Can anyone articulate what a catch is any more?

[dubcity]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

Who said it's his fault the ref blew the call? It's his fault that he didn't challenge it, nothing more. It was 100% in his hands to try and fix and he declined to. This circumstance is why replay exists. Either way, bad call by the ref, not sure anyone has said otherwise. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

It's just the implication. The main story has been Rex is an idiot for not challenging that call, as opposed to yet another example of brutal officiating. Which is stupid.

Why the NFL at this point doesn't just have an official up in a booth reviewing plays like that on the fly is beyond me. Shouldn't be the coach's responsibility.

[SteelersFreak]

Quote: Originally Posted by wwharton

But we don't have to... heck, I never do that, lol. I smh that so many people do. But even if your reply is that announcers, analysts, fans, etc. do it all the time... well I'd say look at everything else. The refs basically cost another team a win with a terrible call (league admitting it was wrong) at the end of the game. Second time in less than 3 weeks. We've seen phantom holding calls, Gronk getting called for offensive PI twice for doing something I think we all assumed all receivers do; a perfectly squared up hit on Palmer is a flag bc of barely grazing the head with a helmet, etc, etc, etc. My stance is refs are human and we'll never get rid of issues... others like to go all in on the refs. In either case, the catch rule is the only thing that gets attacked like this. That's what doesn't make any sense. It's no different than anything else... subject to a ref screwing up the call. And personally I don't think they screw it up any more than the many other things they screw up on a weekly basis.

Its just being focused on because its been a topic every week now.

[mestevo]

It's a stretch this week. The Hogan catch was a bad call, not the 'OMG what is a catch !?' week-to-week narrative.

There were no questionable catches this game, just bad calls. That's often the case but there's no debating the calls that were missed.

These are why there is replay. The confusing (to many) rules really didn't apply to the examples that kicked off this thread.

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[fugazi]

The more blurry the lines, the easier it is to shave a few points. js.

[wwharton]

Quote: Originally Posted by SteelersFreak

Its just being focused on because its been a topic every week now.

Don't know if you missed the point of my post but bad officiating is a topic every week... much moreso than questionable catch/no-catch calls. They have LITERALLY cost two teams victories (missed calls on plays that would have ended the game). There is no reason to highlight catches in this case.

[SteelersFreak]

Quote: Originally Posted by wwharton

Don't know if you missed the point of my post but bad officiating is a topic every week... much moreso than questionable catch/no-catch calls. They have LITERALLY cost two teams victories (missed calls on plays that would have ended the game). There is no reason to highlight catches in this case.

I didn't miss the point of your post I understood it loud and clear. Those kind of missed calls aren't anything new though. We're used to seeing teams get ****ed by stupid penalties and all that. That's nothing new. It has certainly not been typical to get this kind of catch scrutiny week in and week out. In years past there have of course been some high profile incidents but this has become a weekly issue, which is something that isn't typical with catches.

We all know that the refs suck, catches are being highlighted because it isn't something that has come up as frequently in the past few years.

[wwharton]

Quote: Originally Posted by SteelersFreak

I didn't miss the point of your post I understood it loud and clear. Those kind of missed calls aren't anything new though. We're used to seeing teams get ****ed by stupid penalties and all that. That's nothing new. It has certainly not been typical to get this kind of catch scrutiny week in and week out. In years past there have of course been some high profile incidents but this has become a weekly issue, which is something that isn't typical with catches. We all know that the refs suck, catches are being highlighted because it isn't something that has come up as frequently in the past few years.

Well we just disagree then.

I don't remember refs making blatant miscalls that literally cost games. I don't remember refs blowing the whistle when a pass was still in the air... or keeping the clock running because they were remembering college rules. I'm softer on refs than most, and I don't remember the level of screw ups that seem to have been increasing on a yearly basis. Honestly, we're seeing mistakes we didn't see with the replacement refs.

And at the same time, catches have been under scrutiny for years as well. That's why the rules have been rewritten to try to clear up what is and what isn't. They have been under the microscope since before instant replay. The only thing that's different is announcers and analysts being vocal about not understanding the rule, fueling the fire of fans complaining when a catch isn't called the way they think it should (not the way the rule is written, but the way they think it should).

[CM Hooe]

The arbitrary decisions made on what constitutes a catch and what doesn't is one big reason among several that my interest in the NFL has really fallen off this season (the number of games I've watched this year is in single-digits). There's seemingly no room for common sense.

The Golden Tate play in the end zone a few weeks back against the Bears comes to mind. If the NFL's rules were correctly enforced on this play and what Tate did on this play actually constitutes a catch, control of the football, and a touchdown, then in my opinion the rules are fundamentally flawed.