13
Sep
2010
VIDEO: Calvin Johnson & Lions get screwed by ridiculous “going to the ground” rule
Apparently two feet, a hand and a hip down do not make a completion these days (Photo: Tom Cruze/AP)
This is the play that everyone is going to be talking about today: with :31 seconds remaining in the Lions/Bears game, backup QB Shaun Hill (in for the injured Matt Stafford), connects in the endzone with WR Calvin Johnson on what appears to be a game winning touchdown. But not so fast …
On the play, Johnson outjumps the defender to make the catch, gets both feet down in the endzone and then falls to the ground, landing on his left hip while holding the ball firmly in his extended right hand. He then places the ball on the ground as he got up to celebrate. Apparently that’s not good enough for a catch in the NFL these days, because the play was ruled an incompletion, even following a lengthy booth review. The Bears held on for a 19-14 win.
Watch the play for yourself, and decide if this is a completion:
VIDEO AND DISCUSSION AFTER THE JUMP
21
Oct
2009
SHOCKER: Mike Pereira defends Referees on Browns/Steelers call (video)
Every Wednesday on NFL Total Access, Mike Pereira – the NFL’s VP of Officiating – joins Rich Eisen for a segment called “Official Review” where they discuss the most controversial calls from the previous weekend.
Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? The problem is that Pereira is clearly a robot programmed to back up his part-time employees’ calls. No matter how egregious they are, no matter how much blatant visual evidence there is to the contrary, Pereira always seems to find a way to justify or rationalize the calls on the field.
The most recent example came this evening, when Pereira reviewed this astonishingly bad call from Sunday’s Steelers/Browns match-up:
Fair enough, Mike. The camera shot was definitely from an angle, which could account for a skewed perspective of the ball position on TV. So the other people on the field must have seen the same thing Anderson saw, right? Surely the Steelers felt they had gotten the first down, right? Not exactly:
Even Steelers center Justin Hartwig said the ball was “definitely short” of the first-down marker.
“I have no idea how they gave us a first down, but we’ll take it,” Hartwig said. “I’d say (it was short) by two chain links. It was obvious to everybody playing on the field. I don’t know how they called it the way they did, but … we’re not going to complain about it.”
“It was a close play – and we got lucky,” Roethlisberger told the Associated Press after the game.
Huh. That’s weird. I guess ole’ Walt must have had a better view than the center and QB on the play. Which was a QB sneak, mind you.
Uhhhh … Mike?
