2841

Sarkus quoted it but I edited the last portion of my post. Still it’s interesting that common sense said not to review the play at the end but didn’t allow them to reward the ball to the Dolphins. There was no way the Steelers could have recovered the ball because they weren’t near it Sarkus.

2842

What I don’t get about the play, is after they signaled it was a touchdown, shouldn’t they have checked who recovered it on the off chance that the play would be challenged?

2843

It’s very, very likely the Dolphins recovered the ball. However, there’s no crystal-clear evidence of that. Legursky (Steelers OL) has an opportunity at that ball in the middle of the scrum. He probably didn’t get it, but it’s most certainly not clear. It’s a scrum and you can’t see what’s going on.

Common sense isn’t the standard here. The yardstick to overturn a call requires indisputable proof and there’s no way that anyone can (reasonably) claim there’s indisputable proof Miami recovered the ball.

Since the officials ruled that it was a TD, they can’t then rule that some other team has possession of the ball except via replay. It’s not like the field officials could rule “Steelers have a TD but Miami has possession of the ball” because there was no fumble to them. The problem here isn’t the replay system, it’s that the officials on the field blew the call. Had they ruled it a fumble, then they would have determined possession in the endzone and THEN the Steelers could have challenged whether Ben broke the plane of the goal line. The replay system did as well here as could possibly be expected.

Don’t forget that even after all that, Miami had the ball with 2:20 to go needing only a FG and couldn’t do anything.

2844

I’ll have to politely disagree, it didn’t seem as if the OL guy had a chance in hell of getting that ball given the situation, but oh well.

Um, uh, hmm, woah, has anyone seen the Oakland Raiders??? They seemed to have morphed into the 2009 New Orleans Saints. I’m laughing my head off at this game, hilarious. Ahead 31-0 in the first quarter?! Seriously?

2845

I don’t blame the replay system at all, since in the end it’ll still be a human being making the call. I guess I was just a bit miffed at the play, since its obvious he fumbled the ball, but with the way the rules are setup, he is free to fumble it as long as it breaks the plane of the endzone unless you’re a receiver who caught it in the endzone.

2846

Not really. He’s free to fumble, but there are no rewards for it.

First, it’s not like a player is going to purposely fumble. The Holy Roller rule gives a player fumbling no advantage whatsoever because it can’t be advanced in that situation. Plus, if they could determine who recovered then it would be that team’s ball. It just couldn’t be determined in this case.

And yes, the call against the Lions a few weeks ago was entirely bullshit. That’s just a shitty rule.

2847

WHOO HOO!! GO RAIDERS! WHOO HOOO! JASON CAMPBELL IS BETTER THAN DREW BREES! <today> WHOO HOO!

2848

I don’t understand the NFL. In college football, if Team A beats Team B 59-14 on the road, it almost always means that Team A is significantly better than Team B. In the NFL it just means that two teams played a football game. Why does this happen?

2849

Parity.

Out of curiosity - what was the turnover story in the Denver Oakland game.

2850

To me, parity means you should have a bunch of close games - not a bunch of random blowouts.

2851

I didn’t see the game so I can’t say honestly.

2852

The replays I saw showed the Dolphins guy on the ground but not having control of the ball. Then Steelers and other Dolphins jumped in. In other words, there is no clear evidence that either team took control of the ball - hence the refs decision.

2853

The bigger question is why didn’t the refs stay with the play as it was happening? Normally they know who recovers a fumble, no matter how big the pile. They didn’t do a good job with that play.

2854

I think you’re watching the wrong games. Seven of the today’s twelve games (so far) were decided by no more than a touchdown. Last week it was eight of fourteen.

If you are a Redskins fan, six of the seven games this year have been within six points and five of those were within THREE.

2855

Because “as it was happening” there was no “fumble”, it was a touchdown. There is no reason why the refs would “stay with the play” after a touchdown has been ruled due to the fact that the play is then over.

2856

It was not an obvious touchdown and nearly everyone in the stadium knew it was going to be at least challenged. Why didn’t the refs?

2857

I shouldn’t have said “a bunch” but I want it to mean something when the Lions beat the Rams 44-6 without their starting quarterback or Oakland beats Denver 59-14 on the road. There does seem to be parity the rest of the time so these random blowouts are weird.

2858

Vikings have no chance at the playoffs. Not because of Favre, but because their defense seems to suck this year for reasons I can’t fathom. It’s all the same guys mostly.

Edit: Oh, and because Childress is a moron with zero clock management skills. But, as I recall, that was covered last week too.

2859

In a post-game interview, Ben claimed he recovered his own fumble in the end zone, and then let go when the refs signalled it was a TD.

The problem here is twofold. First, replay couldn’t show you who had the ball at the bottom of the pile. Second, even if it did, it was still a little iffy, because people might have stopped fighting the ball after the refs signalled touchdown – the whole “inadvertent whistle” deal, where the play is dead if it turns out to be a fumble and reverts back to the team who last had possession.

So as crazy as the whole play was, I can’t really argue with the end call. What else could they do? You can’t award a ball to one team because they “probably” recovered it. I’m just more amazed that the Dolphins lost a game on a replay call so complicated it actually had a plot twist halfway through.

2860

There’s my Brett!