Overlooked part of the last fumble

I don't like the decision by Russ to not get out of bounds there. He said he saw a lane and I believe that, he got hit from the side, but it wasn't probably a great choice. That was with ~2:30 left and took the chances from slim to near impossible. But the play 2 plays earlier was just as devastating/frustrating on re-watch. A little over 3 min. left at the 27 1st and 10. Drops back, trusts this pocket that has been shaky all day, takes a shot to the legs as he launches an absolute beauty to Kearse who is down at the 2 yard line.......and HOLDING. Now I'm not an expert so I can't say it was a good call. I thought it was borderline. But either the refs or the line kinda let us down on that play. Just was annoying to see that the whole scenario could have been avoided with a better block and/or a no-call. Bad decision by Russ and yet I can kinda understand where his mentality may have been at that point. Bad game, looking forward to the next one.

99/100 times he goes out of bounds there. He reaches out with the ball, gets an extra yard and walks out.

So not sure if he really saw something or he just was in "want to win mode" -- either way hard to fault him for making a split second decision. Just a shame that it went against what he normally does and it killed the drive and in effect the game.

With that said - the game was lost before that point but it sure didn't help

That's one of his best assets is to know when to get down or run out of bounds. At that point, I think he was pushing hard for the win so he tried to get a couple more yards even though he already had the first down.

No single game or play is more important than his health. He has to continue to stay smart in that regard.

They only showed the one angle on Sweezy but it looked like it should have been a no-call to me. Couldn't see his left arm though, so its possible he was grabbing across the chest with his left arm. Definitely a sucky time to have a penalty.

I thought Pete got screwed on his second challenge. Lockett caught that pass, and was down with complete security of the ball after completing his football move. He never bobbled it- the ball was RIPPED out of his hands... AFTER he was down. Even under the current wishy washy catch rules, that should have been ruled a catch, and it wasn't even that hard of a call to me. Had Lockett not been down, I bet they would have called it a fumble and they would have been right in doing so.

Unfortunately, officiating is so bad this season that even replays are being called wrong at an alarming rate. It ended up being the turning point of the game, too.

kearly":33a8m9vd said:

They only showed the one angle on Sweezy but it looked like it should have been a no-call to me. Couldn't see his left arm though, so its possible he was grabbing across the chest with his left arm. Definitely a sucky time to have a penalty.

I thought Pete got screwed on his second challenge. Lockett caught that pass, and was down with complete security of the ball after completing his football move. He never bobbled it- the ball was RIPPED out of his hands... AFTER he was down. Even under the current wishy washy catch rules, that should have been ruled a catch, and it wasn't even that hard of a call to me. Had Lockett not been down, I bet they would have called it a fumble and they would have been right in doing so.

Unfortunately, officiating is so bad this season that even replays are being called wrong at an alarming rate. It ended up being the turning point of the game, too.

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I'm with you on that. My first thoughts were "if they had called a fumble, and Pete challenged that, it would show he was clearly down. So if the runner is down, isn't the play over ?" Which would be a catch.

It's one of the quirkiest things about the league. Almost every rule out there favors the offense, except catching the damn football. You need a sequence of 5 things, style points, a 2 referee committee, and 3 HD angle replays to decide whether it's a catch or not.

The saddest thing is that I've seen 3 separate plays where the WR had the ball longer than Lockett had it, got stripped, and the refs all called it an incomplete pass. Of course they all went against us.

I agree on the Lockett call, Kearly. I guess that I just feel like we didn't help ourselves so it's difficult for me to give much thought to the refs. O line was dominated.

Laloosh":7ckpmy4y said:

I agree on the Lockett call, Kearly. I guess that I just feel like we didn't help ourselves so it's difficult for me to give much thought to the refs. O line was dominated.

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Teams win games when they arent at their best all the time.

Not saying you in particular are doing this, but to excuse piss poor refereeing just because the Seahawks werent at 100% is ridiculous.

Referees should be able to get basic calls right most of the time. To miss it upon review on top of the original miss is inexcusable.

From where I was sitting in the stadium it looked momentarily like Wilson might have the end zone but it closed fast. We can't blame the refs for this, we lost. The ref's sucked the entire game but it was not something that they could not have overcome. I couldn't believe how the fans booed after the 50 yard pass to Bryce Brown when Wilson was so clearly past the line of scrimmage. We might want to quit handing the ball off to a 280 pound lineman and actually give the ball to someone who is paid to hang on to it. I think Tukaufu is an incredible waste of a roster spot and it finally bit us in the ass. Take away his fumble and we win the game! I so love when they spread him out wide like we are actually going to throw a pass to him? He probably has about 5 career carries now and he has fumbled once, that is 20%. That sucks!

Hawks46":nrv0sx9s said:

kearly":nrv0sx9s said:

They only showed the one angle on Sweezy but it looked like it should have been a no-call to me. Couldn't see his left arm though, so its possible he was grabbing across the chest with his left arm. Definitely a sucky time to have a penalty.

I thought Pete got screwed on his second challenge. Lockett caught that pass, and was down with complete security of the ball after completing his football move. He never bobbled it- the ball was RIPPED out of his hands... AFTER he was down. Even under the current wishy washy catch rules, that should have been ruled a catch, and it wasn't even that hard of a call to me. Had Lockett not been down, I bet they would have called it a fumble and they would have been right in doing so.

Unfortunately, officiating is so bad this season that even replays are being called wrong at an alarming rate. It ended up being the turning point of the game, too.

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I'm with you on that. My first thoughts were "if they had called a fumble, and Pete challenged that, it would show he was clearly down. So if the runner is down, isn't the play over ?" Which would be a catch.

It's one of the quirkiest things about the league. Almost every rule out there favors the offense, except catching the damn football. You need a sequence of 5 things, style points, a 2 referee committee, and 3 HD angle replays to decide whether it's a catch or not.

The saddest thing is that I've seen 3 separate plays where the WR had the ball longer than Lockett had it, got stripped, and the refs all called it an incomplete pass. Of course they all went against us.

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With Jeff Fisher on the competition committee, 3 guesses why it's so hard to meet the new parameters of a 'catch.'

I'm pretty sure under the new rules that you technically have to leave the stadium and drive home while maintaining possession for it to be ruled a catch.

whidbeast":1fz8ogap said:

I'm pretty sure under the new rules that you technically have to leave the stadium and drive home while maintaining possession for it to be ruled a catch.

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Incorrect. You also need to have the ball displayed in some sort of glass or plastic display case in your basement. If it is displayed on the main level or upstairs, it's an incomplete pass.

It's the headshot on that fumble that annoys me the most, that and the cheap shot when Wilson was down that hurt his leg.

Fisher is human detritus.

peppersjap":12eco2ap said:

From where I was sitting in the stadium it looked momentarily like Wilson might have the end zone but it closed fast. We can't blame the refs for this, we lost. The ref's sucked the entire game but it was not something that they could not have overcome. I couldn't believe how the fans booed after the 50 yard pass to Bryce Brown when Wilson was so clearly past the line of scrimmage. We might want to quit handing the ball off to a 280 pound lineman and actually give the ball to someone who is paid to hang on to it. I think Tukaufu is an incredible waste of a roster spot and it finally bit us in the ass. Take away his fumble and we win the game! I so love when they spread him out wide like we are actually going to throw a pass to him? He probably has about 5 career carries now and he has fumbled once, that is 20%. That sucks!

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Our brilliant DC just couldn't resist reverting back to his "cute" stage again; "I will fool all the world by handing the ball to our 4-career-carry part time bench warming DE/DT/FB on 3rd & 1 out of the "i" formation, they'll never expect such daring, ingenious trickery, Bwahahahahah!!"

Instead of just handing to CM who's actually been quite good at converting short yardage first downs... and not fumbling.

whidbeast":19wep5x0 said:

I'm pretty sure under the new rules that you technically have to leave the stadium and drive home while maintaining possession for it to be ruled a catch.

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Funniest thing I've read in here in a long time.

kearly":euxkawk0 said:

They only showed the one angle on Sweezy but it looked like it should have been a no-call to me. Couldn't see his left arm though, so its possible he was grabbing across the chest with his left arm. Definitely a sucky time to have a penalty.

I thought Pete got screwed on his second challenge. Lockett caught that pass, and was down with complete security of the ball after completing his football move. He never bobbled it- the ball was RIPPED out of his hands... AFTER he was down. Even under the current wishy washy catch rules, that should have been ruled a catch, and it wasn't even that hard of a call to me. Had Lockett not been down, I bet they would have called it a fumble and they would have been right in doing so.

Unfortunately, officiating is so bad this season that even replays are being called wrong at an alarming rate. It ended up being the turning point of the game, too.

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After this season that will be a catch, but based on how the rules have been and the calls that have been made consistently throughout NFL games this year, that was never going to be ruled a catch. He was going to the ground as soon as he caught it, which initiates the "complete the process going to the ground" BS Calvin Johnson rule. It was a bad challenge because of the way that's been called this year.

Hopefully they just institute a rule that says you have to have possession and two feet down, then it's a catch.

kearly":2r51elby said:

They only showed the one angle on Sweezy but it looked like it should have been a no-call to me. Couldn't see his left arm though, so its possible he was grabbing across the chest with his left arm. Definitely a sucky time to have a penalty.

I thought Pete got screwed on his second challenge. Lockett caught that pass, and was down with complete security of the ball after completing his football move. He never bobbled it- the ball was RIPPED out of his hands... AFTER he was down. Even under the current wishy washy catch rules, that should have been ruled a catch, and it wasn't even that hard of a call to me. Had Lockett not been down, I bet they would have called it a fumble and they would have been right in doing so.

Unfortunately, officiating is so bad this season that even replays are being called wrong at an alarming rate. It ended up being the turning point of the game, too.

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Three things are ruining my enjoyment of the game.

1. Too many rules, and many with grey areas
2. Refs call to many iffy penalties
3. Players commit too many actual penalties

There is a penalty called on almost every play and on the ones were there isn't, you could have. League needs to get it together and take action at all three levels.

My 2 biggest issues with the officiating yesterday was the shot that Russell took as he was sliding feet first. How do you not call that, after calling Seattle for the same thing a few minutes earlier? Where is the consistency? The other, was the ET fumble recovery. I thought Earl had it, but my biggest issue was how can the ref call it the Rams ball so fast? That was a pretty big pile. How could he even tell who had the ball at that point?

There were some other questionable things, but Seattle showed up flat. I dunno, maybe they're more concerned about staying healthy for the playoffs than winning right now. Kind of reminds me a little bit of the end of the '13 regular season... Hopefully do just enough to get by.

TriCHawk":3c3ejrz9 said:

My 2 biggest issues with the officiating yesterday was the shot that Russell took as he was sliding feet first. How do you not call that, after calling Seattle for the same thing a few minutes earlier? Where is the consistency? The other, was the ET fumble recovery. I thought Earl had it, but my biggest issue was how can the ref call it the Rams ball so fast? That was a pretty big pile. How could he even tell who had the ball at that point?

There were some other questionable things, but Seattle showed up flat. I dunno, maybe they're more concerned about staying healthy for the playoffs than winning right now. Kind of reminds me a little bit of the end of the '13 regular season... Hopefully do just enough to get by.

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I see what you're saying on the ET fumble, but when it happened live I said "crap, they got on it". You could see Earl didn't pick it up clean and #61 get his arms in there. That being said, I don't see the harm in just letting the players fight it out under the pile and whoever has it after they pull people off the pile, gets the ball.

kearly":2r3839hu said:

They only showed the one angle on Sweezy but it looked like it should have been a no-call to me. Couldn't see his left arm though, so its possible he was grabbing across the chest with his left arm. Definitely a sucky time to have a penalty.

I thought Pete got screwed on his second challenge. Lockett caught that pass, and was down with complete security of the ball after completing his football move. He never bobbled it- the ball was RIPPED out of his hands... AFTER he was down. Even under the current wishy washy catch rules, that should have been ruled a catch, and it wasn't even that hard of a call to me. Had Lockett not been down, I bet they would have called it a fumble and they would have been right in doing so.

Unfortunately, officiating is so bad this season that even replays are being called wrong at an alarming rate. It ended up being the turning point of the game, too.

Click to expand...

That's exactly how I saw it, also, when his knee was on the ground, I figured that the Refs would review the play, and then correct their mistake....Seemed almost like it was a preview of bad calls coming our way, and no calls on the Rams in this game.
In hind sight though, they were as inept as I've ever seen...trouble is, the powers that be in the NFL aren't going to correct these mistakes, unless they are forced to.
I think the more important matter though, is the trending cheap shots by the Rams that need to be addressed NOW, before it gets further out of hand, and someone loses a career because of injury, due to dirty tactics.

I think that was a clean block by Sweezy. Just because Donald went down they called it a hold. At first glance I thought Donald kind of dove at the QB when he saw Russell letting go of the ball. Kind of like the way a DL will stop rushing and jump in the air when they see the ball is going to be thrown before they can get there.