Monday Night Screw Job

Monday Night Football ended last night in a debacle.  The Seattle Seahawks threw a desperation pass on the last play, as they trailed 12-7, on 4th down,  with 8 seconds remaining.  The ball was clearly intercepted by Green Bay Packer back-up safety M.D. Jennings, with Seahawk wide receiver Golden Tate, laying underneath Jennings, and reaching around to try to wrestle the ball away from him.  The back judge signaled an interception, while the side judge ruled a touchdown.  The official ruling was a Seahawk touchdown, which was upheld by the review officials, thus giving Seattle a 14-12 win.

Let me dissect this play, to see what really happened.  As Seahawk receivers and Packer defenders lined up to catch the pass in the left side of the end zone, the first thing that happened was an offensive pass interference on Golden Tate, as he pushed Packer Sam Shields in the back, right before the ball came down in the end zone.  If called, this would have ended the game, since there was no time left, and the game can end on an offensive penalty, but not a defensive penalty.  So the side judge, who was not in position to make the call, missed the offensive pass interference.

Next, when the ball came down, M.D. Jennings clearly caught the ball, and brought it down to his chest.  Golden Tate was underneath him, and merely reaching around Jennings to try to grab the ball away.  Jennings was actually laying on top of Tate, with his back to Tate’s chest.  The referees called this a simultaneous catch, which goes to the offensive player.  A simultaneous catch is when both players have both of their hands on the ball, facing each other, not when one player has both hands on the ball with his back to the other player.

The replacement referees are getting hammered for this call, which they did get wrong, except for the back judge, who was overruled.  However, the replay officials, which are the regular officials, not replacements, watched instant replays from several angles, and did not reverse the call, to an interception for the Packers.  It’s a lot more difficult to make the correct call on the field, than to see replays in slow motion, from different angles, and still make the wrong call.  As so many scream for an end to the referee labor negotiations, and a return of the regular referees, it should be noted, that the ultimate responsibility to fix the problem at the end of this game, was with the regular referees in the replay booth, and they got it wrong.  I don’t know why almost everyone has missed this fact.