It was a bad first week for the NFL's replacement refs when it came to clock issues. Not only did the refs give the Seattle Seahawks an extra timeout in their game against the Arizona Cardinals, but essentially the same error was committed against the St. Louis Rams in their loss to the Detroit Lions.
Rams head coach Jeff Fisher was of course disappointed by the fact that the clock operator did not move the playclock down to the two-minute warning, but he did not blame their eventual loss on that:
"There's a lot of areas on the tape and film where we're a play away," Fisher said. "You make a play here, you make a play there, you have a chance to win the ballgame."
Fisher also made sure not to blame the replacement referees for the gaffe, saying instead that it was an error with the clock operator.
"The issue is the 40-second clock started and then the game clock froze, and the 40-second clock got ahead of the game so I couldn't run it down."
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