schedules, they play each other Dec. 13.

In contrast, the Bears are playing nobody this year--nobody in their class, that is, except possibly the Rams and Dallas.

It should be considered an upset if the Bears don’t win them all.

Their game this week, which is illustrative of the Bears’ schedule, should be canceled and the ticket money refunded. They will be going against the Houston Oilers, who have beaten only Green Bay, which has beaten no one.

Houston fullback Butch Woolfolk was asked this week to evaluate the club he plays for.

“Some people say we’re a terrible team,” Woolfolk told reporters. “Some people say we’re an average team. I think we’re a good team that just loses all the time.”

In their first meeting as professionals, quarterbacks Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills and Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins will be in the Orange Bowl Sunday.

Marino’s is the most famous struggling team of the season.

Kelly’s is also 1-4 in the AFC East. But it took a fourth-quarter touchdown and interception to beat him Sunday, 14-13. The New York Jets scored the touchdown and Kelly threw the interception.

“I’m going to forget this,” he said, “and come back and keep some P.M.A.--positive mental attitude.”

That shouldn’t be too hard. Kelly has had the Bills on top in the fourth quarter of every game they’ve played since he joined the team. And their four losses have been by a total of 11 points.”

The Bills are conceivably on the rise. Their assets in addition to Kelly are a pretty solid offensive line and effective running with Greg Bell and others.

“The (offensive team’s) work is encouraging our defense to play better,” Coach Hank Bullough said.

The Monday night game went on again this week for 3 1/2 hours--although, against the Seattle Seahawks’ defense, the San Diego Chargers didn’t have a chance in the long fourth quarter.

The lack of intensity and action in the rather dreary last 20 minutes was a reminder that NFL administrators aren’t doing enough to speed up their product.

“There are a lot of things the NFL could do,” said David Dixon, the New Orleans promoter who founded the Saints and the USFL. “For one thing, timeouts for injuries should be coincided with timeouts for commercials. That would save a lot of time.”

It would indeed. But the NFL doesn’t seem interested.

The league has found that most fans don’t mind long games.

But some do. And in a blowout like this week’s, many do. After midnight, if not long before, ABC and the NFL must have lost much of their Eastern audience.

Minus Tony Dorsett, the Dallas Cowboys netted 41 yards running the ball in Denver Sunday with their 230-pound backs, Herschel Walker and Timmy Newsome.

They learned that day that gaining ground against the Broncos is harder than it was against Detroit, Atlanta and St. Louis.

The Cowboys, what’s more, still aren’t getting the most out of Walker, who is one of the NFL’s great receivers. In Denver, he was seen in a diving catch that many NFL wide receivers can’t make.

Walker almost never drops a pass or fumbles the ball when running. And with his speed and size, a catch by Walker almost anywhere in an open field is an automatic first down.

But at least half the time in Denver, Walker was blocking for the passer. On 15 other plays he was running the ball, for 33 yards.

He wasn’t in the pass offense enough, and against the NFL’s really good defenses, that’s where he belongs.

For the second time in a month, the co-favorites in the AFC East will meet Sunday: New England Patriots vs. New York Jets in the Meadowlands.

The Patriots were an easy winner last time, but they have lost twice since and are 3-2. The Jets are 4-1.

The problem for both teams is the condition of their quarterbacks, Ken O’Brien of the Jets and Tony Eason of the Patriots. Both had to leave last week’s games--Eason with rib injuries and O’Brien with an injured knee.

Eason has the more experienced backup, Steve Grogan, but O’Brien expects to play.

He returned, limping, in the fourth quarter last week and completed four of his last five passes to pull out a 14-13 win over Buffalo.