Dilfer on Sportscenter: "NFL Rule book is so convoluted"

[DallasEast]

This is true but any score can be a huge momentum swing. I think we score on the Dez play we change the game. I think that is what our defense has fed off all year. Big plays by the offense pumped them up and you can play differently.

Several if's were left on the field yesterday. What if Bryant had pulled the ball into his body? I do not blame him for trying to score. The endzone was literally inches away, but his actual attempt allowed that idiotic rule to come into play. What if Murray covers the ball up a bit more hitting the hole? There is less chance of Peppers stripping him of the ball. What if the alien who has possessed Dan Bailey the past two weeks didn't visit this solar system? He would have split the uprights as usual. The team that executes best during games usually wins. We came up short yesterday for that reason.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

yup, a thousand diff probabilities......maybe Marinelli cooks up a blitz on G.Bay 4th down that finally gets to Rogers.....The thing in sports is to let that possibility happen, just as much as the possibility of G.Bay and Rogers executing a final game winning drive

We'd all rather loose in that manner ........than have a opinion on a opinion remove the possibility.

I'm positive GB is happy with the out come but they looked just as shocked as Dallas did. It's a win but it has a big question mark on it.

 

[demdcowboys#1]

Still...

It should not have came down to that play.

Exactly. We had our opportunities and squandered them. The Hannah 'non-recovery' on Cobb's fumble, comes to mind. That would have been 100% a game changer! We had gone up 21-13, and if he holds onto that ball, we get 24, MAYBE a 28-13 lead. And ALL momentum. Green Bay would have been reeling.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Several if's were left on the field yesterday. What if Bryant had pulled the ball into his body? I do not blame him for trying to score. The endzone was literally inches away, but his actual attempt allowed that idiotic rule to come into play. What if Murray covers the ball up a bit more hitting the hole? There is less chance of Peppers stripping him of the ball. What if the alien who has possessed Dan Bailey the past two weeks didn't visit this solar system? He would have split the uprights as usual. The team that executes best during games usually wins. We came up short yesterday for that reason.

That's I believe we score on that series and we beat them. Some times when things aren't working out like the things you said just one play changes every thing. You get new life, like when we missed the FG. That gave the Pack new life. I would have bet the house we win from that point on.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

The team had lots of chances slip through (or out of as it were) their hands yesterday that could have changed the game. We didn't lose the game because of that blown call by the refs but they certainly blew the call.

There are too many stupid rules in the rule book, too much interpretation to be done by a bunch of people who clearly don't put in nearly enough time to do so, and way to much of the officials being the reason games are decided as opposed to the players on the field.

 

[sb220]

The rule should be two feet down with control. That is the football move. The act of grasping a ball with your hands while maintaining control is a football move. If the ball is moving and the receiver doesn't have control before he hits the ground it's incomplete, but when a receiver has 100% control of the ball, with both feet down it is a catch. If he reaches out and loses the ball as he hits the ground before he is touched, then call it a fumble. Instead plays are being reviewed by some clowns who have probably never even made a football move. There are only a few guys in the league that make that catch and only a couple with the presence and athleticism to reach for the goal line. Get rid of the football move verbiage.

Only thing standing in the way of this is the amount of fumbles it creates. Dropped passes and sooo many bang-bang breakups in the middle of the field would technically become fumbles if all it takes is a split second still-frame to determine possession. Even before this rule of maintaining possession...the ball couldn't even touch the ground regardless if you had control or not.
Its a tough one to make simply black and white imo

 

[DallasEast]

That's I believe we score on that series and we beat them. Some times when things aren't working out like the things you said just one play changes every thing. You get new life, like when we missed the FG. That gave the Pack new life. I would have bet the house we win from that point on.

Agree 100%.

 

[DOUBLE WING]

Every new explanation that comes out from Blandino and the rest of these goofballs just sounds more and more convoluted. They can all go die in a fire for all I care.

 

[hermitkid]

Reminded me of this play, and back then they didn't even have video evidence.

As soon as it went to review I knew the call on the field would be overturned.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Exactly. We had our opportunities and squandered them. The Hannah 'non-recovery' on Cobb's fumble, comes to mind. That would have been 100% a game changer! We had gone up 21-13, and if he holds onto that ball, we get 24, MAYBE a 28-13 lead. And ALL momentum. Green Bay would have been reeling.

But then we did what good teams do. We CREATED another opportunity. It was ruled away. So we really won't know how the game would have ended. Great teams make their own opportunities to win. We did that time and time again.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

Reminded me of this play, and back then they didn't even have video evidence.

As soon as it went to review I knew the call on the field would be overturned.

Dez had switched the ball from one hand to another and dove for the goal line. Making it a football move.....this guy dropped the ball.

 

[sweetness0986]

Only thing standing in the way of this is the amount of fumbles it creates. Dropped passes and sooo many bang-bang breakups in the middle of the field would technically become fumbles if all it takes is a split second still-frame to determine possession. Even before this rule of maintaining possession...the ball couldn't even touch the ground regardless if you had control or not.
Its a tough one to make simply black and white imo

It shouldn't be so difficult, thats the thing. You can tell when someone catches a ball with possession. You can tell when someone bobbles. There are so many rules that contradict each other and make no sense whatsoever and it's making the game more complicated than it is. Let them play. Let them make spectacular catches. Let them lunge toward the endzone. Don't make game changing decisions based on something that is subjective. This is not a subjective sport.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

But then we did what good teams do. We CREATED another opportunity. It was ruled away. So we really won't know how the game would have ended. Great teams make their own opportunities to win. We did that time and time again.

I agree..... We love to nitpick. But there is no such thing as a perfect player, perfect team. Well, maybe those early 90s teams we had were perfect!!

But for the most part, a great team. A team thats going to win a super bowl, and be competitive year in and year out, needs to know how to overcome fumbles. Big fumbles. Missed takeaways, dropped balls, and missed field goals, etc etc. There is another team out there!!!

And this team did exactly what they were suppose to do. Put themselves in position to win. And they did exactly that. But, some jack wagon in the replay booth thought he was more important....

 

[ConstantReboot]

There are times when I criticize the officials. I have often said the speed of the pro game has gotten too fast for some of them to process in real time. That said, I do not blame the officials for reversing The Catch. The rule is the problem. It is idiotic, plain and simple. If the league were serious about cleaning up its own rulebook once and for all, it would strongly consider adding people like Dilfer to the competition committee. He's intelligent, does his homework, and makes logical arguments about many aspects of pro football. That's the exact mentality that the NFL rulebook needs badly. In my opinion, the concept of possession should be the same for receiver and running back IF ball control is established AFTER taking two steps FOLLOWING the reception. Cut and dried.

I was being conservative when I said "some."

The rules isn't the problem. Its the interpretation of the rules towards a certain play is the problem. That was a catch pure and simple. It really doesn't have anything to do with the Calvin Johnson rule. He did everything a receiver needs to do in order to make and catch and try to score a TD.

The NFL screwed up trying to apply a rule to a play which doesn't apply. That means that they are backtracking and means that their decision to take that catch away was the wrong call. Dallas got robbed pure and simple.

 

[CF74]

Dilfer for Pres, time to lynch Goodell lol