Anybody watching the NFL game between Green Bay and Seattle last night knows that the game was essentially decided in the final seconds of the game, when a "Hail Mary" pass by Seattle was caught in the end zone. After a painful review process, the decision was a catch by the Seahawks, ruled as a touchdown, hence the Seahawks won the game.
I don't have to tell you that the whole way the game ended was a gigantic screw-up, since the decision on the field was wrong, and the review did not overturn it. IMHO, after watching the play dozens of times, there is no way that the Seahawks caught the ball. In addition, the entire catch debate should have been irrelevant since the Seahawks were guilty of offensive pass interference as the ball reached the end zone. The referees failed to call that infraction prior to the disputed catch.

When a trusted group of professionals are replaced at short notice by a group with little to no experience, there are going to be two phases of assessment performed on those replacement people:
1. Immediate impression of competency
2. Gradual impression of leadership and enforcement policies

(1) can be determined in a matter of days (or hours).
(2) may coalesce over a period of weeks to months, since some leadership capability is only tested when events occur, for example, a difficult decision needs to be made. In those scenarios, credibility is either built or reduced by both the decision-making process and the final decision or decisions.
Right now, the replacement officials have failed (2), for the following reasons that I can see (and I am not a football expert):

1. Decision-making is slow and convoluted
- processing of routine actions such as the calling of timeouts is often slow
- referees not rapidly pulling crew together to discuss calls and determine a final ruling
- excessive referral to off-pitch officiating crew and the replay crew
- slow execution of replay reviews and replay review results

2. Failure to enforce the rules consistently or completely
- Fouls and infractions during plays are not being consistently detected (example of OPI by Golden Tate before the disputed end zone catch)
- Provocative and niggly behavior (pushing and shoving etc.) after plays is not being penalized via misconduct penalties
- Interventions by coaches complaining about calls and berating officials are not being shut down by referees

The teams have determined, after 3 weeks, that the referees are not in control. Just like in a corporation when it becomes clear that leadership is not in charge, the players and coaches are now allowing or engaging in dysfunctional behaviour because they can get away with it. They are fouling on and off the ball more often, they are engaging in provocations towards the opposing team after plays, and coaches are yelling at the referees more often, secure in the knowledge or conviction that they will face no sanction during or after the game.
This situation cannot be remedied rapidly with the current officials. The current crews look overwhelmed by the pace of the game at NFL level, and are not taking care of a myriad of subtle applications of the rules that will ensure that games flow within their alloted time slots, that players are kept in line, and that the outcomes of games truly reflect the performance of the teams on the pitch and follow the rules.
The NFL's denial on the seriousness of the issue has moved beyond optimistic to laughable. Most of their pronouncements on the issue of the referees lockout and the replacement officials now have no credibility. If Roger Goodell showed up in my living room, I would be telling him to stop insulting everybody's intelligence and get back to work and get the primary officials back working games NOW. Anything less will erode his credibility with followers of the game, and ultimately damage the performance of the NFL as a business, which he should be concerned about, since he works for the business owners. Jerry Jones' most recent denial that he even saw the incident in the game also beggars belief. Does Jerry really want us to believe that he was asleep?