Zeke's Fumble

[CalPolyTechnique]

Whatever makes you feel better, honey.

Stand down honey.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

There’s no doubt Zeke was in the process of losing the ball, but having someone yank on the ball and move your arm doesn’t equate to an actual fumble (i.e. losing possession/control of the football).

However, at the point he actually lost the ball was after his elbow already had hit the turf. Therefore, the play should have been over.

Dallas’ ball.

 

[DogFace]

Stand down honey.

Yes dear

 

[RD21]

There’s no doubt Zeke was in the process of losing the ball, but having someone yank on the ball and move your arm doesn’t equate to an actual fumble (i.e. losing possession/control of the football).

However, at the point he actually lost the ball was after his elbow already had hit the turf. Therefore, the play should have been over.

Dallas’ ball.

Agreed. There have been plenty of plays in the league where, somebody pulls at the ball, & it never leaves the ball carrier's possession. Once he touched the ground, the play was dead. I continue to believe, it was NOT a fumble. More troubling for me is, the refs couldn't see it. Seems to me, the ruling on the field should have been, no fumble. It would then have been up to the replay to determine clear evidence of a fumble, to overturn it.

I think we got hosed, & it was a game changing play.

Ain't the end of the season. I'm not one who thought we weren't going to lose multiple games this year but, that call sucked. It wasn't the only shady, call/no call in the game.

 

[Aviano90]

I thought it was a bad call. However, Zeke said exactly what I was thinking...he can't leave it up to the refs. His job is to possess the ball all the way through the play. That type of ownership instead of excuses is how improvement is made, despite the bad call.

 

[atlantacowboy]

There is a lot of things to blame Zeke for...not this...he did NOT fumble the ball. The refs know that there is ZERO chance of any repercussion from the league office for blowing a call against Dallas.....they probably feel that it will actually curry favor with them....The Goon sure as S doesn't care.

He needs to not lose the ball in these situations or even appear to lose the ball. We can't rely on officials to get every call right. Its like the Dez TD against GB. If he just holds onto the ball, there is no need for officials to make a judgement call.

 

[MarcusRock]

There’s no doubt Zeke was in the process of losing the ball, but having someone yank on the ball and move your arm doesn’t equate to an actual fumble (i.e. losing possession/control of the football).

However, at the point he actually lost the ball was after his elbow already had hit the turf. Therefore, the play should have been over.

Dallas’ ball.

Agreed. There have been plenty of plays in the league where, somebody pulls at the ball, & it never leaves the ball carrier's possession. Once he touched the ground, the play was dead. I continue to believe, it was NOT a fumble. More troubling for me is, the refs couldn't see it. Seems to me, the ruling on the field should have been, no fumble. It would then have been up to the replay to determine clear evidence of a fumble, to overturn it.

I think we got hosed, & it was a game changing play.

Ain't the end of the season. I'm not one who thought we weren't going to lose multiple games this year but, that call sucked. It wasn't the only shady, call/no call in the game.

But there is a question I think the NFL needs to clarify. We covered it earlier but a fumble is defined in the rules as "Any act ... which results in a loss of player possession." A fumble is not simply losing possession. It's something acting on another to cause a loss of possession. Apple clearly started an act that caused Elliott to lose possession but Elliott touched the ground in the middle of the act, which to me had clearly started (and wound up to be effective). My question is does the NFL grant continuation for a fumble process that starts before the runner is down if the process is successful? The rules don't specify one way or the other.

 

[Lutonio]

I was pretty stunned by how the whole thing unfolded. First, there were so many bodies in the pile there is no way a ref could have made a ruling about a fumble there in the first place. Second, the replay looked very definitely down. I was so confident when that it would he overturned when they cut to the commercial break.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist guy saying the fix was in by the NFL, but plays like this are the reason those people exist.