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Old Fri Nov 09, 2007, 01:32pm
Ed Hickland Ed Hickland is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob M.
REPLY: I'm with Ref Ump Welsch on this one. Clearly a 6-man crew. I'm sure that the side judge was not in a position to see the 'sneak' enter the field (behind him), but he had to wondering afterwards how he possibly could have gotten where he was without passing him. His curiosity was probably not enough for him to drop a flag, but I can imagine that the first question this crew asked after the game ended was "Where the %$@# did he come from?"

Also note how the coach camouflaged the sneak by positioning a bunch of teammates down in that area, just so that the sneak wouldn't stand out.
Maybe I am missing something. Aren't downfield officials suppose to spot their eligibles?

That being the case, the official should have seen he had trips and they ran short patterns. OK, so maybe an eligible from the opposite side ran a crossing pattern -- that did not happen in this case.

There should have been a flag for an ineligible downfield -- the player who ran off to the sidelines -- as he was covered.

How about the official on the opposite side of the field? He had one eligible who just kind of ran a leisurely fly pattern.

This kind of stuff is hard to catch but the crew did miss the ineligible going downfield. The R was on the left side of a right-handed QB. One rule error and one mechanical error on the same play.

But my pet peeve, players standing on the sidelines allowed this to happen. If the players had been properly positioned in the box it would have been harder for the player to leave the field as he did and another player to enter downfield without being noticed.
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