I was watching the feed on my phone as I was driving on the way back from a gospel concert- I know but I love my steelers – and the dang blasted thing said the interception was a safety! I was about to lose it, thinking who intercepts the ball – runs back into the endzone and gets tackled??!?!?! I called my dad and he explained to me what happen – thanks Sprint NFL Live Mobile – or should I say Jive Mobile. LOL Yes Sprint I just called you a Jive Turkey!!! (Semi-Pro reference)

How can you hit a blocker (during the play) that was coming to block you and get a personal foul called?

But it’s been happening all year. Its ridiculous, especially since they said that holding would be a “point of interest” this year. Yeah? Bull crap.

Anyway, I still think the Spin Doctor fumble should have been ruled down. To me, he appeared to be just lying there doing nothing, not spurting forward. Blow the whistle, let’s move on.

The Hines Ward call and the lack of holding against #92 were the most egregious. It also seems like the Steelers have been on the receiving end of bad luck at least twice this year with those “why didn’t the damn whistle blow” turnovers. At least we’re overcoming bad luck with skill.

Nice Call of Duty reference, BTW!

Is there a way to see the photo of the chain marker on the ground? Also, there was a hold of Keiwan ratliff on the Cribbs return. Is there a picture of that? Sorry to ask you to work, just curious, since the piece was outstanding

The use of math is intriguing, but the end goal of finding where the camera man is and drawing the conclusion that he is 15 yards away is weak and doesn’t help the end goal of proving that it may have been a first down. I think to be truly awesome, the breakdown would…

Take the line drawn along the hash mark that is 32 degrees off and draw it all the way down the field of vision. That would get you a line that crosses the football. Then you can calculate almost exactly where the nose of the ball is based on where that hash mark is and how long a NFL football is. Then you would have P(f), point of football, and then you’d need to find the P(d), point of first down.

That’s a little trickier, but given a shot of the field overall you can find the hash marker and do a similar line to line it up with the first down marker all the way on the sideline. You can then calculate pixel to hash mark ratio and find out how many pixels is an inch, or millimeter. Then you can find out how many pixels the first down marker is from the hash mark. That will give you the almost exact spot of where the first down marker is.

Since you’ll have the relative positioning of the football to the hash mark and the first down marker to the hash mark, you should then be able to definitively say where the nose of the ball was relative to the first down marker.

Just an idea :)

Quoting steelerark, “…No matter where you are in relation to the EZ, sidelines, etc., you HAVE to maintain possession if you go down, through the entire play…”

I’m using your quote as I was too lazy to find the rulebook. I share you hatred with this rule, and I’ll bring up the same thing I did in the game thread….

How then can an RB dive from a few yards outside of the endzone with possibly his entire body out of bounds (not touching the ground, of course), and the ball just graze the OUTSIDE edge of a pylon, then upon landing immediately fumbles the ball out of the one hand he was holding it with….still be awarded a TD?? It happens all the time.

If Wards’ catch was not a TD, then none of those plays should be either.

I learned the day of the infamous coin toss in Detroit that you can’t beat the refs. They are just as much a part of the game as injuries. Unless you’re the Patriots, you can’t control the refs. They giveth and they taketh away. All I can do when refs make ridiculous calls is shrug my shoulders. Good, bad or otherwise. I could sit and cry (and count) how many times #92 gets held every game. But all that seems to do is give me something to cry and moan about after a loss. After a win, such things aren’t really that important. I realize that the refs have a very difficult job dealing with professional athletes moving at breakneck speeds play after play. For the most part, they are usually correct with their calls. They are human, they make mistakes. And like most humans, they try to correct those mistakes after the fact. I’m convinced if the phantom 1st down didn’t occur 2 plays prior, Hines would have 2 TD catches instead of 1. It’s all a part of the game. If you allow the refs to determine the outcome of the game, you’re just making excuses. Every Sunday, every team has 60 minutes to determine the outcome. A bad call or 2 may swing momentum or the balance of the game one direction or another, but players always have the ability to swing it right back on the next play.

Judgment calls are tough, and there are more than ever now.

Being a referee is hard too, there is so much going on, you can’t keep track of everythign and players know that.

The new holding “emphasis” is exactly the opposite, they redefined holding because they are afraid of QB’s getting killed. The way holding was called the second half of last year is the way it is being called now. They don’t want Silverback and Woodley body slamming QB’s. It’s bad for the league. So they redefine the rules to reduce sacks.

Here

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2009101805/2009/REG6/browns@steelers#tab:watch

2 comments on the big pass to Massaquoi:

1. There might have been a hold on Harrison, but if there was, it wasn’t until Anderson was releasing the ball. I’m not saying there wasn’t a hold, but considering the standard in Harrison’s case is that he has to be horsecollared under a spotlight with blinking neon arrow signs at the infraction, I’ve seen far worse.
2. It was great to have Troy back, but he looked like he didn’t have his wheels back on this series. Troy at 100% gets back and knocks the ball down, knocks the receiver in to Easter, makes the pick or all three. Unfortunately, I think Troy is only about 75-80% and he was five yards away from where he needed to be to make a play. Of course, Ike (who has lined up 11 yards off the receiver and backpedaled at the snap), still seemed to be jogging on the play as the ball was dropping in to the receiver’s hands.

So on that play, I’m going go with the Steelers secondary fell asleep as 1 guy beat three in coverage and say that the ref didn’t screw us.

As for the spot on the interception, at first glance, I thought it would be downed at the 1. After replay, I thought it was a touchback. Watched it again today and I can’t freaking believe it wasn’t a touchback. That one was horrible.

OK, Harrison gets held a lot… but our O-line got away with a couple, too. It’s tough to say because holding can be called almost every down in the NFL. My guess is that in an effort to protect passers even more they are letting more holds go this year.

As for the rest, the 4th and inch call certainly looked bad on TV, but the ref sure seemed confident about it, and I’ve never noticed them giving the Steelers the benefit of the doubt before, so I can accept that it was a bad camera angle — though if so, they really need to get that fixed. It looked bad.

On the spot of the interception, I think he was down at the one. It didn’t matter anyway. But I think that was a good call.

Looked to me like a TD for Hines. I guess that is one of those interpretation of the rules, but I think sometimes the refs over-think these things too much.

Mendenhall looked down to me. He wasn’t on the ground, but I can’t believe that was a fumble. All motion was stopped, and he was lying on the defender. That is stop of forward progress clear and simple. But I will say that his fumble was better than FWP’s (if that makes sense.) I think FWP fumbled himself out of the starting lineup with that one…

I don’t think the Refs screwed us, or even had a particularly bad game though. Other weeks have been a lot worse, IMHO.

He explained it the same way that you did, just without the math (which, by the way, was one post in here that made me feel like I gained brain cells instead of losing them. But, unfortunately, after gaining them, realized what a dumbass I really am at all things math, and I stressed over that, which made me lose the fragile little noob cells before they could take root. Maybe next time.)

He commented that the camera had to be at around the 20-22 yard line, and I believe the ball being spotted was around the 14-15. Either way, he said the ref was “squatting” on top of the ball (his words) and that the camera angle was definitely the issue, not the spot itself.

Yay for more material our bitter (and I mean that literally) rivals can churn over.

Tums, Browns fan?

The SEC suspended the refs from Florida vs. Arkansas game Saturday. This is the second game they did some crappy officiating. Georgia vs. LSU was the other.

With regards to the Mendenhall fumble, I do agree that I like to see a play extended for as long as possible – he could have just as easily rolled off of the Brownie and run it in for a touchdown; HOWEVER, just like Logan’s return against the Chargers, Mendenhall’s forward progress was clearly stopped for what appeared to be several seconds. Someone could have just as easily come in with a late hit and given Mendenhall a serious injury. If the NFL is so concerned about keeping players safer this year, I think plays like this need to be taken into consideration.
A small note about the Ward TD: I agree completely with you, Mechem, I’m glad their misreading of the rule didn’t cost us the game. I know that all of these points are really moot, and we DID win, but there is a disturbing trend of questionable officiating throughout the league this year.