Bill Vinovich this morning

I don't know how the referee hierarchy works in a game setting, or how much clout the head ref has when his judges make a bad call to overturn it. But if I'm giving them ANY benefit of the doubt, the league has failed to give the refs any support in being able to reaffirm/overturn calls.

If I take out any influence from the league office, Vinovich's reaction screams of "I wish I could take that moment back, but in the moment, I had to go with what my guys said. Even if they're flat out wrong, because only the booth can buzz in for any help there".

I personally don't know if I lay it all on him, I say that the guys on his crew need to be replaced BADLY. But again, I don't know how much power he held on that particular call.

Edit: I will add, this doesn't take away that overall the officiating was bad and needs to be better period. But if we're laying our cards on the table for that one call, that's how it breaks down. I don't personally want anyone to feel bad or want to hate any official. But this call is going to be historically bad.
each of the 7 officials has an "area" of the field to cover

generally, the head referee (Bill Vinovich in this case) covers the offensive backfield and LOS

while he may have been looking in the general area of the play because his action to cover was mostly over... the foul did not happen in his "area"

that's why I generally give him leeway on the pass interference call... it's not his call to make... that area of the field belongs to the side judge and down judge and to a much lesser degree the back judge

now if you want to get on him for a potential missed roughing the passer call on the INT in OT... that's fair game