The football world is losing its collective mind this morning over a play in the Bengals - Raiders wild card game yesterday. Shortly before the end of the first half, the Bengals’ Joe Burrow threw a TD pass that has generated a sh*tstorm of controversy. The Bengals were leading by a TD at the time, and that was the final margin of victory. Today, the fans, aided by the media, are calling for the crew chief, Jerome Boger, to be fired … if not tarred and feathered. But if we break down the play, we understand what happened.
The video shows the likely explanation. As Burrow scrambled to his sideline, the short wing on that side was camped out on the LOS at the sideline - right where he is supposed to be. Burrow ran right at him, and he was forced to sidestep, turn and rule on the play as Burrow released the ball right at the sideline. He was so close to Burrow that he was unable to see both the feet and the ball at the same time. He looked at the feet, and (I believe — the NFL did not identify the official who blew the whistle in the post game comment on the play) blew the whistle. After the play was over, the officials communicated, and another crew member called him off the play, which was the correct ruling. Then, they had to decide whether the whistle blew before the catch, since a whistle while the pass is in flight would require a replay of the down at the previous spot. When the whistle blew is not reviewable by replay under NFL rules. They ruled the ball was caught first and let the TD stand. Subsequent forensic analysis showed that the whistle blew about .10 seconds before the catch.
IMO, this is much ado about very little. The erroneous out of bounds call by the short wing was unfortunate, but understandable under the circumstances, and the crew functioned appropriately in communicating and getting that call right. Human reaction time is about 250 milliseconds to see something and initiate a reaction to it. The YouTube video does not show anyone reacting to the whistle before the ball gets there, and you wouldn’t expect to see that. In other words, the whistle blowing 1/10 of a second before the ball arrived had no effect on the play.
An interesting play, but actually handled pretty well, although those officials are being pilloried today.
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Bobref
The football world is losing its collective mind this morning over a play in the Bengals - Raiders wild card game yesterday. Shortly before the end of the first half, the Bengals’ Joe Burrow threw a TD pass that has generated a sh*tstorm of controversy. The Bengals were leading by a TD at the time, and that was the final margin of victory. Today, the fans, aided by the media, are calling for the crew chief, Jerome Boger, to be fired … if not tarred and feathered. But if we break down the play, we understand what happened.
The video shows the likely explanation. As Burrow scrambled to his sideline, the short wing on that side was camped out on the LOS at the sideline - right where he is supposed to be. Burrow ran right at him, and he was forced to sidestep, turn and rule on the play as Burrow released the ball right at the sideline. He was so close to Burrow that he was unable to see both the feet and the ball at the same time. He looked at the feet, and (I believe — the NFL did not identify the official who blew the whistle in the post game comment on the play) blew the whistle. After the play was over, the officials communicated, and another crew member called him off the play, which was the correct ruling. Then, they had to decide whether the whistle blew before the catch, since a whistle while the pass is in flight would require a replay of the down at the previous spot. When the whistle blew is not reviewable by replay under NFL rules. They ruled the ball was caught first and let the TD stand. Subsequent forensic analysis showed that the whistle blew about .10 seconds before the catch.
IMO, this is much ado about very little. The erroneous out of bounds call by the short wing was unfortunate, but understandable under the circumstances, and the crew functioned appropriately in communicating and getting that call right. Human reaction time is about 250 milliseconds to see something and initiate a reaction to it. The YouTube video does not show anyone reacting to the whistle before the ball gets there, and you wouldn’t expect to see that. In other words, the whistle blowing 1/10 of a second before the ball arrived had no effect on the play.
An interesting play, but actually handled pretty well, although those officials are being pilloried today.
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