Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rick KY
Does anyone know if this play was discussed on NFL Network on Wednesday night? If so, what was said by the NFL about it?
|
Yes, it was discussed. Pereira said it was unnecessary roughness and not roughing the passer since he hadn't actually thrown the ball. Rich Eisen asked about the fact the call overturned a turnover on the play when the QB fumbled on the hit. He addressed that as well. Here is some actual text from the show:
"You really technically can't have roughing the passer but you can have unnecessary roughness"
"If a passer gets hit by the crown of the helmet even though he ends up not throwing the pass it converts to an unnecessary roughness even though it is the passer. Technically since no pass it's not roughing the passer but the UNR it is."
"Now the other issue it's a judgement call the referee has to make and in Mike Carey's mind...he felt that he drove his head into the ground. And we are in the mode of protecting the quarterback and we are talking about any act that if the referee thinks it's unnecessary he is to throw the flag. This is the one area we are going to protect."
"The question is does he drive him down into the ground with the head. Does he give him the extra umph down into the ground."
"It was never a turnover. What we ended up doing was ruling him down here. The line judge came in and ruled forward progress was stopped on the play."
"If we are going to lean we are going to lean on the side of the protection of the quarterback."
"Have we gone too far to protect the passer? That's the question that has been put to the (competition) committee; the question that has been put to the clubs. And what we're doing is basically following their guidance and that is to protect him. It's an area of the game that involves judgement and it involves safety and we'll live with the judgements that are made by the referees."
I could see this going either way but understand why it was ruled the way it was. Remember Mike had to make a judgement call based on what he saw real time. It sounds like he has the support of the league as well.
BTW...if you have Comcast On Demand, you can watch a replay of the officiating section of NFL Total Access.