Were the coaches able to convince the Ref that he was mistaken? Some Refs know the rules better than anyone else and you can't convince them otherwise. Already this year we've had to discuss the throw-in that never came in bounds rule differences in two games. That discussion is of little consequence compared to playing a man down. At our annual pre-season rule meeting a few years back a coach asked what a team could do when a Ref was "Out-to-lunch" for whatever reason. The response from the league was basically the Ref is always right - no protests, etc. allowed. Everyone realizes that refs are inherently trying to do the right thing - but sometimes they don't/can't for various reasons (the most obvious being they don't know any better).
