The NFL had another horrible week of officiating affecting the outcomes of several games. This is no longer an aberration or a rough patch, but a consistent pattern dating back several years.

It's not all the officials fault. The game is played at a much faster speed now by bigger and stronger players. It can test the very best of human eyesight and instincts to get even 90 percent of the calls correct. Replay challenges and reviews were supposed to deal with the 10 percent in error but it's falling short.

Part of the reason is that not every call is reviewable -- just some supposedly non-judgmental calls. This year, the NFL tried adding a challenge to a subjective flag with offensive and defensive interference being open to challenge. The problem is that the interpretation of interference is still up for debate, making it almost impossible to get these calls reversed.

I'm not going to get into my view of pass interference again, other than to say it should only be called when a receiver is virtually tackled or blatantly prevented from catching a catchable ball. Anything else should be allowed.

But the NFL's bigger problem is that there are just too many rules and too few officials on the field to enforce them all. If the league is considering any type of overhaul of officiating -- then the first step is simplifying and shrinking the possible infractions. The Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen who was the analyst for the Giants-Cardinals game on Sunday said as much. He said there are just too many layers to the rulebook, too much up for interpretation and too much to be decided in a split second by the human eye. By the way, how good was he in the booth!

Given that the NFL's inclination is to expand everything and reduce nothing, more review is probably how poor officiating will be dealt with. If that's the case -- which I don't support -- then at least change the entire review process so that it's more full proof. Coaches shouldn't have to rely on the quick eye of an assistant coach in the booth or the word of their players who believe a ball hit the ground to throw a challenge flag. Sometimes they don't get that information in time before the next snap.

A permanent booth official with the power to overrule any call that is blatantly wrong makes the most sense. But the NFL is petrified of that, fearing that will unbearably slow down games. At the very least, if the league is beholden to the current challenge system, then give the coaches more to work with.

For one, they should not have to throw the challenge flag before the next snap. If for some reason, a replay didn't become available until after the next snap, that shouldn't preclude a challenge. If a coach still wants to challenge the previous play even though another play has been run, he should have that opportunity. What is happening now is that coaches are wasting timeouts so they can see a replay.

Perhaps, each team should be allotted two replay timeouts -- to be used only to review the previous play so a challenge decision can be made intelligently.

Coaches also need a “wild card” challenge -- one challenge per game that can be used to review any call -- not just the standard reviewable calls. This would have eliminated a slew of wrong calls that affected outcomes of games.

I understand the idea of replay review and the quest to get more calls correct. But, that opens up the expectation to get every call correct. While that may sound great, it goes against the human nature of the game. The players and coaches don't get it right every time and that makes the game interesting and intriguing. Officiating should be part of that imperfection.

Ken Cohen brings 30 years of publishing experience, many covering sports and working for sports companies. A National Newspaper Assn. first place sports column writer, “Further Review” appears every Tuesday.