Illegal Forward Pass Ruling in MIN-GB Game

[MJT]

Not only did he throw the pass only to save yardage, but he had no idea there was a receiver in the area. He never looked up at all, he just got the ball and threw it underhand as he as falling to the ground in the EZ, which he knew would be a safety, so he was trying to avoid it with his pass. The ball never got to the LOS. It was the correct call.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by MJT

Not only did he throw the pass only to save yardage, but he had no idea there was a receiver in the area. He never looked up at all, he just got the ball and threw it underhand as he as falling to the ground in the EZ, which he knew would be a safety, so he was trying to avoid it with his pass. The ball never got to the LOS. It was the correct call.

A QB does not need to know where WRs are.

In the Canadian NCAA games that I do, there is a QB that only 30 minutes from my location who every game throws blindly 2-3 times to an area where he knows his RB will be. They are both that good and on the same page! Surely if a 21-year old from Canada can do this, that a professional football player playing the NFL and from the USA can have this tool in his arsenal.

I don't know the NFL rule or philosophy on this, and yes the QB tried to get rid of the ball to avoid the safety. If the rule is that the ball has to get back to the LS, that's fine. But to say that it's IG because QBs can't make those passes doesn't know what athletes can do.

[JasonTX]

The ball has to be thrown to an area where an eligible receiver has a reasonable oppurtunity to catch the pass. In this play that receiver was't even close in my opinion to having an oppurtunity to catch the pass.

[MJT]

I am talking to one of the officials on the crew on Tuesday. I am looking forward to seeing what the discussion was. He was involved in the conversation they had as he was one of the wings. I sent him a text and he replied that as he was getting off his plane 2nt and to call him Tuesday. I hope he will allow me to share their conversation on the board to clear it up.

[Forksref]

Originally Posted by MJT

I am talking to one of the officials on the crew on Tuesday. I am looking forward to seeing what the discussion was. He was involved in the conversation they had as he was one of the wings. I sent him a text and he replied that as he was getting off his plane 2nt and to call him Tuesday. I hope he will allow me to share their conversation on the board to clear it up.

Monty is that Joe?

BTW, the call looked correct.

As for the Packer fan, you can't expect anyone who supports the team behind the Cheddar Curtain to be objective, especially when they are playing the purple.

[MJT]

Originally Posted by Forksref

Monty is that Joe?

BTW, the call looked correct.

As for the Packer fan, you can't expect anyone who supports the team behind the Cheddar Curtain to be objective, especially when they are playing the purple.

Joe is one of the deep wings on the crew, but he is not the one I'm talking to today. I know one of the shorts wings pretty well.

[PackersFTW]

Originally Posted by MJT

Not only did he throw the pass only to save yardage, but he had no idea there was a receiver in the area. He never looked up at all, he just got the ball and threw it underhand as he as falling to the ground in the EZ, which he knew would be a safety, so he was trying to avoid it with his pass. The ball never got to the LOS. It was the correct call.

you cannot officiate intent, you should know this. it looked like he was just trying to avoid a safety? that's exactly what he was doing. nothing wrong with this. if there is something wrong with this, then there is something wrong with every time a qb scrambles out of the pocket and whips it 20 yards downfield out of bounds, or throws it at a receivers feet to avoid a sack. if there is a receiver in the area OR the qb is out of the pocket and the ball goes past the line of scrimmage, it is legal. he clearly didn't get it to the line of scrimmage, but i believe there was somebody in the area. i base this on the fact that i have seen throws where there is a receiver damn near 10 yards away and they say "receiver in the area".

i agree that something just didn't look right, and that you shouldn't be allowed to do that, but the fact is that qb's throw passes that end up up to 10 yards away from a receiver all the time, and they don't call ****.

regardless, "illegal forward pass" was the wrong call. you cannot argue that was an illegal forward pass. therefor the ref was wrong.

[PackersFTW]

Originally Posted by MJT

IG is one of the types of IFP's. It has it's one signal, but is a type of IFP.

yes, but according to that logic, the ref could say "illegal play" or something even more general, because technically IG is an IFP which is an illegal play. refs are very specific in the calls, they wouldn't give some generic call like that. i've heard refs explain things in detail many times, sometimes taking as many as 4 sentences for a call. also, it's 10 yards and loss of down for IG, but IFP has a different penalty (too lazy to look it up).

Originally Posted by SportsFan

Yes, but why did the referee say IFP this time. Isn't it standard protocol in the NFL to call it intentional grounding?

EDIT: The official for the game was Alberto Riveron. This is his first year as referee, so I probably haven't heard him before. I suppose he likes to call all IFPs like that, but he had several Fox analysts confused, including Troy Aikman and Michael Strahan.

you are correct. see the above.

[MJT]

Hum, your callname is PackersFTW, and you think it was all wrong.

[OverAndBack]

On one of the replays from behind the QB, you could see #84 and one could assume that the QB may have seen him. That's being liberal, because it seemed like his intent was to chuck that sucker out of there.

[waltjp]

Don't feed the trolls.

[Bob M.]

Originally Posted by PackersFTW

you cannot officiate intent,...

REPLY: Then why precisely do they call the foul INTENTional grounding if the official is not supposed to judge intent?

[Forksref]

Originally Posted by Bob M.

REPLY: Then why precisely do they call the foul INTENTional grounding if the official is not supposed to judge intent?

Intentional Forward Pass Interference 7-5-2c (table) An additional 15 yards

Intentional Grounding 7-5-1d (table)

Intentionally Contacting An Official 9-4-2

[OverAndBack]

Originally Posted by PackersFTW

you cannot officiate intent

We are actually required to do this from time to time.

They took "intent" out of the spearing rule a couple of years back, but we do have to officiate intent on intentional grounding or on a hit that we believe was with intent to injure or to punish the opponent.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by MJT

Not only did he throw the pass only to save yardage, but he had no idea there was a receiver in the area. He never looked up at all, he just got the ball and threw it underhand as he as falling to the ground in the EZ, which he knew would be a safety, so he was trying to avoid it with his pass. The ball never got to the LOS. It was the correct call.

Agreed. Ray Charles could have made that call.