Patriots-Raiders Non-Fumble Call
At a critical juncture of the Patriots and Raiders playoff game on Saturday January 19th, what appeared to be a fumble by Tom Brady was reviewed by the officials and ruled an incomplete forward pass and therefore the Patriots retained possession of the ball and continued their drive for a tying field goal. The Raiders cried foul and the Patriots accepted to fortunate ruling.
The call was correct, the rule book is out of date. The umpire correctly ruled an incomplete forward pass based on the wording of the rule book. Most fans assumed a fumble as it looked like a plain old ordinary fumble to even a seasoned football watcher. The rule's assumption is that if a quarterback decides not to pass, he will put the ball under his arm and run. Nowadays, quarterbacks will begin to pass and stop short of releasing the ball and hold the ball out looking for another receiver to throw to. Even if they decide to run with the ball, they will often still be looking to make a pass prior to crossing the line of scrimmage. Many other similar calls have been made this year (even one against the Patriots), but usually earlier on in the game, and haven't seemed as critical as this call did.
As with previous rule problems, this one will be examined in the off-season and modified to reflect the reality of the situation. A rule will need to be added to allow the umpire to determine when a pass attempt is in progress and when the pass attempt has been aborted and the quarterback is subject to being chrged with a fumble. And the reality is that the Raiders didn't lose the game on that particular call alone, but on the fact that their defense allowed the Patriots to climb to within 3 points at the end of the game.
01/21/02 ( 361 )
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