Wow, hardcore Seahawks fan but feel bad for the Packers. Bad calls both ways though. Football is one sport you absolutely need competent refs, shame on the NFL for not paying the referee's what they deserve. Russell Wilson is Legit though!
Tate had two hands on the ball. One underneath the ball on the Packer guy's chest, and the other on top of the ball. I hate the Seabags, but the refs got it right. Watching the NFL lackeys on TV have a meltdown is more entertaining than most of the game was, though. I also liked Belichek grabbing a ref who actually got a tough FG call correct at the end of last night's game.
Paul Allen @PaulGAllen Crazy last play @Seahawks win. Amazing game by D pass rush, special teams and heave by @dangeRusswilson and @Showtimetate catch! Wow.
Jennings caught the ball, pulled it into his chest and that gives him possession. Case closed! the real refs get stuff wrong all the time but that game was horrendous.
Nope. Not if Tate has a hand underneath Jennings. Two hands on the ball has nothing to do with pulling it to the chest.
Possession doesn't happen until he touches the ground. While I agree with the spirit of the play (that Jennings probably should have the INT), the rules (much like the Tuck Rule) state unpopularly that Jennings doesn't have possession until he hits the ground. By the time that happened, Tate had both hands on the ball and "simultaneous possession", which by rule goes to the offense. I'm amused that people don't think that a ref with 30+ years of college experience can ref an NFL game, but a guy who's been watching on his couch for 10 years can.
Just because someone has done something for thirty years, doesn't mean they're actually good at it. With that said, I don't fully understand the rules so I'm not going to comment. It sure looked like Jennings had it, but that's the nature of the beast. My only question is; did they review the play?
Yes. And it was the "real" replay officials, not replacements. Edit: In fairness, someone tweeted that the replay guys can't judge "possession", so they have to go with the ruling on the field. I don't know if that's the case. Since the ruling on the field was "simultaneous possession" (which goes to the offense by rule) then all the booth can judge is if the catch was inbounds, two feet down, ball didn't touch ground, etc. But I think this is much more a "tuck rule" scenario, where a little-known league rule that doesn't make much sense is misinterpreted by the casual fan and causes anger and discontent. Today, it conveniently happens to feed the hate people have for replacements or whatever.
Yes, based on the rules they quoted themselves. The cynic in me thinks it's because their obtuseness (is that a word) on this is driven by the anti-league agenda their personalities have been pushing for a while.
...more or less; when you're as big as ESPN you tend to follow the "popular vote" more often than not
Regardless of how people feel about the final play of the game, how about the first three quarters of officiating? Let's not forget that the Seahawks had one of the best defensive performances in franchise history and probably would have been up in the final minutes had it not been for a bunch of blown calls in the Packers' favor. Honestly, the final score should have been a 7-6 Seahawks win. The entire drive that the Packers used to score their only touchdown was riddled with bad calls. It seemed like they were always on the field, and any time the Seahawks would stop them on 3rd down, it would result in a bogus flag instead of a punt. Also, while we're sitting here blaming the officials, why wouldn't M.D. Jennings bat the pass down instead of trying to reel it in? If I'm Clay Matthews or A.J. Hawk, I wouldn't be as mad as the officiating crew as I would be on my safety for trying to make the highlight play instead of batting it down. It's similar to how some players in basketball go for the highlight block and swat it into the stands instead of just bringing it down. I swear that half of the blocks that make the SportsCenter Top 10 are really bad plays.
Or you could point to the horrible roughing that passer penalty that negated an interception, the equally as bad pass interference call that if anything should have been on Seattle, or Tate blatantly pushing off on the disputed final play and all of this happened in the final quarter. Fact is the game was called awfully from the get go and even with their great 1st half of defense, the Seattle offense was just as bad or worse in the 2nd half. Remember, this is the same crew that let the Wash/STL game get out of hand the week before, why the NFL put them on Monday night is beyond me.
I don't for one second think I could do a better job then these guys, but the fact remains that the NFL game moves WAY too fast for these former D-2 refs. It's an extremely difficult job, one where you will only be recognized for the bad you do and never the good. I still think Jennings has possession on the ground and Tate barely has one hand on the ball, which is not simultaneous. https://twitter.com/I_AM_Worthy99/status/250469576339505152/photo/1/large
I agree that the officiating was horrible, but it was horrible on both ends. My point is that if the calls were made correctly on the Packers' only TD drive, then we'd be looking at a 7-6 game in favor of Seattle, and the penalties that occurred at the end of the game, as egregious as they were, wouldn't have even had a chance to occur.
The real refs haven't really ever been much better than this, although as a Raider fan, I can say it was refreshing to only see 3 penalties called against Oakland in their comeback win against Pittsburgh. It's nice to have refs out there who don't have a bias against certain teams, and the league is actually entertaining me right now.
I know that everyone knows of the ref who was barred from the NO/Carolina game because he was a Saints fan, but you do have to wonder if the rest of the replacements don't have similar allegiances, just better concealed. With that said, how come nobody is talking about the Saints' loss to the Chiefs in terms of two VERY important blown calls. The first was a touchdown that was called back from PT23 (Pierre Thomas). The original ruling on the field was a touchdown, and the video evidence led the commentators the believe that Pierre Thomas did indeed catch the ball, yet the official overturned it, leading to no points for the Saints on that drive. Later in the game, Drew Brees was "sacked" in the end zone, but upon further review, it was clear that he never hit the ground, made his way out of the end zone, and downed the ball a yard or two out. Even after review, they called it a safety. That made it two HUGE game changing calls that cost the Saints an overtime game. My point with that is, just because those calls didn't come at the end of the game, they still determined the game. Similarly, the refs might have blown a call at the end of the game with GB/Seattle, but realistically, Seattle wouldn't have even had to try a hail mary with time expiring, if the refs had just called it right originally.
