Our first Red Flag to challenge the spot of the ball. ques

[Bobblehead]

I was just rewatching the game and something goofy occured to me.

Pete Challenged the mark of the Ball that Russell had run on.
Russell came up short but had extended his arms to come close to a 1st down.

Pete challenged and lost.

However the ball was actually moved because of that challenge.


Heres my question, If the ball was moved, why would Pete lose that challenge.

Pete could had only challenged the spot of the ball.
He could not challenge that it was a first down, cause it was never called a first down.


Was this a over looked goof by the refs and Pete should have actually won that challenge?

 

[Polaris]

The short answer was that Seattle got hosed by the refs, twice.

The long answer is this:

The initial spot was clearly at least a yard short. Even the mark one eyeball at normal speed could tell that Wilson had the ball extended in front at least a yard ahead of where his knee hit the turf, but the official incorrectly spotted forward progress to where the knee hit.

On the challenge, the head official saw that the spot was too short and moved it up but STILL failed to correctly account for where the ball really was and so incorrectly had the modified spot short of the first down.

By rule, if the spot is challenged but it doesn't result in a first down, it's considered a failed challenge even if the ball is moved and the actual spot was wrong.

That's what happened.

 

[Bobblehead]

Thanks..
Doesn't make sense.. "the result in 1st down" part

they don't tell you that on tv.

 

[Timberhawk]

I re-watched it too a few times today now that I'm a little more calm Anyway, its clear the first down marker is right on the hash mark. I don't know where the stick was and suppose that is official, but the marker what right there. Wilson doesn't hit anything down until he is out of bounds and the ball is touched down by him right on top of that hash marker. So, it looked clearly to me that it was a first down assuming the marker was correctly placed.

Anyway, glad we are deliberating this over a blow out win not a one point loss

Go Hawks!

 

[Polaris]

Thanks..
Doesn't make sense.. "the result in 1st down" part

they don't tell you that on tv.

I agree (that it doesn't make sense) but that is the rule when challenging spots.

 

[Bobblehead]

Yeah, my question was not really whether it was a 1st down or not, but WHY we lost the challenge if the review actually proved that the ball was spotted wrong, which is what PC threw the red flag for.