NFL admits call missed on Favre hit
The NFL acknowledged that the officials missed a roughing-the-passer penalty against the New Orleans Saints on the play during Sunday's NFC title game on which Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre was injured.
An interception that Favre threw on the play would have been nullified if the penalty had been called by referee Pete Morelli.
Mike Pereira, the NFL's vice president of officiating, said during his regular segment on the league-owned NFL Network that a 15-yard penalty should have been called on Saints defensive end Bobby McCray for a low hit on Favre.
"We just missed it," Pereira said.
McCray hit Favre low as Favre was being hit high by defensive tackle Remi Ayodele. The hits came just after Favre delivered a pass that was intercepted by Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma. Favre hurt his left ankle on the play but returned to the game, which was won in overtime by the Saints.
The NFL banned low hits on quarterbacks after New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury on such a hit in the opening game of last season.
"I don't call it the Brady rule because he's actually coming off a little shove by the left tackle," Pereira said. "But he doesn't go to the ground and then lunge. It's just pretty much a direct shot into the back of the legs. [Morelli] may have gotten a little off focus because of the player coming up the middle with the high hit, and lost track of the low hit.
"But it is the type of hit that we do want called because clearly we're trying to protect the [quarterback's] knees and we're trying to protect the head, and we need to focus on those and make sure that we don't miss those."
Favre said Sunday after the game: "Pete Morelli, the head ref, he's done a ton of my games. He's a great guy. It's like playing the game: You make a ton of decisions, and you live by them. If he had truly saw it and felt that [it was an illegal low hit], he would have thrown the flag. But I don't know."
Pereira said during his televised segment that the officials also missed a personal foul against the Indianapolis Colts for a hit on New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez during Sunday's AFC championship game after Sanchez had handed the ball off on a running play.
Jets Coach Rex Ryan was extremely upset that the Colts were not penalized for the hit on Sanchez.
The problem on such a play, Pereira said, is that the referee, who's usually in charge of monitoring hits on the quarterback, is to watch for holding on a running play, and another official must pick up any hits on the quarterback.
"It's something that mechanically, it's unusual," Pereira said. "But we really need to make sure that we pick those up."
The officials in the NFC title game properly called such a penalty on the Saints for a hit by McCray on Favre after a handoff on a running play, Pereira said.
"I don't think this whole year I saw roughness penalties after a quarterback had handed off the ball, and then we got one of them in each game," Pereira said.
Pereira said a roughing-the-passer call on Saints defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove, for driving Favre into the turf on a hit earlier on the drive on which the roughing penalty on the interception was not called, was correct.
Pereira said it was a "pretty clear example" of a roughing penalty and added: "It's really a poster-child play for lifting and driving the quarterback into the ground."
In a bonus segment posted on the NFL's Web site, Pereira said the officials were correct not to overturn two close calls in overtime on replay reviews--a catch by Saints wide receiver Devery Henderson on which the ball appeared to touch the ground but Henderson seemed to maintain control, and the spot of the ball on a first-down leap by New Orleans tailback Pierre Thomas on a fourth-down carry. Pereira said that in both cases, there was not sufficient video evidence to overturn the ruling on the field.
Pereira did not address a pass interference penalty called in overtime on Vikings linebacker Ben Leber. The issue was whether the pass thrown toward tight end Dave Thomas was too high and not catch-able, which would have negated the interference penalty.
Pereira said during his regular segment that the officials were right not to allow the Colts to snap the ball quickly on a quarterback sneak from inside the Jets 1-yard line in the second quarter of the AFC game. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning complained about that. But Pereira said that, by rule, the Colts were allowed to snap the ball before the Jets were ready but were not permitted to snap the ball before all the officials were properly positioned.
"This had nothing to do with allowing the Jets to match up," Pereira said. "This had everything to do with allowing us to get back into our normal positions so we could officiate the play properly."
By
Mark Maske
|
January 28, 2010; 10:10 AM ET
| Category:
Officiating
,
Saints
,
Vikings
Save & Share:
Previous: Kaeding out of Pro Bowl |
Next: Colts to comply on Pro Bowl
Posted by: larry40 | January 29, 2010 1:27 PM
It's ok for officials/refs to miss calls or make wrong calls, they're not penalized. And yes it sucks they are part timers and old. I believe coaches should be allowed more red flags or officials need to overturn/call some of the penalties. How will it get better since they police their own. I'd love to audit my own tax returns because I know I did it right. Should be an outside group reviewing officials. yeah, NFL has the money and could make the game so much better. If a game is in OT, then the refs should have to be 100% sure of the call. The game should be decided by the players, not the refs. The two best/closest playoff games ended with some questionable calls(or missed calls).
Posted by: larry40 | January 29, 2010 1:16 PM
How bout hiring 1 more ref to be the "QB Watcher"? No more excuses from the NFL a week+ later....just get the one guy who would keep an eye on QB's...the NFL has plenty of money for that. I'd apply for that job!
Posted by: STEEL-WHEEL | January 29, 2010 12:24 PM
The trouble is the 60 year old refs the NFL has out there take SO LONG to catch up with the play and get positioned that the opposition DOES by practicality get the chance to get all of its players lined up and ready to go for the next snap.
I am amused that the NFL head of officials would hide behind that fact in saying the Colts should not have been allowed to snap the ball at the goal line.
Get some younger, full-time refs and ones that hustle to keep up with the play and have a sense of where the game and clock are so that they don't favor one team by default due to their own lack of fitness.
Posted by: leopard09 | January 28, 2010 4:11 PM
Good point bamaboy, but the difference there are not that many decent NFL QBs anymore. thus they have to protect what they have.
Posted by: oknow1 | January 28, 2010 2:19 PM
So a quarterback can do play-action and "fake" a hand-off to a running back and IT IS LEGAL TO pop/tackle the running back because a defender can say "it was a great fake and I thought he had the ball"....but the quarterback actually faked him out and is passing it. If the offcense can do that to a defense, why can't the defense assume that the quarterback kept the ball instead of handing it off (even though he may have) and pop/tackle him?
I once saw Boomer Esiason (who did absolutely great play-fakes) hand-off the ball and then pretend like he still had it (he was still dropping back after he handed it off and had his hand behind his back like he was holding the ball just as he did on play-fakes) and the defensive end nailed him. They called a personal foul on the defensive end for hitting the "defenseless" quarterback, but the quarterback was pretending he had the ball. How is that any different than a running back pretending he has the ball, but its okay to hit him?
Posted by: bamaboy1 | January 28, 2010 1:56 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Also, agree with some of the asinine rules. I still don't understand what the tuck rule is for? so if you pump fake and then bring the ball down and then fumble it's not a fumble??? Some QBs are more protected then others. Pass interference vs illegal contact after 5 yards. The illegal contact could be called on every pass play. The PI call needs to be catchable and should be half the distance. If the offense holds while the qb is in the end zone, it's a safety but Pass Interference in the end zone places it at the 1. The rules committee should make them easier to understand.