This is a TIMING play.
If the receiver has touched the ball? Then Welker’s hit is a CLEAN block.
If Welker hits BEFORE the intended WR touches the ball.. it’s Offensive interference.
When I watched it, real time.... My GUT told me, the hit was too early. When, I watch the replays... I felt the same thing. BUT, the timing was SO CLOSE, I don’t think anyone could say it’s not within the range of “official discretion”. It’s really.. VERY close, in real time.
I don’t think there was ANY intent to injure. Welker did NOT go for the legs. He laid a shoulder block, into the mid-section. Clean play...
Yea..It COULD have been called as Pass Interference.. and, I wouldn’t bitch about it. As it was? a Non-call.. that, I also have NO problem with.
Given Belichick’s ABUSE of the rules in the past? I have ZERO sympathy for him, or the Pats.
It is not a clean block. You cannot argue with the rule. If the rule was different, that would be another case. If the receiver touches the ball first or catches it first, that is another case.
But if Welker slams into Talib BEFORE the receiver touches the ball, it is NOT a “clean block”, it is a penalty. It doesn’t make any difference whether it is a timing play or not, that is completely irrelevant to the point. It IS of course a timing play, but if he fails to execute the timing correctly, it doesn’t become a legal hit because he didn’t really mean to mis-time it. His intention has no bearing whatsoever.
Do not confuse the characterization of Welker’s hit as “illegal” (which it clearly is) with it being “dirty” or “intentional”. I am sure Wes didn’t mean to hit Talib before the ball was touched, and he sure didn’t try to injure him in my opinion.
The issue here is not whether or not the penalty was called. That is irrelevant. Did you even hear a single peep out of me about it not being called a penalty?
No. You couldn’t have, because I didn’t.
What I DO have an issue with is people STATING it was a “clean block” when it is 100% clearly and unequivocally NOT a “clean block”.
And this is not about having or not having sympathy for the Patriots, Belichick or starving children in Biafra. That is irrelevant here, who is looking for sympathy?
This related discussion on this thread is about the fact of what happened on that particular play and nothing else.