Most coaches will tiptoe around officiating questions, for fear of getting fined by the league.
Bruce Arians is not most coaches.
The Cardinals boss was frank when discussing the officials in yesterday’s win over the 49ers, particularly when asked about a sequence when his team lost a down when a penalty was assessed against his opponent in the first quarter.
“The officials were struggling,” Arians said, via Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic. “Mightily. They can’t count to three.”
Arians said officials tried to explain what happened.
“I got tired of them because they were just running out of them,” he said. “It was a FUBAR on their part. They can try to explain it. They’re wrong.”
While that might not make Arians any friends in Dean Blandino’s office, it’s also as succinct an appraisal of this year’s consistent struggles applying the rules as any we’ve heard.
