NFL: Giants would have been flagged if they spiked it

AP Via ESPN ^ | 1-6-03 | ANON

[Pharmboy]

NEW YORK -- Giants holder Matt Allen could not have spiked the botched snap on the final play of New York's loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

It's against the rules.

Mike Pereira, the NFL supervisor of officials, confirmed Monday that Allen would not have been allowed to immediately spike the ball because it was a long snap. The only time a player can spike the ball is when he takes the snap from under the center.

With six seconds left Sunday and the Giants trailing 39-38, Matt Bryant lined up to try a potential game-winning 41-yard field goal. The snap from newly signed Trey Junkin was in the dirt. Allen fumbled the ball, then made a desperation pass downfield to what turned out to be an ineligible receiver, guard Rich Seubert.

Fox commentator Cris Collinsworth said at the time that since it was third down, Allen could have spiked the ball, giving the Giants another chance at a kick. Afterward, on the Fox postgame show, other commentators agreed.

Pereira said the only other option would have been to throw to an eligible receiver.

[discostu]

I can never remember who's always eligible and who has to declare, I know the center and inside linemen are never eligible and everybody else can be depending. Don't forget Amos Zeroue. Without injuries the Steelers actually start games with 6 QBs of varying levels of experience, why Cowher doesn't fear the injury bug as much as other coaches.

[skeeter]

How do you know which side of the field is for the Raiders? Easy! It's the one with hadicapped seating on the bench.

Bookmarking your assessment for future evaluation & comment...

[LdSentinal]

WFAN (a sports radio station in the New York City area) has just announced that the NFL has told the New York Giants that the game cannot end on off-setting penalties and the Giants should have got another down.

[Alberta's Child]

Bad clock management is the least of his troubles. His teams are consistently outplayed in the second half of games, which means the opposing coach is always out-performing him when it comes to making adjustments.

Also, his teams demonstrate some of the worst football fundamentals (missed blocks, poor tackling, mental mistakes, etc.) I've ever seen. Even when the Giants were up 38-14 I was rattling off a list of players and individual plays in that game that even a marginal high school coach would never tolerate.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

I've heard Bret do them in the past. Can't recall ESPN getting any playoff telecasts.
In fact, I can recall Bret doing a playoff game with Philly and Dick Vermeil was his co-host. That was at least in the early 90's (i.e. pre-Rams).
I also heard Mike Patrick state this earlier this year. You may have seen them do a playoff game, but I can't recall one.
Doesn't mean you're not right.
Of course, I try to zone out most of these dudes and, if Philly's playing, put on Merrill Reese, the greatest voice in football.
With Merrill, you have to add one to the team's possession and subtract one from wherever he says the Eagles got to...

[blackdog]

He dropped the pass because at the start of the play, he was needed by the president to consult on matters of super-human rescue. He had a cell phone in one hand speaking with the president, a steroid injection in his other, and a small cheerleader(over 18) camped out in his pants offering super-human gratification. As a result of the embarassing drop, he has instructed the president to have his people talk to my people while the ball is in the air. The cheerleader has been advised to wear a mouthguard next time or her sister will be called up for the next game. Those teeth can be distracting even to a super-human like Shockey.

The war on Iraq has not taken place yet because Shockey needs to finish one thing at a time.

[Alberta's Child]

I agree. Which is why this was the first year since 1979 that I didn't attend a single Giants home game. The NFL bores me to tears.

[ml/nj]

Fassel is a complete idiot.

I mean, how could he ever expect that there might be a bad snap? It hasn't even happened for a week or two. And his new snapper, picked up during the week of the game, probably practiced snapping with the holder on his new team a few times. How could he ever be blamed for not having some plan about what to do in the event of a bad snap on a third down field goal try?

Right!

It's Fassel's job to know what the rules are and to alert the players to what he wants them to do. He even had a courtesy time-out given to him by the 49ers (to "freeze" the kicker - how stupid!) to go over it one more time. If spiking isn't allowed it hardly matters, a quick incompleted pass to an end, or into the knees of some defensive lineman if necessary, would have given the Giants a second chance without any penalty at all.

Announcers can be ignorant of such things. For an NFL head coach to be, is inexcusable.

ML/NJ

[discostu]

The worst part is that Stewart is a fantastic wide receiver and pretty solid runningback. The thing he's worst at is the thing he wants to do. I'd kill to have him added to the receiving group, we'd have an even more explosive offense if he was on the field regularly... just not under center.

[Coop]

?!?! How in the world could you include Costas with Dierdork or Dennis Miller?

[clintonh8r]

Jack Buck knew that even on radio, there's a time to shut up, and nobody knows more about the pro game than Stram.

[Alberta's Child]

I beleive there were no off-setting penalties on that play. I thought the flag for pass interference is picked up when the receiver being interfered with is ineligible.

[VRWCmember]

Steelers vs. Bears, Steelers' ball on the Bears' 43, Bears up 24-20. Kordell Stewart, in relief of Tommy Maddox, takes the snap under center, and hands it off to Bettis, who hands it off to Randle-El in a reverse. Randle-El then fires a forward pass to Stewart, who catches it, and takes it to the end zone as time runs out in the 4th quarter.
As much as I'd hate to say it, it looks as if the Bears have lost this one in a heartbreaker. Am I right?

Nope, for the quarterback to be an eligible receiver he cannot take the snap under center; he must be in the shotgun. Illegal forward pass.

[discostu]

While the "tuck call" sucked, the Raiders should have never been in a position for that call to matter. They got the lead and started relaxing. They let the Pats back in the game and paid the price teams pay for doing that.

[My2Cents]

Yeah, it's good to know (for the record) that the spotter knew what he was doing when he tried to pass the ball downfield. Chris Collingsworth should have a red face today, he made such a big thing about it yesterday.

[mr.pink]

...he guy's name was Tom Waddle.

Tom Waddle was great to watch....classy and tough.

I made a mistake, LLoyd and Nickerson were not drafted 6-a and 6-b the same year. LLoyd was a fifth rounder the year before Nick was drafted.

[ThinkingMan]

I have a t-shirt that shows my membership as an "Official Raider Hater". I picked it up at a Monday night game at Mile High several years back-Broncos 31-3 over the Raiders. Jeff George was sacked something like 5 times. It was great. (Although you probably didn't enjoy that one as much as I did.)

[Lee'sGhost]

I wondered about that when it happened. I knew about the defensive penelty rule, and an offsetting penelty does involve a defensive penelty, offset or not. Interesting.

[Petronski]

You mean Collinsworth got it wrong? I'm shocked...Shocked!