The officiating experts have several pass plays to break down
In this pass-happy league it seems like there are always several pass plays that shine the light on the officiating. Former NFL vice president for officiating and current Fox Sports officiating analyst Mike Pereira and former NFL supervisor and NBC Sports officiating analyst Jim Daopoulos broke down several plays from Week 15. Pereira focuses on catch/no catch and score/no score plays while Daopoulos broke down two pass interference calls/no calls.
Daopoulos broke down two successive pass plays between the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patriots where side judge Keith Washington ruled no pass interference against the 49ers on the Patriots Wes Welker because the pass was un-catchable and then back judge Don Carey ruled that the 49ers interfered with Brandon Lloyd (video). Daopoulos disagrees with both calls. He feels that while it was a close call, Welker did in fact get cut off of his route and thus should have drawn a flag. He further comments that this is a call where the crew can huddle up and discuss. On the pass interference called by Carey, Daopoulos says that the defender and receiver both looked for the ball and got their feet tangled up. He says the officials should have ruled “incidental contact” and not called a foul.
Pereira discussed three interesting pass plays. Pereira says the officials got the call right when they ruled the St. Louis Rams’ Brian Quick four yard catch a touchdown. He says Quick got a foot and an elbow down in-bounds which was a good catch. Pereira also said the Green Bay Packers 29-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rogers to James Jones was a good call. He said the even though Jones went to the ground and lost control of the ball in the end zone, it is a touchdown because Jones carried the ball from the field of play into the end zone. Once Jones broke the plane of the goal line, the play was dead, so any action after that was moot. Pereira then moved on to the Denver Broncos – Baltimore Ravens game, where the officials ruled the Broncos’ Eric Decker down at the one-yard-line. The former officials’ boss says that he didn’t think that there was enough evidence to reverse the touchdown call on the field.
It will be interesting to see what the two officiating experts have to talk about next week!
In the Cowboys-Steelers game, there was a play in the second half where Jason Witten caught a pass while laying on the turf. He wasn’t touched down, so a Steelers defender pounced on him and at the same time slapped the ball out of his hands. Witten rolled over and recovered the ball. You could then see the referee move his spot back a yard to where Witten recovered it — he ruled it a fumble. The TV crew didn’t catch it (or didn’t mention it), and neither did the Cowboys — or else they didn’t bother to challenge it. Question, is it even possible to cause a fumble from a player who is already on the ground? If you touch the ball in his hands but not the player, he’s not immediately “down by contact?” I had never seen that happen before. It seemed minor, but on the next play DeMarco Murray came up a foot short from a first down, then Romo got sacked to force a punt. This was late in a close game.