Zebra Blog

Week 4: Ravens at Patriots

First, there is no video of the play in question online, only the postgame reaction by the Ravens’ Ray Lewis.

Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was flagged for low contact with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Brady’s brief 2008 season—cut short due to a knee injury in the season opener—no doubt prompted extra scrutiny on low hits for all quarterbacks. However, Suggs barely contacted Brady and was, in fact, blocked into Brady’s path. Under the rule that is not a penalty. This is under the responsibility of the referee; for this game, it was Ron Winter.

Lewis’s comments as reported by The Baltimore Sun:

That’s embarrassing to our game … Fine me, do whatever you please, I’m not speaking against anybody. It’s embarrassing for them to treat one person on a football field different from anybody else. That’s what’s embarrassing about this game. You cannot do that. You’ve got to let the game take care of itself like it just did. But when you call penalties like that, it takes away from the love of the game because you can get a Tom Brady to walk by you and say something like, “Oh, that’s a cheap one.” Wow.

There is speculation that Lewis will be fined for his comments. While it’s a high-profile grievance, he did not (at least in the excerpts we have found) complain about the call, but the rule.

Week 4: Chargers at Steelers

In the Sunday Night Football game, the Chargers special teams player Jacob Hester is credited with a heads-up, 41-yard fumble-return touchdown. However, it is confusing how the Steelers punt returner Steve Logan was driven back three yards in control of the ball without being ruled down by forward progress.

The video of the play shows clearly that Logan achieved the 44-yard line, with the fumble occurring at the 41.

The covering official was back judge Steve Freeman, who marked the point of recovery with his beanbag. The field judge, Boris Cheek, was covering the sideline at the 25 (you will see his hat marking that a player stepped out of bounds), so he was in no position to judge forward progress.

There was a coach’s challenge, but forward progress could not have been overturned on replay.

Pro Football Talk is reporting that the league office is backing up two borderline touchdown calls from the weekend: Dante Rosario’s catch for the Panthers and Jacoby Jones’s reception for the Titans.

According to league spokesman, Greg Aiello:

On Rosario, he completed the catch, turned up field and stretched the ball over the goal line for a touchdown before he goes to the ground. He didn’t use the ground to complete the catch.  In the Oakland play, Murphy goes straight to the ground.

On Jacoby Jones, he caught the ball, his knee hit the ground, and he maintained possession. Then the Titans player flipped him over the top and [Jones] hit the ground a second time and lost the ball.  But it was already a touchdown by virtue of maintaining possession the first time he hit the ground.

The assessment from the league fairly consistent with our previous discussions on the topic, albeit still controversial.

Week 1: 49ers at Cardinals

It seems the Arizona Cardinals cannot finish a game without a controversial call on the last play of the game. In the first outing following the controversial game-ending fumble in Super Bowl XLIII, the Cardinals found themselves, again, in a last-second desperation call.

With eight seconds left in the 49ers–Cardinals game (video highlight at 2:10), the Cardinals needed 54 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Kurt Warner was sacked with three seconds; the ball was fumbled and rolled out of bounds as time expired.

An interesting development arose, as the players (most visibly kicker Joe Nedney) entered onto the field with three seconds left with a live, loose ball. The play, according to the gamebook, did not end until the ball went out of bounds. Therefore, there were more than 11 players on the field.

49ers bench enters the field during a live ball with 2 seconds remaining. Credit: NFL/Fox Sports

Nedney, although near the ball, did not interfere with the play. Because the fumble was after the two-minute warning, only Warner (the fumbler) could legally recover for the Cardinals. So there was clearly no way the Cardinals had a chance to recover. But, by the letter of the rules, it is an illegal substitution, which would have been a 5-yard penalty and an untimed down for the Cardinals. A replay review could have been initiated, as the number of personnel is a reviewable call. It could not be challenged since there was less than two minutes.

Flashback: Browns at Chiefs, Week 1, 2002

This may appear to be overreaching, as players believed the play to be over and did not interfere with the play. But, that did not factor in an unsportsmanlike conduct call in the 2002 Browns–Chiefs opening day game. When Chiefs quarterback Trent Green was swarmed under with the clock showing 0:00, it appeared that the game was over. Dwayne Rudd of the Browns removed his helmet in celebration, not realizing that Green lateraled the ball to lineman John Tait, who was tackled at the 25-yard line.

Although Rudd thought the play was over, and did not have any affect on the play, he was nonetheless flagged for removing his helmet, which extended the quarter by an untimed down for the Chiefs’ game-winning field goal.

Today’s game was officiated by Don Carey’s crew (his first as referee); Lloyd McPeters was the replay official.

Preseason Week 2: Titans at Cowboys

Jeff Fisher, in his capacity as competition committee chair, is calling a teleconference of the committee regarding an unusual circumstance in a game he coached, Friday’s Titans-Cowboys game.

A punt by backup Titans punter A.J. Trapasso hit the overhead video screen (video at 1:10). Initially, none of the referees saw the ball deflect off of the video screen, so Fisher called for a replay review. (This is not a reviewable call, but the officiating crew determined without review that the ball came in contact with the video screen.)

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the rule is that the play is nullified and replayed. However, the game officials had the clock reset as if the play never happened — something not typical when a penalty nullifies the play.

“We haven’t talked at all about time being put on the clock,” [NFL director of officiating, Mike Pereira]  said. “The only thing we’ve talked about really is the do-over of the play. We’ve never talked about resetting the clock back to where it was. That’s obviously something we’re going to have to talk about. And that may be what we arrive at.

“I would say that it’s a big enough issue that we’re going to have to address it with the competition committee here probably sometime this week to figure out what direction we want to go.”

This was the first game played in the new Cowboys Stadium, and according to Farmer’s report, punters from both teams were able to hit the scoreboard several times. This may not be the last time this happens in a game. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones states that he will not move the video screens, despite the fact that the stadium will do so for an uncoming U2 concert.

Super Bowl XLIII: Pittsburgh vs. Cardinals

Video from NFL.com

Officials don’t win or lose games. The Cardinals had a three-point lead with 2:47 remaining in the fourth quarter. So, rather the defense is mostly responsible for the outcome, rather than the denial of a last-second desperation play.

Kurt Warner’s last ditch effort did, however, deserve more than a cursory look at three angles. It is hard to believe that the evidence is conclusive enough to confirm whether or not Warner fumbled the ball. The New York Times’ Fifth Down blog has sequential photos of the play, suggesting this could be the Tuck Rule II.

In this case, the on-field officiating crew had done everything correct. The replay official, Bob McGrath — not the denizen of Sesame Street, I hope — was the sole decider on whether a last-minute play gets a review by Terry McAuley, the head referee.

The league’s vice president of officiating, Mike Pereira, backed up McGrath’s assessment to NBC:

We confirmed it was a fumble. The replay assistant in the replay booth saw it was clearly a fumble. The ball got knocked loose and was rolling in his hand before it started forward. He has to have total control.

Well, yeah, but sometimes you have to think that the magnitude of the call requires another look-see. And especially since there already was a fumble-to-incomplete reversal on the first drive of the third quarter.

This is an odd situation in the world of refereedom. If any one official makes an incorrect call, and it is not corrected, the bad call is pinned on all seven officials. However, the decision of the replay official has no on-field intervention.

Further frustrating the Cardinals sideline was the fact that they were a perfect 2-for-2 on red-flag challenges, being awarded the rare third challenge for being correct on the first two. However, that challenge disappears from the ledger once the two-minute warning is called in the fourth quarter.