Regardless of how others feel about “the play”, every NFL rules analyst has said something similar to Gene Steratore here. BY RULE, it was an interception. If our guy hadn’t been there, and their guy didn’t possess the ball through the contact with the ground, it would have been an incomplete pass.
This next statement comes from me having been a certified high school football official in Colorado for 4-5 years working varsity games.
The issue here is that we have the ability to watch the replay seconds after it happened, and we have the ability to slow it down and look at it frame by frame. The officials on the field get one real time look at it. Yes, they have replay, but if the booth thought it was improperly officiated, they would have initiated a review (see NFL OT rules, no coaches challenges) from upstairs and New York. No review was initiated. I am certain, especially in the playoffs, each and every score is reviewed, as well as each and every turnover. If the NFL wanted to take a longer look at it, they would have, but they didn’t because they agreed in the booth that the play was officiated correctly.
Likewise, we saw tonight in the Rams Bears game, where Adams had the ball stripped away after he was down by contact. Similar play. Different call because the Adams play met all 3 of the criteria for a catch.
They may not like it, but ignorance to the rules doesn’t give you license to complain for days on end because you think you know better than they guys in stripes who are paid to be on that field for calls just like that!
21 comments
Hopefully someone reads this to Bills fans.
I like the Check the Mic podcast and listen weekly. One of the points they make consistently is that super slow motion reviews are fundamentally changing the game in some very undesirably ways. Now in the case of the Cooks “catch” the correct call was made and the review upheld it. But there are others that have gone the other way. The typical example of this is whether a play is called an incomplete pass or a forced fumble. It used to be that if a QB was hit from behind at the top of his throwing motion and the ball flew forward that was a fumble. Now they look at the tape frame by frame and check to see if there’s a singular frame of the QB’s arm moving forward in which case it becomes a completed pass. I think slowing footage down for reviews is fine for things like checking if a foot is in bounds or whether a defender jumps off sides, but it should absolutely not be the driving force behind decisions like fumbles or possession of the football. Otherwise we’ll get to the point where every other play is reviewed and the game becomes unwatchable.
It was obviously the correct call, the problem is that:
A) Most people who watch football aren’t that deep into the rules, and when you have Tony Romo (someone who has played pro QB and presumably knows some rules) reacting like the call is confusing and analyzing a super slowed version of the play then a lot of folks are going to be upset and feel like they lost the game based off of a bad call. And;
B) The refs have been pretty inconsistent this year, making some truly head scratching calls/no calls at times. It’s gotten to the point where some fans won’t trust outcomes that don’t favor their team because they believe the refs can’t make the right call when it counts.
Even with all that, I think upset Bills fans should ask themselves the bigger question: if the Bills didn’t commit 4 other turnovers then would it have even mattered what this call was?
Ya but some guy named Billsmafia69 I follow on Twitter said Cooks secured it so it was a bad call.
What I’ve learned from all this (because I’m literally showing people these exact rules) is that fans do understand these rules instinctually until something questionable happens to their team. And then suddenly they argue that the NFL rules are too vague, or they nitpick screenshots and slo mo tape of 100 different angles.
And Gene is 100% right. I’ve been telling folks that these clips they’re watching are in real time a split second. Just because they spend 15 minutes looking at the fall doesn’t mean Cooks held the ball for 15 minutes lol
Yeah outside of the pick Bills fans are complaining this wasn’t called a catch which is bananas
McMillians hands were on the ball and in possession (similar to Cooks) before going to the ground. McMillian didn’t even pull the ball away, his hands were underneath the ball and the force of his body hitting cooks on the ground caused the ball to maintain in McMillians possession. If Cooks held on he’d win the tie but unfortunately he died and gave it up to McMillian for the INT. By rule an easy call. Adams call a little different and more controversial if you’re not listening to crybaby Bills fan and all the things they complain about. Adams didn’t maintain possession going to the ground and the ball was stripped away, it should have also been a change of possession according to the rule. It was a little clearer in the McMillian play due to McMillian having his hands around the ball before ground contact, but the Adams play he didn’t have possession surviving to the ground. I’ll call an honest play when I see it on slow mo. If you want to be really honest, Mims didn’t maintain survival to the ground on his TD. Ball hit the ground and forced its way back up to his hands and to his body. In reality the refs let the teams play. They called a good game with some missteps at the end. It’s not going to called perfectly in any close game and the loser is always going to cry about the refs.
I really cant belumieve peoole watch that repkay and think its not an interception. They both roll in the air juggling the ball. Now there is 1 freeze frame image that makes it look suspect, but it makes it look like they are on the ground standing when they are in fact landing into a roll
Had the refs called the holding call in the end zone the game would have been over prior to this call anyway
Slightly off-topic, I think adding a “rules analyst” is one of the best upgrades the NFL has done to the broadcast. Finding a bunch of retired referees and paying them to analyze games has to be the most amazing gig ever. Plus, instead of hearing broadcasters wildly guess what is happening when the refs are discussing something, you get the actual f-ing answer.
Anyways, Gene Steratore is probably the best one on television. Nothing seems to get past him.
Possessed it for less than a second…
It makes me so upset that the “controversy” around this call is prohibiting McMillan from getting his well deserved flowers for this play
Genuinely, this is not hard.
All turnovers are automatically reviewed by the league. It WAS reviewed and the league didn’t overturn or even draw it out.
What was easiest for me was just to pretend the WR was alone. If he catches it that way and loses control of the ball at exactly the same time and it hits the ground, that’s an incomplete pass. It’s just in this case the ball never hit the ground.
My mother in law came over for dinner on Sunday. She’s not really into football but is married to a patriots fan who was clearly talking about the game because one of the first things she said to me walking in was “I’m sorry but that was a catch”. And instead of being polite I immediately said “no it really wasnt. It was an interception.” And that made the next 15 minutes awkward as she tried to be like “oh I don’t really know the rules but it seemed like a catch to me”
Like yeah you clearly don’t know the rules. I can tell.
I agree with this and I’ve been trying to explain it like this. However, in real time I thought for sure he was going to be called for PI, and I still think we were lucky that it wasn’t called.
It’s hilarious how everyone was like “it’s the exact same play?!?!” When it very clearly, was not. McMillian was involved in the catch the entire time. Adams caught and turned into a defender and that’s when the defender got involved.
Write it in crayon for bills fans.
There’s national guys STILL complaining about the call this morning on espn radio. Fucking babies.
>if the booth thought it was improperly officiated, they would have initiated a review (see NFL OT rules, no coaches challenges) from upstairs and New York. No review was initiated.
Aren’t all turnovers and scoring plays automatically reviewed in NY?
Anyway, I also think one thing bills fans and otherwise neutral but confused watchers forget is that the replays has to show absolute evidence to overturn the live call. The live call was INT. So you have to show that A, B and C are 100% completed.
Nothing in the replay can show that Cooks “performed any act common to the game”, as the only thing he did after catching and going to the ground is… losing the ball.
Call stands. Not “confirmed”. Stands.