Illegal Forward Pass Ruling in MIN-GB Game

[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.