Ravens "likely" (see what I did there?) eliminated from playoffs by an atrocious replay review overrule.

[kc48]

Maybe it's a conspiracy!

 

[MarathonMike]

It probably would have.

If a receiver catches a TD pass in the end zone with both feet down, it is still not counted as a TD if the receiver then loses the ball on the way down after the catch whether in or falling out of the EZ.

That is my only conclusion here--- just as the receiver must maintain possession after the catch, so too must I assume the receiver must maintain possession in the EZ after the catch enough to show he definitely controlled and possessed the ball.

Except when run in, where the ball need only cross the plane of the goal because control and possession were already established by the run.

Interestingly enough, Mike Tomlin of the Steelers is on the NFL Rules Committee which decides all this stuff.

A player dives at the pylon and grazes it with the ball never setting foot in the end zone. TOUCHDOWN!! Likely makes a textbook catch securing it in his hands and takes two full steps. INCOMPLETE!! Something is really wrong here.

 

[toobfreak]

A player dives at the pylon and grazes it with the ball never setting foot in the end zone. TOUCHDOWN!! Likely makes a textbook catch securing it in his hands and takes two full steps. INCOMPLETE!! Something is really wrong here.

I know. The runner never touches the EZ, he just flies through the air hitting the corner post! But he had already established control and possession of the ball by running it in and got it over the plane of the goal line.

In Likely's case, he needed to get both feet down to establish his goal zone position, but still needed to establish that he caught, controlled and possessed the ball as a split second before, it was still zipping through the air.

But he failed to do that when the ball came flying out of his grip midway through establishing control and possession. Likely caught the ball but he failed to establish possession long enough to prove control of it--- that is the basis of the football move. I think I understand where the NFL is coming from and why, but I can't say it is pretty or that I like it. I want to see calls made right, but all of this technology and technicality is hurting the game.

 

[toobfreak]

A player dives at the pylon and grazes it with the ball never setting foot in the end zone. TOUCHDOWN!! Likely makes a textbook catch securing it in his hands and takes two full steps. INCOMPLETE!! Something is really wrong here.

Mike I just wanted to add this since you seem to care, I just finished watching MNF and I had two relevant observations:

1. During the game, Phili had a TD rescinded when a referee threw a flag at the team for offensive holding. Seems one of their players held onto the jersey to keep a defender from getting to Hurts in time to stop the pass. However upon slo-mo review, even the announcers in the booth upstairs agreed that he at best had his hand on the jersey for maybe a half second then let go, so it really wasn't any factor in the outcome of the play and was purely a judgement call that most refs might not have called, but it killed a successful touchdown nevertheless.
2. During Halftime, they were showing highlights of other games from the weekend and they flashed a replay of the Likely-Porter Baltimore Near TD, but the camera was from the OUTSIDE of the end zone 180° opposite from the view shown from INSIDE the field as used by the NFL during the game, and the play looked totally different from that angle and it didn't look like a TD at all, because from that view you could see that Likely barely had possession of the ball in his hands before Porter knocked it loose and it flew back out of the receiver's hands.

Seeing that view, I now don't have any qualms about the NFL's ruling even if it ended up giving the game to Pittsburgh. Sometimes shit just happens.