All Right, Let's Catch Up: The Rig-Job That Has Cost Detroit a 4-0 Start

So I'm left to the Kansas City Chiefs as my only chance for 19-0, four weeks in, eh?

Ugh.  Well, there's no D in Patriots, but still... Ouch.  I think it's clear the NFL is faking it til it makes it at this point.

And evidence for that came in Week 3...

In what probably will now be the most controversial play so far this season, Detroit came what some accounts will say is six inches from being undefeated.

But you be the judge...  Has the NFL screwed the Lions again?

Though it will be hard to initially see, this is an important reverse angle from somebody in Ford Field that game.  The importance will come when you see the actual play slowed down later.


(Ball is snapped at about 11 seconds)

Matthew Stafford drops back, throws a slant route right at the goal line, it's caught for an apparent game-winning touchdown in the last ten seconds to Golden Tate as he's going down.

Play goes upstairs, the call is reversed. And, on top of it, since the play happened in bounds, by rule, a 10-second runoff finishes the game and Atlanta wins.

This is some of what FOX viewers saw, including the rather incredulous reaction of the announcers that the game had actually ended by the application of the rule (which was correct if the TD was not scored!) of that 10-second runoff...


If you wish to save yourself some time, go to about 1:03 on the video for the instant replay and you'll see why giving you that first video might be important...  (Unfortunately, this video, the only one I've found that I can embed with this, annoyingly puts it's advertising right in the key area of the video!)

Tate is already being contacted somewhat as he's going down by Atlanta's Brian Poole (as you would also see from the first video), but the key here is that Tate:

• Has to catch and gain possession of the ball.
• For it to count as a catch, he has to retain control all the way to the ground.  (This is the rule and the riggings that drove Calvin Johnson from the NFL.)
• And then for Tate to be down, he must have possession of the ball and be touched by a Falcon AFTER he gains possession of the ball.

He has possession of the ball, controls it all the way down, and Poole is touching him before and as he has possession, so all that would be satisfied.  So now, you go to the tape and find out if the ball broke the front plane of the painted goal line for the score...

(This is where being able to download the video would help, especially with that annoying watermark.)

Yeah, he's down (don't watch the knee, watch Tate's shin as he catches the ball and is being contacted), but the replay also shows Poole holding Tate on the other side before he catches the ball!

He's clearly down about 18 inches short of the line, but if you back that up...

At the start of the replay, Poole is attempting to turn Tate by holding him before the ball comes in, defensive holding on the other side.

THERE'S YOUR RIG JOB.

Poole is committing a penalty to attempt to prevent Tate from scoring the winning touchdown, and because of two different applications of the rules (not only the correct time runoff, but the fact the replay official cannot call the defensive holding), the touchdown is not only reversed, but Atlanta's win assured, because the refs missed TWO calls on the play to ensure the result.

NFL Films actually admits and plays up that the Lions are cursed, and have been over 50 years.  So is this a funny joke on Lions Fan???

There's another one, Calvin Johnson!