Don’t You Have To Break The Plane?
December 15th, 2008 at 10:09 amBy Chris
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Perception is a funny thing. Just ask the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers. One side sees fourth and short while the other sees game-winning touchdown. Who’s right? Naturally, the Pittsburgh media sees touchdown:
Few regular-season games will rank above the one they played yesterday at M&T Bank Stadium, when the Steelers’ No. 26-ranked offense scored the only touchdown of the game with 43 seconds left to end a 92-yard drive against the league’s No. 2 defense to pull out a 13-9 victory and win the AFC North Division title and a first-round playoff bye.
That it came against their heated rivals on their field in a rough-and-tumble game and ended on a disputed 4-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes only enhanced the flavor of it.
Then there’s Baltimore perspective:
But [referee Walt] Coleman looked at the goal-line view and reversed the ruling. He announced to the 71,502 fans at M&T Bank Stadium (the largest announced crowd in Ravens history) that Holmes had two feet down in the end zone and had possession of the ball, neglecting to say whether the ball had broken the plane.
I doubt that’s the best way you’d like to lose a game, provided you had to choose. In the NFL’s replay rule, there’s something about indisputable evidence, and I’m not sure you, I or anyone but Coleman saw the ball officially break the goal line plane. Nevertheless, the play was overturned and a touchdown was awarded. And that, folks, is how the Pittsburgh Steelers became your AFC North regular season champion. The question is, are they the favorite AFC team to reach the Super Bowl?
We’ll find out a lot more about that answer after they play the Tennessee Titans in Nashville next Sunday.
December 15th, 2008 at 10:33 am
i have line judged for middle school football long enough to know that the ball must break the plane,its embarrassing to amateurs like myself when this stuff happens on the big stage so often,by rule since there wasnt conclusive evidence to overturn no reversal should have been made,the head of officials will clarify this today,cant wait,btw,how gay r the hoosiers
December 15th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Which Hoosiers are you talking about? The ones that got outscored 36-6 or the ones that played Kentucky even from that point on?
As for the reversal, the rule clearly says “indisputable evidence.” That was not.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:36 am
any that got beat by us
December 15th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Oh, I’m not crapping on UK too much, but they still need a point guard or someone who knows who to make a damn entry pass to Patrick Patterson.
Anyway, how do you think the NFL can address a situation like this? Put sensors on the goal line that send alarms to the officials when the plane is broken?
December 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Costas’ point in the postgame show was right on the money – he said, in a nutshell, that he would not have overturned the ruling upon reviewing it, and that had the call on the field been the opposite (a touchdown), he would not have overturned THAT call either.
Absolutely nothing about that replay is indisputable.
If hockey can have microchips in pucks and goalposts, why not have them in footballs and yardlines, too? I suppose the ball itself would have no way of knowing whether possession was maintained throughout play, but it would make ballspotting a hell of a lot more accurate. And we’d see far fewer “forward progress” gifts from refs, too.
December 15th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
You nailed it Jim. Sensors in the ball and a beam — or some sort of energy field — extended up from the goal line that sends an alert to the referee crew. The pings for touch back kick offs, and the myriad of other plays where the ball crosses the line could be easily ignored.
Although, there is something indisputable about the play in question, Jim: There isn’t enough evidence in it to overturn the initial call.
December 15th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
[...] target is still at large. Very much so. Regardless of being hosed by instant replay officials, Hines Ward took the thrown gauntlet and ate you alive to the tune [...]
December 15th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I’m still waiting to see the rule that says the ball has to break the plane. Only rule close says the player has to make the catch behind the goal line…is he not making the catch…is he not behind the goal line?
December 16th, 2008 at 9:39 am
From the Football Instruction site — From the NFL Digest of Rules:
Touchdown: When any part of the ball, legally in possession of a player inbounds, breaks the plane of the opponent’s goal line, provided it is not a touchback.
With that in mind, Holmes didn’t break the plane.