Posted on 11/19/2013 8:08:13 AM PST by AngelesCrestHighway
The New England Patriots lost to the Carolina Panthers 24-20 after a controversial ending on Monday Night Football. On the final play of the game, an official threw a flag after Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly appeared to interfere with New England tight end Rob Gronkowski in the end zone. If the pass interference penalty was called, the Patriots would have had one untimed play from the one-yard line to win the game. But the officials ended up picking up the flag, declaring the game over, and running off the field without an explanation. Tom Brady was furious after the game, chasing down the officials and cursing them out in the tunnel. There was a ton of confusion about this. ESPN's in-house refereeing consultant said it wasn't pass interference, but everyone else seemed to think it was a clear penalty.
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Nothing personal against you, but I see this a lot in fans. I am not sure why people somehow get their rocks off living in the past, grinding their teeth on something like the tuck rule game. It seems like pointless masturbation to me.
I am a longtime football fan and a Pats fan, and the Patriots didn’t lose that game last night because of that terrible call.
They lost the game because they fumbled the ball going in for a score, and they committed some bad penalties at key times.
They are a good team that didn’t play up to their potential, and were beaten by a good team that did play up to their potential.
That’s it.
It was a hard fought and entertaining game with the better team last night winning.
Someone who understands that would view the game as entertaining regardless of who won the game. In a season filled with completely mediocre football, that was a fun game to watch.
But hey, if someone wants to base their enjoyment of football based on a game played over a decade ago, good luck to them.
I watched the second half of this game with five Buffalo Bills fans. (I’m a Browns fan) I told them something dumb will happen in this game because so few people stay up for the complete Monday night game. So they can get away with just about anything. These guys all HATE New England. They all agreed that New England got screwed. Period!
I agree. Aside from that, not bad playing with only a minute to go 80 yards.
Except that was not a bad call; you could argue that the “tuck rule” was a bad rule, but the replay clearly showed that the ball was not back against Brady’s body when it fell out, and the tuck rule explicitly said once the arm moved forward, it was a forward pass even if the arm was moving backwards when the ball fell out.
This call was a much harder call, because it involves at least 3 different penalties, some of which have extenuating circumstances.
The clear penalty that could have been called was illegal contact. They were more than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage, and the defensive player was not standing still, but instead was running into the offensive player who was trying to change direction.
The second penalty is holding; wrapping your arms around the outside of the offensive player can be called holding even if you don’t physically grab the player, but that is a judgment call.
The third penalty is pass interference, if the ball was deemed in the air when the contact was made. But this can be waived if the ball is uncatchable by the person being interfered with.
That seemed to be what the officials said, although their explanation that “the ball was intercepted” was unresponsive to the question.
I thought that was an excellent game, a lot of good execution, a lot of high intensity play.
And you are correct. The Pats did not lose the game on that play, they lost a chance for one more play.
They would have still had to stick it in the end zone, and that was not a given. The Carolina defense is for real.
Plays that happen at the end of the game always get more coverage than other equally controversial play calls earlier, in part because it is easier to see how they impacted the game, and because you can’t recover from them.
What the official appeared to say is that while Gronk COULD have gotten into the space where he could have caught the ball before it hit the ground, because the defender intercepted it earlier, it was “uncatchable” by Gronk.
In other words, if the other defender had not been there, and the ball had fallen to the ground, it would have been pass interference.
But the pass interference rule is not written that way.
I agree. Perhaps if he had made more of effort to fight his way through the defender he would have gotten the call. Instead, he let himself be pushed away.
I just got a ticket for that game next Sunday night, and that is going to be a great game, I am really excited to go.
It is odd, though...how twisted the logic can get as a football fan.
I’m with you. If I were a Broncos fan, I would have wanted the Patriots to win, which is odd, but in a fan’s world, logical...especially if you have watched a lot of football.
There is no reason you want them to win from a strict standings perspective...it doesn’t help to have a conference rival winning games, especially for a team like Denver that is in a head-to-head struggle with a team like Kansas City.
But looking to the game next Sunday, you feel (as a fan) that it would be better for your team to have your foe feeling the warm afterglow of a solid win than to come into the game with a piss and vinegar attitude and something to prove.
It doesn’t make sense, but I have known enough football fans (and not just New England fans) who feel exactly the same way.
Ah, the Karmic Scales. Devoted football fans everywhere are slaves to it.
Or slaves to something usually a lot more negative.
These are process rules, created because they either make it easier for the referees to call things consistently, removing some subjective aspect, or because it makes the game more exciting.
Occurred in the end zone so ball on the one. The Pats have a goal line play where a tightend comes back to the location where the ball will be delivered. I suspect that is the play they tried to run and the Panther linebacker, being a student of his opponents inclinations positioned himself so that Gronk could not get back tot he goal line for the pass.
I agree about the intentional grounding rule - all that nonsense about being inside or outside of the “tackle box” and the bit about the ball crossing the line of scrimmage, just make it goofy and harder for the officials. And there are all those plays where the QB just throws it out of bounds because no one’s open - no problem. That is intentional grounding, everyone knows it, but the rules say it is not.
It’s true. If someone is rooting against the Pats, it is because:
a) Their teams have lost to the Patriots and they harbor bitterness and they don’t have the maturity to accept a loss for what it is.
b) Their team plays against the Patriots on a regular basis and they have a fan’s stake in it.
c) They are ignorant of football and are simply emotionally based, like liberals.
d) They are immature and haven’t yet learned to appreciate a sport for what it is.
e) C and D above.
The other rule I hate, probably IMHO the stupidest idea the NFL ever came up with, is the “crossing the plane of the end zone” bs.
Unless the ball carrier/receiver steps one foot into the end zone, or as he goes down, the ball ends up being in the end zone, it should not be considered a TD. The “crossing the plane” thing is just stupid...
I’ve seen multiple plays where the guy runs OOB at about the one yard line and holds the ball way out over the pylons. That IS NOT a TD!!!!!!
“Look at that little monkey run!”
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