Nobody Likes A Scab On Their Face or On Their Football Field

Any marginal sports fan turned on ESPN or something else this morning to see the highlight above this morning. We know what happened. The Seahawks defense dominated the Packers until they allowed them a slight edge in the second half. The Seahawks came back down to Earth and were down after only scoring once all game. The Seahawks pin back the Packers for excellent field position with just a couple plays to execute before time expired. Rookie quarterback Russel Wilson scrambles, then launches one in the endzone to where Ben Tate and some other receiver patiently waits. Tate (who Mike Tirico also called "Taint") already caught a deep ball in the corner of the endzone, but I did not get to see that play.

You can clearly see the Packer gets the football while Tate has some touch of the ball, working his hand into the Packer's grip as they collapse to the ground. I thought it was indeed a touchdown because I always thought that a draw on a catch went to the receiver. Well, the referees are scrambling on over, and the one ref, #26, is on the scene. What is weird about it is that the other endzone ref makes it to the pile on the ground FIRST as ref 26 enters the scene. Pretty odd right away to me that happened that way. Anyway, Lenny and Carl would have the most impact on this game.

At the 0:17 mark, you see ref 26 look at ref #84. As soon as the shoulders on 84 lift in the slightest movement, 26 lifts his arms slowly and then shoots them up to a touchdown symbol while 84 waves it off.

The last time I saw something like this was several years ago:


Neither referee was right there to see either of the men's feet hit the ground first.

I could not help but feel 26 really wanted to make a dramatic moment on TV, with the home crowd on their feet, hinging on one man to throw up two hands in a parallel position. The fact that 84 was looking at the play as he was lifting his hands to wave it off as either incomplete or an interception, 26 was looking at 84!

Now, I give the Packer's Jennings and Tate a lot of credit for doing everything in their power to grasp the ball and the win. Jennings did a better job getting to the ball first but Tate fought and fought, and when the pile cleared Tate is laying on the ground on his back with the ball in his hand attached to his outstretched left arm. It was a dramatic picture.

In my opinion, 26 was right there the whole time to see the whole play. There was also offensive pass interference on the play BUT perhaps a roughing the quarterback call as Russel Wilson gets annilhated. But I digress.

The fake defensive pass interference call that was called on the Packers shortly before this play seemed to me like a makeup call for blatant pass interference they missed earlier, once again on Tate.

Sho'nuff, it is in the record books as a great victory for the Seahawks and a stinging defeat for the Packers. The division of the NFC North has flip flopped in standings compared to last year's final standings (for now).

So what do I think the right call was? Because I know the rules as much as these scab referees do, please check out the passing rules found here. Specifically, page 2, Article 3. A player must maintain control of the football as they are going down. Jennings clearly has the football in his grasp but is yet to hit the ground. As her approaches the ground, Tate gets his hand in there. I would say Jennings has full control of the ball while Tate is working at obtaining "joint possession." I don't think Tate gets the joint possession of the ball as they collapse in the pile. As much as I like THIS group of Seahawks (I really have hated them since Shaun Alexander's last hurrah and they let me down in the Superbowl), the Packers should have won because that pass was INCOMPLETE. However because a touchdown was called, and there was no time left, the touchdown stands. This will prove to be very impactful in the long run of the NFL season. I think the Packers may recover, but the Seahawks jump leaps and bounds in terms of the playoff picture and may ultimately edge out other teams with a 2 game swing like that.

To that I say bravo to both you, Jennings and Tate for literally fighting until the bitter end of the game. I don't think the Packers did anything that should be accentuated or praised by coming back on the field to finish the extra point attempt as that is a rule they are supposed to follow. I know, the scabs messed up the rules anyways so why would the Packers returning matter. Whatever. The Packers were supposed to come back.

The only thing I would have liked better would be if Marshawn Lynch had caught the touchdown and not Ben Taint Tate.