2015 NFL thread

[Jackalope]

Yeah, that's a fumble.

I don't know.

Did he have possession with both feet down?

Or, did he have clear control and then make a "football move" (whatever the fuck that means)?

Or, did he maintain control "throughout the process" (again, whatever the fuck that means)?

The rules committee has over-complicated the rules to no good purpose. In 1985 that's a catch and a fumble. In 2015 it whatever the officials decide it is and they seem to make different decisions in different games.

Pretty much this.

It is whatever the zebras decide it is. That's what it's come down to.

[SteelCurtain]

It's 2015. It's time to take as much subjectivity out of calls as we can. There should be a chip in every ball and a laser on every boundary.

Holding, possession calls, etc will always be wonky.

To overturn the call on the field you need a lot. I think there was enough on that play, but I'd defer to Mike Perriera.

[Ravenshire]

So write the rules to be less subjective. Two feet inbounds with possession, done. Changing the requirements for a catch based on whether the receiver goes out of bounds after the catch or makes the catch in the end zone is counter productive.

[Tiberius]

It's not as simple as two feet and possession though, as that would outlaw diving catches. You've got to define possession as well.

Personally I think for a catch, a person should be inbounds and have control of the ball for a specific amount of time, or whilst going to the ground. Control means no bobbling, no loose ball, etc. It doesn't matter if you have one hand or two on the ball, but it should be secured in some way.

[Bob Kelso]

[Jackalope]

Tell you what, on that particular play, the receiver clearly thought he caught the ball, otherwise he's turning upfield (a 'football move'?) to run for nothing. Did he have control of the ball? I wouldn't think so. Is there "indisputable evidence" to overturn the call on the field? That is the standard, right? I don't think so.

I think personally, at full speed, when it happened, if they called it an incomplete pass on the field, I'd be cool with that. If they called it a catch and a fumble, I'd be cool with that too. But to overturn the call without some clear, objective reason... that makes less sense. I don't think we had that here.

Less subjectivity would be nice. Do I think we're going to get it? Hell, no. This *is* the NFL we're talking about.

Bitching about officiating has gotten old. In what universe is it even possible to referee a game fairly when you've got a Byzantine set of rules to interpret, and only seconds do to it in?

[Tiberius]

If it's called on the field and they don't review it, I'd be less annoyed. The fact is, they called it a fumble, then reviewed it, and called it incomplete.

I disagree that he didn't have control over the ball. He seems to have two hands on it and starts to run. He then seems to switch the ball to his left hand only, and in the process he fumbles it. But before that, he caught the ball, secured it, and started to run.

[Ravenshire]

Holy shit. Our offense finally showed up!

Weird thing is, there's still a lot of room for improvement yet we dominated the Packers. If this offense keeps improving and the defense doesn't have any major breakdowns, the Broncos are going to be incredibly hard to stop.

[Jackalope]

If it's called on the field and they don't review it, I'd be less annoyed. The fact is, they called it a fumble, then reviewed it, and called it incomplete.

I disagree that he didn't have control over the ball. He seems to have two hands on it and starts to run. He then seems to switch the ball to his left hand only, and in the process he fumbles it. But before that, he caught the ball, secured it, and started to run.

Yeah, I didn't get a good close-up look at it, just what's on the youtube video. Usually when the ball seems to spontaneously squirt out of the receiver's hands like that, you're gonna have a hard time convincing me that he ever really had control over it. But if you saw him attempting to switch hands with it, I'll take your word for it.

Most definitely, by his actions, HE thought he had it caught.

[houseofcantor]

Yeah, that's all I got.