1st Quarter | 2:12 remaining | Tied 7-7 | Giants ball | 3rd & 6 @ GB 20 | video

Update, 12/6: Video link added.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin, in a game fraught with very tight replay situations, challenged an incomplete pass from quarterback Eli Manning to receiver Jake Ballard in the end zone. (There is no video of the play on NFL.com; we are trying to find another source.)

Coughlin contended that Ballard’s right foot came down, then the right knee in bounds. (Of course, we know that one knee equals two feet.) Ballard secured the ball through to the ground, so in all other respects he completed the process of the catch, and therefore it would be a touchdown.

Jake Ballard was ruled to have his right knee out of bounds on a challenge. Credit: UPI

Referee Jeff Triplette saw otherwise, and confirmed the call on the field, as he judged Ballard’s knee to be out of bounds in the end zone. Giants kicked a field goal on the next play.

As Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star-Ledger reported, Coughlin said, “I just saw a picture that made me sick to my stomach, which Fox produced and showed [Ballard is]  in. Don’t ask me about [why it was not ruled that way] because I really don’t know why, but I did see the picture.”

A UPI photograph, shown here, clearly shows that Ballard, in fact, was entitled to the score. Not only did the Giants lose the challenge, but it cost the team four points.

3rd Quarter | 9:59 remaining | Packers 21-17 | Packers ball | 3rd & 9 @ NYG 20 | video

Packers squeaked out a touchdown to pad their third-quarter lead when receiver Greg Jennings caught an Aaron Rodgers pass and immediately dropped the ball. It was ruled a touchdown on the field (back judge Steve Freeman made the call), but was subject to a replay review.

Referee Jeff Triplette correctly upheld the touchdown. While the grip on the ball by Jennings was tenuous at best, it was enough to establish control of the ball with two feet down in the end zone.  The process-of-the-catch rule does not apply, because Jennings was not falling to the ground.

4th Quarter | 3:40 remaining | Packers 28-27 | Packers ball | 2nd & goal @ 7 | video

Did Donald Driver step out of bounds? This was the only angle for review. Credit: NFL/Fox Sports

Donald Driver caught another Rodgers pass when there was a question as to whether Driver stepped out of bounds prior to the catch. Under the rules, a player who goes out of bounds is not eligible to be the first player to touch a pass. The top Fox Sports crew had only one view of Driver’s potential foot-out-of-bounds, but that was a bad angle from the camera at the 50-yard line. Nonethless, Joe Buck, our highly trained announcer who has shown to be an expert in venue maintenance, also professed to be an expert in angular depth of perception by declaring that Driver had not stepped out.

In any case, it would have been a hairline call, but there was no indisputable evidence to overturn, so Triplette allowed the touchdown to stand.

So when overtime began in San Diego between the Broncos and Chargers, Triplette had a slight sleight of mind. During the coin toss, he announced to both teams:

Each team must have an opportunity to possess the football and score.

Except, that’s not the rule. At least not in the regular season. He was citing the newly enacted, never used rule that overtime goes into “modified sudden death” in the playoffs. But first score always wins during the regular season.

[Video link at NFL.com changed on us. We are looking for a new link to the announcement.]

Of course, there is much ado over nothing, as Triplette corrected his announcement. He is not the first referee to recant a misstated rule. With a 123-page rule book and 113-page case book that must be recalled on a moment’s notice, it’s actually a surprise that the officials are right more than 98% of the time.

But, it would be nice to not have an overtime coin-toss controversy on Thanksgiving weekend (see: 1998).

Zebra Blog has learned that referee Scott Green has been on leave the past two weeks with an injury. Gene Steratore substituted for Green in Week 11 and Jeff Triplette will head Green’s crew today. A league source has indicated that Green has an unspecified injury, with no word on when he will return.

Photo credit: Life magazine from Week 8 game between Jaguars and Texans.

The description of the “process of the catch” has been fixed in the rulebook, but that does not mean that the ruling has become any easier for spectators. The basic premise remains unchanged: catch the ball and do something after that point, such as run with the ball, change direction, or stretch the ball over the goal line. This used to be considered a “football move” in the rulebook, but the league moved away from that description after some high profile misinterpretations. Now, we are moving back towards that, but the catch rulings should come closer to what fans expect to be called consistently.

Giants receiver Victor Cruz had a leaping touchdown catch against the Eagles when he lost the ball in the end zone. It was ruled a touchdown and automatically subjected to a replay review. Jeff Triplette announced the verdict:

After reviewing the play, the ruling on the field is confirmed. The receiver caught the ball, stuck it over the goal line – the plane – before he lost possession. It is a touchdown.

The NFL released a statement that confirms the call was correct:

Cruz had firm grip and control of the ball, touched both feet to the ground, and fulfilled the time requirement to complete the catch.

At the point that Cruz completed the catch, he became a runner (a runner is an offensive player who is in possession of a live ball).

When Cruz, acting as a runner, extended the ball over the goal line, it was a touchdown at the instant the ball penetrated the plane of the goal line.  … When Cruz lost control of the ball, he was no longer attempting to catch a pass. He had already completed the catch and was a runner attempting to score a touchdown by extending the ball across the goal line.

If the same situation occurred in the middle of the field, and a receiver who had become a runner lost possession of the ball as he reached forward for a first down, it would be a fumble.

Jeff Triplette was the crew chief.

The Giants–Vikings game has been rescheduled to Monday at 7:20 p.m. (EST) and will now be played at Ford Field in Detroit. Jeff Triplette’s crew will be officiating.

• Ed Hochuli
• Jeff Triplette
• Tony Corrente

Least likely to penalize are, starting at the least are:

• Scott Green
• Pete Morelli
• Alberto Riverón

The numbers indicate accepted and declined calls.

The crew of Jeff Triplette have received a fair amount of criticism here. It is difficult to avoid, however, the consistent breakdown in replay mechanics which is nothing short of glaring. To date, we have counted four errors anchored in the replay system: incorrectly spotting the ball, not reseting time back to the clock, and beginning to allow two challenges that were not allowed by rule. Triplette’s boss even called him out (not by name) on NFL Network and NFL.com, saying “I was shocked” about one mistake and that “we were wrong in not doing that” for another.

What you have read is the prelude to the fourth error in three weeks, fifth overall. While it was ultimately called correctly, a long delay ensued.

In the Jets–Patriots game, Tom Brady completed a pass to Wes Welker with less than two minutes to go in the first half. As the Patriots spiked the ball to stop the clock, replay official Bob Boylston buzzed the field for a review. Credit goes to Boylston to quickly call for a review when most of us were wondering what could be reviewable.

Triplette reversed the completion correctly, however the ball was respotted at the 35½ instead of the 30½. Just before the ball was snapped, line judge Michael Spanier blew his whistle and called out the error to Triplette. Triplette then conferred with Spanier and umpire Bruce Stritesky, held a conference with two other officials, then went to the sideline where an assistant at the replay equipment apparently relayed information from Boylston.

Triplette then announced the ball was to be placed at the 30½, narrowly averting a second referee-imposed loss on a team this season.

We will see if vice-president of officiating Mike Pereira has anything to say about the incident in this week’s “Official Review” video.

The topics under discussion (not in the same order):

• We discussed earlier in the week how the crew of Jeff Triplette had a major breakdown in administering replay challenges. First, Triplette was willing to review a challenge that the Cowboys recovered a fumble, when the rulebook clearly states this is a nonreviewable play. Pereira said, “I was shocked that we started to even go toward the monitor to review it.”
• Later in the same game, the Packers attempted to call for a challenge when it had exhausted all of its challenges. Triplette should have known immediately, but (according to Pereira) it was replay assistant Bob Boyleston who informed Triplette of the discrepancy. We noted that the officials then should have penalized the Packers bench for an excess challenge. Pereira backed up our assessment by saying, “We should have thrown the flag right then for unsportsmanlike conduct. It’s a 15-yard penalty … He should have been penalized right at that point. We were wrong in not doing that.”
• In the Ravens–Browns Monday Night Football game, the Browns were granted a fourth timeout erroneously in the second half. Pereira did not hide the fact that it was a major error:

It happened because we, as a crew, failed to record on our cards the [timeout] at the 3:24 mark of the third quarter. … Everybody on the field basically forgot to record the timeout. And the scoreboard did, too. So, we didn’t have it on our cards [and] it showed on the scoreboard that we had one left. Therefore, we granted the first play after the two-minute warning a fourth timeout. All our fault.”

To sum up all of the operational errors, Periera added this:

These type of administrative things should never happen and we accept responsibility for that.

• Also under “Official Review” was the oft-talked-about 4th-and-2 play where the Patriots attempted to get the first down to run out the clock, rather than punt to the Colts (video). Because the ball was juggled (and clearly indicated by headlinesman Tom Stabile), forward progress cannot be granted until the player gets control. It was a good call by Stabile in real-time, and a tough call to make on such a pivotal play. With the benefit of replay, it would appear that the Patriots were further back even. When Kevin Faulk maintains control, he is in the air and going to the ground. Even though he has caught the ball, he has not by rule caught the ball until he plants two solid feet, or has gone completely to the ground. (For spotting purposes, forward progress would be given at the point of any body part other than a hand or foot hitting the ground, provided the receiver subsequently completes the process of a catch.) Pereira should have stopped talking at that point, because he said that if the original call was first down, and if the Colts challenged the call, that the original call would have stood. This is a wishy-washy answer, as Faulk is clearly bobbling the ball and not touching the ground until clearly behind the first-down marker.
• In the Buccaneers–Dolphins game, an incomplete pass was correctly overturned as an interception (video). OK, I know there is dispute at to whether it was correctly overturned. Much like in Week 2, an incomplete pass which is overruled as an interception gives the intercepting team the ball where it was caught, nullifying any return.

All that said, I was very distracted with Pereira’s new video control device, which seems to be a modded wireless Xbox 360 controller. Seemed to me that the rewind/slow/pause switch that Pereira had up to this point, albeit wired, simply and unobtrusely did its job. Or, perhaps Pereira was playing Madden NFL ’10: Referee Edition off camera.