bentheimmigrant wrote:charliepanayi wrote:Well that first game should have gone to OT! Baltimore will be kicking themselves when they look back on this game. Really tense battle anyway.
That game should have been over when the WR held onto the ball that was in his hands. You can see him relax in the replay just before the ball is stripped.
To be fair, yes, the play you describe should have been a Ravens TD, but earlier, the previous Ravens TD, should not have been one. I refer to the play where the Ravens WR ran along the edge of the field, and held the ball out forward to punch it into the pylon before falling out of bounds,
while dragging the Patriots defender behind him by the facemask. There was no penalty called on that play, and apparently the rules don’t allow the assessment of a penalty on the replay, but on that play the WR was gripping the defender’s facemask firmly and dragging him along for several yards.
And going the other way, there was a fairly long throw to, I think Gronkowski, that was ruled incomplete by reason of landing out of bounds. The replay clearly showed each foot did land inbounds cleanly however, but there was no challenge. Of course the Pats lucked out with a call too, when an early drive was on third down and incomplete, but the Ravens were called for a penalty that gave an automatic 1st down. As far as I know that one was the correct call, but still the Ravens should’ve known better and it would’ve prevented the Pats from getting in range for that first field goal.
In any case, there was bad officiating on at least 3 plays, and it cut both ways. I really wish there were some mechanism whereby the booth officials could overrule the officials on the field about things coaches are not allowed to challenge, like non-called penalties, and wrongly-called plays of the non-reviewable sort, when replays plainly show the call on the field was incorrect.
