Hold up: How many time outs does each team get? (US Presswire)

Players for both Arizona and Seattle were united in one thing: the replacement refs in their game were absolutely horrible.

It was the topic in the locker rooms after the game and in their homes as well. One Cardinals player said several of his teammates called friends on the Seahawks to commiserate further about the craziness that had just happened in their game. More on that in a minute.

Overall, this was a rough week for the replacements. Some did the job well. Others, in places like Seattle and Denver, were clearly intimidated by the big moment. One Steelers player, angry over a non-call, got right in the face of a replacement official and screamed at him for about five seconds. The official looked terrified. A real official would have thrown a flag, ten out of ten times.

The biggest problem the replacements are having remains they are flubbing even the most basic of rules like, you know, how many timeouts a team has.

I'm told by various sources the NFL remains on track to have replacements for Week 2. The NFL, frankly, still has the leverage in this situation.

Two big mistakes from the weekend:

1. Cobb story: Green Bay's Randall Cobb returned a punt 75 yards for a score. A flag was thrown for a block in the back which led to a booth review and, subsequently, a reversing of the call. The problem was: the call was correct. Green Bay's Terrell Manning did block Anthony Dixon in the back. To me, this was another example of officials being intimidated by the moment.

2. The extra timeout: There was nearly a historic mistake in that Arizona-Seattle game as the Seahawks were given an extra timeout. After Seattle's Doug Baldwin was injured there was an injury timeout. Referee Bruce Hermansen thought that wasn't an actual timeout. This led to the Seahawks using a fourth timeout. This was some Twilight Zone type stuff. Luckily the mistake didn't have an impact on the game.

The situation with the replacements will remain one of the biggest stories of the NFL and it might be several more weeks until the real officials return.