We’re also going to look at another one of the calls that, though it wasn’t much of a controversy in itself, the aftermath created some drama. I also offer some of my thoughts on these calls; although it appears that the referee situation will begin to stabilize tonight, as the league and the referees have come to an agreement that ends their lockout. I’m anxious to see how players, coaches and commentators react to having the usual guys back…
First, though, I want to feature today’s Player of the Day
in this post, instead of the right sidebar.
I broke with the random-selection process to feature him because he
played through great personal loss to deliver a memorable performance on the
field this past weekend.
Player of the Day
TORREY SMITH: Snatching Triumph Out of Tragedy
Just before midnight on Saturday, Tevin Jones, younger
brother of Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith, lost control of his
motorcycle and hit a utility pole on the side of the road in Montross,
Virginia (both are in the picture at left; Tevin is in Torrey's jersey). Though he wore a helmet, Tevin
was pronounced dead on the scene (alcohol was not a factor in the
accident). Torrey, who helped raise
Tevin and their younger siblings, rushed to be with his family in those early
morning hours. He returned to his team
later in the day and, encouraged by a text from his mother, decided to play in
the game against the New England Patriots that night. The Ravens honored Tevin with a moment of
silence before the game began.
Playing with unimaginable pain in his heart but buoyed by
the support of fans and teammates, Torrey Smith turned in a career performance,
catching six passes for 127 and two touchdowns. It was his biggest game since
his 165-yard performance in Week 11 of the 2011 season. His catches were vital in the Ravens’ victory
over the Patriots which, as you’ll read below, came down to the final play of
the game. He is expected to play again
tonight against the Cleveland Browns. 
Torrey Smith attended the University of Maryland and was
selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the second round of the 2011 NFL
Draft. While in college, Torrey set
school and ACC records with 123 kickoff returns for nearly 3,000 yards; his
school-record 5,264 all-purpose yards ranks seventh in ACC history.
Torrey and his family have established a scholarship fund in
Torrey’s honor. Donations can be made
payable to The Tevin Jones Memorial Scholarship Fund and mailed to:
Baltimore Ravens
c/o Torrey Smith
1 Winning Drive
Owings Mills, MD 21117
Green Bay at
Seattle: The Game-Ending Hail Mary Pass
(or, “The Inconceivable Reception”)
If you watched Monday night’s game between the Packers and
the Seahawks, you know it wasn’t a game that either offense wants to
remember. Reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers had
a pedestrian outing, completing 26 of 39 passes for 223 yards and no
touchdowns. It’s no wonder he had subpar
numbers, considering how much time he spent on the turf—he was sacked an
incredible eight times. Seattle’s rookie
QB Russell Wilson managed to throw two touchdown passes (though, as I’ll
explain, it was really only one), but only accounted for 130 yards (24 of which
should be taken away).
The score in the waning moments of the game was 12-7, Green
Bay leading. With a 4th and 10 from the
Green Bay 24 yard line with eight seconds remaining, Wilson heaved a Hail Mary pass to the back
corner of the end zone. A crowd of
Packers, including safety M.D. Jennings, waited there along with two Seahawk
receivers for the ball to descend. As
the ball came down, Jennings jumped up, grabbed the ball and clutched it to his
chest; the left hand of Seattle receiver Golden Tate was wedged between the
ball and the #43 on Jennings’ jersey.
As
the mass of humanity landed in the end zone, two officials—who had to run in
from other parts of the end zone—looked down into pile and, seeing that both
Jennings and Tate were holding the ball, ruled that there was a “simultaneous
catch.” When there is a simultaneous
catch (i.e., two players have possession of the ball), the offense is awarded
the catch (in baseball parlance, the tie goes to the runner). Therefore, the Seahawks were given six points
for the touchdown.
Here’s the problem:
there was no simultaneous catch in that play. The officials got it wrong. Simultaneous catches are governed by NFL Rule
8-1-3, Item 5 (emphasis added):
Item 5: Simultaneous Catch. If a pass if caught simultaneously by two
eligible opponents, and both players retain it, the ball belongs to the
passers. It is not a simultaneous catch if a player gains control first and an
opponent subsequently gains joint control…
In other words, if another player gains control of the ball,
an opposing player can’t wrestle with him until he also holds the ball. This is precisely what happened on the last
play of the game Monday night. As the
replay shows, Jennings made the catch at the apex of his leap in the end zone;
it wasn’t until he and Tate were on the ground that Tate got his other hand
around the ball.
As I have explained, starting last season, all touchdowns
are reviewed by the replay officials who will instruct the on-field referee to
take a second look at a touchdown ruling that may have been in error. That happened here, but the ruling was upheld
and the Seahawks won. By the way,
simultaneous catch rulings are typically not reviewable. However, they are reviewable when the catch
occurs in the end zone.
To complicate things further, the officials also missed an
offensive pass interference call, which occurred when Tate shoved Green Bay
cornerback Sam Shields as the ball was heading to the end zone. If this penalty had been called, the game
would have been over no matter who had caught the ball. Unfortunately, the call and no-call of
penalties are not reviewable.
Here is the replay of the catch (in super slow motion):
Now, I have to say that I usually hate it when teams blame
the outcome of a game on a single call like this. My reaction is always the same: your win or loss shouldn’t depend on
last-ditch plays that may or may not be called correctly by the officials. Final scores are the accumulation of 60
minutes of playing. Teams and players
should only focus on what they can control.
Maybe if Aaron Rodgers hadn’t been sacked eight times the Green Bay
offense would have been productive enough to have the game in hand late in the
fourth quarter. Also, if M.D. Jennings
had tried to bat the ball down instead of trying to catch it, like defensive
players are trained to do on these plays, there wouldn’t have been a catch
ruling at all—just an incompletion and the game would have ended.
I also believe that the media, especially commentators calling the games, have been unduly hard on officials regarding many of the missed and questionable calls that have been made, calls that the regular officials would have also missed or ruled in the same way.
I also believe that the media, especially commentators calling the games, have been unduly hard on officials regarding many of the missed and questionable calls that have been made, calls that the regular officials would have also missed or ruled in the same way.
However, my opinions assume that those desperation plays are
observed by individuals who are well-versed and experienced in the governing
rules, and that the questionable rulings are questionable because they came
down to perception—a subjective call. That wasn’t the case here.
In this situation, there were multiple lapses by the crew: first, in an obvious Hail Mary scenario, it’s inexcusable that there was, apparently, no official properly positioned in the end zone to rule on a catch; second, the pass interference by Tate was missed; third, the erroneous simultaneous catch ruling that was upheld on review; and, finally, the inconsistent hand signals by the two officials, one signaling a touchdown and the other signaling a no-catch, created confusion on both sidelines. If the regular officials had been working this game, at the very least they undoubtedly would have been better positioned to make the calls and the administration of the rulings would have been much cleaner.
In this situation, there were multiple lapses by the crew: first, in an obvious Hail Mary scenario, it’s inexcusable that there was, apparently, no official properly positioned in the end zone to rule on a catch; second, the pass interference by Tate was missed; third, the erroneous simultaneous catch ruling that was upheld on review; and, finally, the inconsistent hand signals by the two officials, one signaling a touchdown and the other signaling a no-catch, created confusion on both sidelines. If the regular officials had been working this game, at the very least they undoubtedly would have been better positioned to make the calls and the administration of the rulings would have been much cleaner.
New England at
Baltimore: The Over-the-Top Field Goal
The Sunday night game between the Patriots and the Ravens
was a much-anticipated rematch of last season’s AFC Championship Game, which
ended with a missed 32-yard field goal attempt by Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff. This time, though, it was Justin Tucker’s
turn (Cundiff was released by the Ravens in August and now plays for the
Washington Redskins): as time expired,
and his team was down 28-30, Tucker kicked a 27-yard field goal to win the
game.
However, it wasn’t obvious that the kick was successful at
first. As the ball soared over the
crossbar of the goal post, it was still higher than the tops of the
uprights. In fact, it appeared to pass
over the top of the right upright. To
the New England sideline, it seemed to be a miss. Kicks that go over the uprights are
specifically addressed in the NFL rules, at Rule 11-4-1(c) (emphasis added):
The entire ball must pass through the vertical plane of the
goal, which is the area above the crossbar and between the uprights or, if above the uprights, between their outside
edges…
So imagine that, at the tops of the uprights, there are long,
thin pieces of paper that are taped to the outside their outside edges and
extend skyward. If the ball passes to
the inside of those pieces of paper, the field goal is good. Here was the kick:
Although this play was a close call, and it determined the
outcome of a game, the rules are clear and the ruling of a field goal wasn’t
controversial. In the heat of the
moment, though, Bill Belichick thought the kick merited review and, confused
and upset when it wasn’t being reviewed, he ran up to an official demanding an
explanation. When the official didn’t
respond, Belichick grabbed the official by the arm; the official pulled his arm
back and continued to jog off the field (you can see this moment at the end of
the video above). Belichick might not
have realized that, by rule, field goals that cross over the tops of the
uprights are not reviewable. Currently
there is no technology that exists that would help determine definitively where
the ball passed the upright. For that
reason, the league specifically decided to carve out such plays from
review.
In any case Belichick crossed a line—coaches may seem free
to berate officials as much as they want, but the expression of their fury has
limits and one thing they absolutely cannot do is place their hands on
officials in frustration or anger. NFL
Rule 12-3-1(g) expressly prohibits “unnecessary physical contact with a game
official.” Belichick now has to pay the
price for being touch-feely: yesterday
the league fined him $50,000. With talk
of coaches, and players, berating officials and trying to intimidate them, I’m
glad the league took a hard line here.
Even though the arm grab wasn’t meant to intimidate, physical contact is
a clear line that is easy to enforce, and remember—it is one of the few rules
that don’t require interpretation.
Moreover, Rule 12-3-1(b) prohibits “using abusive,
threatening, or insulting language or gestures to opponents, teammates,
officials, or representatives of the League.”
In furtherance of that policy, the NFL also fined Washington Redskins
offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan $25,000 for berating an official after his
team’s loss Sunday. Earlier in the week,
Broncos head coach John Fox (above) and defensive coordinator were fined $30,000 and
$25,000, respectively, for yelling at officials the prior week. In fact, their
actions prompted a memo admonishing against bullying officials. I understand a coach using various means of persuasion to get officials to see things their way, but to bully and berate people who are trying their best to keep the games safe and fair is just unprofessional—and certainly not the way to ingratiate yourself with the crew that will be working your next game. And when is this tolerated in “real life”—can you imagine what would happen if you started ranting and raving at the police officer who pulls you over?
