Officiating

[TheBengalsMind]

The one that kills me this year is the Dalton "fumble."

We literally had a minute and a half of the league expert taking us step by step through the rule book on how this couldn't possibly be considered a fumble.

Only to get it ruled a "fumble."

On top of that on social media today I've seen "next Sean Mcvay doesn't even understand simple rule" posted by Sports Illustrated, ESPN and others.

Talking about how Zac Taylor got animated on the sidelines about the player advancing the ball after the interception.

Actually, according to the rulebook Zac Taylor at least had a point.

This is covered in Rule 7, Section 2, Article 1-d-1:

When a runner declares himself down by:

falling to the ground, or kneeling, and clearly making no immediate effort to advance

That includes in any direction, the player chooses to advance.

It was only in the act of catching the ball that he fell down and he got up immediately and he did technically advanced in the wrong direction, but it is advancing and it is in a direction.

We probably weren't gonna win it at that point anyway, but I certainly don't blame Zac for trying to argue it.

I'm glad he was getting animated, it was no more animated than either Tom Brady or Sean Payton get when they are trying to argue a call.