11-01-2021, 01:47 PM
(11-01-2021, 12:18 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: GMF didn’t even show the play or mention the call. Not a word.
They don't cross the NFL
From Peter King's column
Quote:Dumb Penalty Of The Week
It’s customary in the NFL to ***** about officials’ calls. I don’t write about them much because who cares? Every team gets crappy calls. But there was one penalty Sunday that truly bothered me, and it should bother the NFL. Using the helmet to initiate contact, quite simply, is unfairly meted out by officials. The defensive player is the one called for the penalty far more often, even if both players lower heads to initiate contact.
The crap call happened at the Meadowlands, with two minutes left in Bengals-Jets. New York led 34-31, with a third-and-11 at the Jet 20-yard line. Mike White threw a short pass out wide to Ty Johnson, and Cincinnati corner Mike Hilton moved in for the tackle. Defenders are taught to not use their helmets to initiate contact with another player’s helmet, and Hilton, as he was supposed to do, moved in very low on Johnson, his head nowhere near Johnson’s head. At the last moment, Johnson ducked his head, and the two helmets made contact. A flag was thrown—15 yards for illegal use of the helmet on Hilton.
If the call was either not made or called on the Jets, it would have been fourth down for the Jets deep in their own territory. And assuming Cincinnati would have taken its first timeout there, it’s likely Joe Burrow would have gotten the ball back, with two timeouts, at around his own 30-yard line with 1:40 to play, needing a field goal to tie. Who knows if he gets the 40 yards to do that, but the flag on Hilton meant the Bengals never saw the ball again. Even if the officials called offsetting fouls, the Jets would have had to convert a third-and-11 to keep the ball away from Cincinnati.
“When are the officials going to start calling helmet-to-helmet on the ballcarrier?” asked former New England and Kansas City personnel czar Scott Pioli.
That’s a question the officiating department should answer this week. The vagaries of the call might have decided a game Sunday.
Winning makes believers of us all
