OT: By Rule Lions Win not Lose

Submitted by TIMBLUE on

Sorry guys I know were all sick of this but  i keep hearing people say the call is right, the rule is wrong, but no the call is wrong the rule is right.

Here is the rule:

"If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball after HE touches the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone.

Period! the rule is over. The following rule only comes into play if he loses control before HE hits the ground.

"If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete."

everyone is interpeting the rule wrong.

I am sorry I know this has been done but i had to get that out. 

By rule it WAS a touchdown.

Trepps

September 13th, 2010 at 11:30 AM ^

is mentioning this.  The whole "in the process of the catch" rule seems to presume that the reciever does not have control at some point.  CJ had control the entire time.  The process of the catch should have been over by the time his hand hit the ground.

ChitownWolverine82

September 13th, 2010 at 11:45 AM ^

I agree it is a dumb rule, and the Lions should have walked away with the win, but I doubt that somehow you are the correct interpreter of this rule.  The former head of referees said the call was correct.  The head ref at the game probably has a better understanding of how that rule is interperted than you do.  It is his job after all.  Don't worry though, we have ours coming.  Dallas and GB are next up.  Ugh...

All the arguing and complaining is not going to change the outcome now.  Let it rest.  Karma will take its course.

GoMBlue

September 13th, 2010 at 11:48 AM ^

how hard would it have been to hang onto the ball, hand the ball to the ref and then start your celebrating.

see also marshall and notre damn, lucky those calls werent caught too.

antoo

September 13th, 2010 at 1:01 PM ^

It was the game winning TD. A game which would have broken the Lion's 20 (?) game road losing streak, it was against a division rival and the first game of the season. I don't fault Johnson for celebrating prematurely since you can clearly see he had complete control of the ball while landing inbounds. Process be damned.

mikefromaa

September 13th, 2010 at 11:55 AM ^

Stafford going down destroys the entire NFL season for me before it has even started.  To add insult to injury, the lions defense looks good enough to keep us in games...if they had a quarterback.  And then some officials take the NFL rulebook and Reductio ad absurdum just on a lark, and take away the lions one chance to actually win a game...

 

That was a short season.

Mitch Cumstein

September 13th, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

I hate the NFL, I feel like they've successful priced out the middle class from attending games, and now their TV policies are doing the same. 

With respect to the play, it was a touchdown by rule.  His left had touched the out of bounds line before the ball hit the ground.  This little detail seemed to escape the replay official.

marco dane

September 13th, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^

Someone will *process* your touchdown in a moment. In the meantime,to help the *process* did both your feet,knees and butt touch any of the touchdown zone within six yard deep to help speed up  your application?

What a joke the NFL has become...

M-Wolverine

September 13th, 2010 at 12:48 PM ^

That if he had just stayed sitting on his butt, it wouldn't have been a catch. Till he did something else. He could have sat there till the next game in Chicago, no catch.

Now that they've made this point, some defensive player is going to hurt a WR in the endzone, because he "wasn't done with the process yet, and I was trying to knock it out", then the NFL is REALLY going to take heat.

Anonymosity

September 13th, 2010 at 12:58 PM ^

Think of it this way- because of that call, the Lions moved up a couple spots in next summer's draft.  Something like 2nd pick instead of 4th pick.  It was a good thing!

steelymax

September 13th, 2010 at 1:40 PM ^

I've got a quick solution for everyone upset about this call (including myself):

Stop watching the NFL.

Football began as -- and always will be -- a college sport.