PFT: Gregory was not lined up in the neutral zone

[Runwildboys]

Even in the OP's photo, you can see that the left most edge of his helmet is past the right most edge of the ball. It's in the neutral zone.

 

[erod]

Exactly what did we get away with last night?

Beasley was down well short of the first down marker. Jaylon went head to head with Kamara and no call (he's about to get fined).

 

[cern]

PFT started it.[/Q

 

[Runwildboys]

You need to be looking at the ball not the 50-yard line. No part of him is across the ball, which is the point of the article.

The neutral zone is, per the official rulebook, the “space between the forward and backward points of the ball (planes) and extends to the sidelines.”

Look at the blue line. Gregory's helmet is more than halfway across, and the ball is halfway across going the other way.

 

[BatteryPowered]

It doesn't matter if he was offsides or not. What matters is it's yet another example of officials inserting themselves into the outcomes of games and getting it wrong. On plays that affect the outcomes of games/seasons.

When the play on the field doesn't separate players enough and officials do instead, you're not watching a game anymore. You're watching group of judges decide who moves on and who doesn't. And frankly, that's **** tv.

The league has to fix this.

You have obviously never officiated a sport on any level in your life.

Every action an official takes or does not take inserts them into the game. One of the biggest loud mouths in sports is Bobby Knight. Even he said you must be good enough to overcome mistakes. It doesn't matter if they are yours or the officials.

 

[Sinister]

My problem is that even if Randy Gregory is in the neutral zone. The left tackle is obviously lined up in the back field.

The refs had a horrible game, we won so I'm just going to move on.

 

[ksadler1]

Call out the plays you're referencing.

Don't treat some blanket general claim like it's fact.

Rewatch the game and you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm not saying you're wrong about what you're saying, quite the opposite, but quit being so blind to the Saints non-calls. These refs sucked for both teams...

 

[robertfchew]

Why did they throw the flag so late though?

Exactly it came out so late I said thats gotta be holding.

 

[Cowboys22]

If he’s in the neutral zone then so is ever Center that ever snapped a ball.

 

[Cowboys22]

Even in the OP's photo, you can see that the left most edge of his helmet is past the right most edge of the ball. It's in the neutral zone.

Where is the Center’s helmet? Or is it okay for the Center to be in the neutral zone?

 

[Blackspider214]

Exactly it came out so late I said thats gotta be holding.

Seems to me they were waiting to see the result of the play. If the Saints had a positive play, no call made. How was this flag not thrown the second the ball was snapped?

 

[Runwildboys]

Did you want to re-write that statement?

This picture clearly shows the nose of the ball very nearly touching the right edge of the blue line. At the same time, Gregory's helmet is nearly touching the left edge of the blue line. I don't know what kind of physics would be necessary to say the two planes don't intersect, but if someone can explain it adequately, I'll be happy to agree that he wasn't offsides.

 

[KingintheNorth]

You have obviously never officiated a sport on any level in your life.

Every action an official takes or does not take inserts them into the game. One of the biggest loud mouths in sports is Bobby Knight. Even he said you must be good enough to overcome mistakes. It doesn't matter if they are yours or the officials.

Also the flag was thrown at the snap of the play. It's not like the ref knew we were about to get a game-clinching fumble and "inserted himself" .

 

[MarcusRock]

And that's perfectly fine if it's the correct call. But why didn't they call it against the Saints too, along with the false starts that were ignored. If someone is watching the line, how do they conveniently miss that? You say spit happens? That's intentionally overlooked...

If that's true then they should have called it. Are there pictures or video that shows this happened? My point is that the officials miss calls everywhere and in every game. They have to. There's not 11 of them to watch all 11 matchups on the field.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Lol.

At least you got it, unlike another poster

 

[OmerV]

That's the difference between calling the game in a black and white versus a practical sense. Sure, the rules are the rules. But typically that is not how games are called by the best officials. There are many instances of that.

In the NBA, a ref doesn't necessarily call all the fouls (for instance). If two guys are getting physical he might warn them to knock it off or he'll call something next time. Or if a guy going in for a layup gets a little contact they might not call a foul but if the guy misses, they'll often call a somewhat delayed foul a count or two after. It's also pretty obvious that they expect a guy to really earn a foul in end of game situations and aren't going to call ticky tack fouls.

In the NFL, you can call holding on most plays. But if they did so, it would be a terrible game. Going back to my point, how often do guys lineup in the same spot as gregory? I bet if you look at the tape you'll see it happened plenty of times. As they mention in the link, that's really a situation where the ref should warned gregory, hey, you're a little close there. You might want to take a few inches back. And it probably should have happened earlier in the game, where I imagined he'd lined up plenty of times before. Now, maybe he did and if so, then it's on Gregory. But I have not heard that happened.

Now, tell me again how it makes no difference? The officials job isn't simply to call he plays. His job is to manage the game. And sometimes, managing the game requires more than just black and white interpretation. Especially in this case, where it was a 50/50 call at best in a crucial situation.

I understand your point to a degree but what you are talking about is contact fouls. It would be completely impractical to call everything that could technically be called a foul in basketball, or in football to call every contact in coverage or every borderline incident with the O-Line while blocking. But this wasn't a contact foul. It was more of a procedural thing. A basketball ref wouldn't excuse a player only slightly stepping on the baseline, or an accidental back court violation.

In any case, if Gregory was guilty, we really don't have a complaint because even if we think it shouldn't have been called, it still took Gregory putting himself in a position he shouldn't have to create the chance of it being called. The players know the rules, so they are responsible for playing within them.

 

[Runwildboys]

But do you know the center moved the ball back substantially?

Even if he didn't, both the ball and Gregory's helmet are almost completely within the blue line. I don't see how anyone can claim that's not in the neutral zone.

 

[Don Corleone]

Also the flag was thrown at the snap of the play. It's not like the ref knew we were about to get a game-clinching fumble and "inserted himself" .

Say what? The flag wasn’t thrown until the ball was rolling on the turf. Watch it again.

 

[Runwildboys]

Where is the Center’s helmet? Or is it okay for the Center to be in the neutral zone?

Have you ever heard of a center being called for being in the neutral zone?

 

[MarcusRock]

The blue line shows me you're trying to justify an eyeballed claim of centimeters at best, that, once again, has been referenced as a bad call by multiple former referees and rules analysts.

Were those analysts there? What are they using to determine it was a bad call if not video and picture stills like we are? Lol.