Pass Catching Rule Under Scrutiny after Lions loss to Bears
Written by playerpress.com, Sunday September 12 2010
There has been a lot said about the play and the call that took victory away from the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
On the play in question, Lions receiver Calvin Johnson jumped up and seemed to have caught a game winning touchdown pass with 37 seconds to play in the game.
I would have to say that I believed it was a catch and a Bears loss.
However, I am not an NFL official and admit that I do not the NFL rule book like the back of my hand like all NFL officials should.
On the field it was called an incomplete pass. After further review from upstairs, the call on the field stood and the Bears held on to win the game.
Now as Lions fans across the country threw bricks at the television sets, and as ridiculous as this rule may seem, according to the current NFL rules, the refs made the right call and the replay booth even confirmed it.
Here is the official rule:
“If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball after he touches the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.”
Take a look at the video yourself:
So as much as it looked like a game winning TD reception, and seems unfair, according to the rules, the ball touched the ground and Johnson lost control of the ball, therefore, according to the rule above, it was an incomplete pass and no touchdown.
As much as we do not like some of the rules in the NFL, it is still a rule, and rules are rules and the refs made the correct call on this one according to those rules and there is nothing that anybody can do about it at this point.
In addition, this is not the first time that this particular rule has caused controversy in an NFL game, and it probably will not be the last unless they change the rule.
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What is also not mentioned as people continue to call this a game winning TD catch is that there would have been 37 seconds still on the clock. It would still have been possible that the Bears, who I believe still had 3 timeouts could have gotten a good return on the kickoff and then got into field goal range to win the game. It happened a couple of years ago when the Falcons did it in only 11 seconds against the Bears.