Indy/SD

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by Forksref

WARREN, I agree with you on the FS call.

As for the IW, wow, what a mistake. From the location of the interception, it must have been right in front of the BJ. Any of the deep wings would have been way out of line in making a call on that.

S or F had the IW. The ball bounced around people's legs and bodies while they were horizontal. Yes, it was a mistake, and understandable, but not so much at the NFL level.

Originally Posted by Forksref

Why does anyone bag an interception, at any level?

CANADIAN MECHANIC:

The point of interception is a possible (albeit small) point of penalty application.

[wisref2]

on the topic of bean bagging the spot of interception - in college and pros this is a potential penalty enforcement spot. In high school, it is not - so there is no need to bag it.

[TXMike]

Originally Posted by wisref2

on the topic of bean bagging the spot of interception - in college and pros this is a potential penalty enforcement spot. In high school, it is not - so there is no need to bag it.

Not rue for college. This is not an enforcement spot

[rulesmaven]

Not my game, so I have a question.

I'm not so sure that one of the wings whistled because he thought he saw the ball hit the ground.

When the BJ threw the bag, he was also sort of moving out of the way of the play and his non-bag arm raised, possibly looking like the mechanic for incomplete pass. I was wondering if perhaps the official who tweeted on the play was responding to what he thought was the no catch mechanic rather than his actual observation of the event.

Does it happen that way in football? If you're an official that does not have the primary call, but you see your partners' mechanic, do you blow the whistle (e.g., to avoid injury or further playing). It might happen for example on a fumble/no fumble call -- might a sideline official who clearly sees his partner U signal that the ball was on the ground blow the whistle when the lineman starts rumbling down the field with the ball even if he didn't see when the ball came loose?

[Bob M.]

Originally Posted by rulesmaven

...If you're an official that does not have the primary call, but you see your partners' mechanic, do you blow the whistle (e.g., to avoid injury or further playing).

REPLY: You shouldn't. If the primary official has the call and uses some sort of mechanic to indicate he knows what's going on, leave the whistle to him. If he doesn't blow it, play continues. No reason to try to trump your partner on the whistle in this case.

Other topic...though bagging the spot of an interception has absolutely no rule-based purpose in either Fed or NCAA, I do recall hearing that there is a possibility of that spot being significant in the NFL. I'll research and report back.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by johnnyg08

What do you mean JR? In the NFL even if the players stop for a very short amount of time, the NFL is so fast, the IW is a major issue here...this should never, never, never happened in the NFL...YIKES!

He did not say the IW was acceptable. He is saying that it is very likely the whistle allowed San Diego players to stop and not properly pursue the play. So it is possible that IND would have never had such a long return as was first suspected.

All I know is the BJ was all over the play and clearly had a catch. I do not think he was the one that blew the whistle. I am not sure why anyone else would have done that.

Peace

[Bob M.]

REPLY: I agree with JRutledge that it certainly was not the BJ (Steratore) that blew the whistle. He was right on the call in perfect position.

[reddevil19]

I was at the game. On the IW, it had to have been the SJ (Barry Anderson) because the play was to that side of the field (same side I'm on). You definitely heard the whistle, and someone must have started to (or appeared from the press box high on the opposite side) give an incomplete pass signal, because the PA announcer said, as the ball was being advanced out of the End Zone, "Pass is incomplete." Those on San Diego still playing after the whistle basically stopped at that point. The BJ then started looking at the SJ and FJ and they all stopped.

The play certainly qualifies as one of the most bizarre I've ever seen.

[tjones1]

The BJ certainly didn't have the whistle. If he did, that would make this play even more strange considering he bagged it and a SD player didn't touch the Indy player. But like I said, I'm 99.999879% sure it wasn't the BJ with the whistle.

I would assume the announcer probably saw the SJ giving the incomplete pass signal.

[OverAndBack]

Originally Posted by bisonlj

That's a judgement call I could not argue with (even as a Colts fan). This is just semantics but it wasn't "false start" but "simulating a snap". He was just shifting but his movement was very similar to what he would do at the snap. He should have been more fluid. I think they could have have let it go but I don't have any issues with the call.

None at all.

To me, that's situational officiating right there, too. It seemed to me that the Colts only lined up in a normal formation on that play specifically to try and draw the Chargers off. In that case, you've got to be extra, extra careful that you're not the team that flinches first. And when you put a guy in motion (or shifting, whatever he was doing) and then a tight end JERKS up as you would at the snap, well, I'm sorry, I'm nailing that one right there. ***** all you want.

The IW, I was listening on the radio and Dave Sims said that there hadn't been a whistle (initially) and I said to the person in the car with me "I thought I heard a whistle?" Turns out I had.

Of course it shouldn't happen. But it does. I felt so badly for the whole crew. Having blown an IW or two in my career (as I'm sure most of us have), no one in the stadium feels worse about it than we do.

Originally Posted by bisonlj

Polian was on the local news saying he would not call the league office because he didn't think he could behave himself.

Bill Polian is absolutely crazy as a sh!thouse mouse to begin with, and it pains me that this nutjob has a Super Bowl ring, but it is what it is.

Did he not call Peyton Manning's house last night because he couldn't contain himself about the six frigging interceptions the guy threw?

The call was correct, IMHO. And Polian hasn't stopped whining and *****ing even though his team won the frigging Super Bowl. Give it a rest.

[Johnny Ringo]

So, the false start call was right ... or wrong?

[Bob M.]

REPLY: We all saw the BJ drop a bag when he ruled that Indy had intercepted the pass in the endzone. Though there is no rule-based reason to do that for either Fed or NCAA, there is a remote chance that this spot will be significant for enforcement in the NFL. Here is verbatim what an NFL friend related to me:

"Dropping bean bag (on interception): A Chop blocks, INT, bean bag, B fumbles,A gets it back. We can use the bean bag to enforce the CHB as it is considered "A's previous spot." Only time I have EVER seen that is on a test."

[Mike51]

What about the statement from the ref on the 3rd down play in which the colts were given a first down after measurement. He stated "the ball will be placed just shy of the 6 yard line". What is "just shy"? 1 inch, 2 inches, etc? I did not agree with this review.

[TXMike]

Originally Posted by Mike51

What about the statement from the ref on the 3rd down play in which the colts were given a first down after measurement. He stated "the ball will be placed just shy of the 6 yard line". What is "just shy"? 1 inch, 2 inches, etc? I did not agree with this review.

This is the kind of lunacy the instant reply review process has brought us. The reviewers can "see" that the runner was stopped short of the 6 yard line but are unable to precisely tell from that view how short he was. I do not understand how anyone can think the camera, unless it is looking straight down a line (i.e. goal line, line to gain, etc) can give you a precise view. There is way too much potential for perspective distortion, especially when using telephoto lenses.

[Reffing Rev.]

The False start may have not been a false start, but I imagine 2/3 of the crews in the country at every level talked about last week's LSU false start and said duh and here the U talked himself into a bad call.

My question is this, in what mechanic is the U observing the shifts of the end and backs? Doesn't he have a snap, a center and a couple of guards to be watching.

In the NFL shifts are very popular, there was nothing illegal about this shift that was any different than 2/3 of the other shifts on Sunday. The argument someone made earlier about them all shifting the same direction makes the swinging gate shift illegal. I will come out and say bad call.