After Further Review: Old rule called in a Patriots game this week’s punching bag

Back judge Todd Prukop moments before the Giants are penalized for an excessive celebration foul on an interception. [John Gliebter/Philadelphia Eagles]

Here is an abbreviated rundown of the officiating news: 

• The Dolphins were hit with an unusual illegal bat penalty. Walt Anderson was interviewed by a pool reporter about the call [Ben Austro, Football Zebras]. “The obscure rule giveth, and the obscure rule taketh away” [Shalise Manza Young, Bos Globe]. “The horrible call … can’t be chalked up to safety, just officials being way too excited to throw penalty flags” [Frank Schwab, Y! Shutdown Corner]. “Players in Miami’s locker room would not elaborate much on the questionable officiating Sunday. That may have been an edict from [Coach Joe] Philbin.” [James Walker, ESPN]
• More in our Week 8 Quick Calls. [Football Zebras]
• “Detroit didn’t have any timeouts left and Dallas was tackled inbounds with less than two minutes to go, so why did the clock stop? The official NFL rules state the reason pretty clearly.” [Kenneth Arthur, SB Nation]
• Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger lobbied for a horse-collar tackle penalty, which referee John Parry and an unspecified official decided was not a foul. “So by the time we got back to the huddle, you look up and there’s three seconds on the play clock.” Steelers called a timeout. [Ed Bouchette, Pit Post-Gazette]
• The NFL Referees Association donated $10,000 to the Estes Park School District near Denver to help repair the athletic facilities damaged in last month’s widespread flooding. [KCNC-TV/Denver]

In non-Week-8 news, this tweet from Adam Schefter (and my flabbergasted response) started out our football Sunday.

OK, I’ll admit, I’m now totally lost MT @AdamSchefter U Tony Michalek, did not call push foul on Jets, even though NFL admitted in HC video

— Football Zebras.com (@footballzebras) October 27, 2013

 

We will have more discussion on this during the week, at which time we hope to bury it.