San Diego/Denver

[dahoopref]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Yes it was ruled in inadvertent whistle. This is why they put the ball on the 10 yard line instead of the previous spot or original line of scrimmage.

Peace

Not to split hairs here but.....

according to an NFL official friend who I talked to, the whistle should have nothing to do with the play.

Hochuli made the mistake of announcing to the crowd that "the play should have been ruled a fumble. By rule, the ball is dead when it hits the ground because the whistle was blown."

My friend told me, "The judgment of the play being an "incomplete pass" caused the ball to be dead, not the whistle. If the pass is ruled incomplete then the ball is dead when it hits the ground." On that play, the whistle has no bearing when the ball is dead.

NFL VP of Officiating, Mike Pereira, has told his Referees (white caps) at clinics to not use the word "whistle" when explaining a call to the crowd. Hochuli may have been flustered (as any of us might have) by his incorrect judgment and forgot what Pereria instructed not to say to the crowd.

[JRutledge]

I do not know who your friend is and honestly it is irrelevant. According to what Pereira said on several media outlets, it must have meant something. And if it did not mean anything, why put the ball back where the play was killed? Either you are misunderstanding your friend or Pereira is purposely deceiving the public. I will just ask one of the people that were on the game when I get a chance.

Peace

[pedr]

Surely 'Inadvertant Whistle' would be inaccurate as well. I'm no expert, but wouldn't ruling it an IW give the offence the opportunity to replay the down? Which would have been even worse for the Chargers.

How I see it, as a complete amateur, is that it was ruled a forward pass. That means the ball was dead once it hit the ground, and nothing past that point could matter. In fact, the ball was fumbled, so from the time when the ball left the QB's hand to the point where it hit the ground, it was a fumble. When it hit the ground, it was a fumbled ball that was then dead (technically due to the inital ruling, not due to the whistle, but the problem with revising the replay rules is, in fact, the whistle and players' reaction to it: see the Philadelphia-Dallas game). The team in possession of the ball immediately before it became dead was Denver, so they gain/retain possession of the ball at the point where it became dead, namely the 10 yard line, and the down counts. This is different from any kind of IW ruling, I would have thought.