After Further Review
After Further Review: OT flag on new rule draws shrug from Belichick
- The big call of the week was Tony Michalek’s flag on a Patriots defensive tackle Chris Jones.
- Jones shoved his teammate into the Jets offensive line on an overtime field goal attempt [Ben Austro, Football Zebras]. “I’m sure the league would rather the first call in history of this rule would not have been at this point in the game with these ramifications” [Mike Pereira, Fox]. Former officiating supervisor Jim Daopoulos believes a training tape sent to the officials mentioned this type of call “It probably put a little bug in the ear of the officials.” [Michael Holley, CSNNE]
- Patriots coach Bill Belichick (video): “You can’t push on the second level; I don’t think we did that” [NFL.com video] Second level? Where did that term come from? “In a video accompanying [an NFL.com] story, NFL VP of officiating Dean Blandino explains that defensive linemen ‘cannot push from the second level the down linemen into the offensive linemen.’ ” [Tom E. Curran, CSNNE]. Here is the NFL.com video posted in September, which appears to be an excerpt from the new rules video distributed to training camps.
- Curran also noted the NFL site showed the rule as proposed to the owners and not the final version, and was not changed until 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. The above photo shows the differences in the proposed rule and the final wording in the rulebook. The story that had the erroneous information: “Editor’s note: The rule proposal was amended before it was passed to ban pushing of any ‘Team B’ teammate at the line of scrimmage.” [NFL.com]
- Blandino: “That’s a violation of the rule. It was put in for player safety and it is the correct call … We’ve seen it before and it hasn’t been called. This is the first time it’s been called.” [Bill Bradley, NFLEvolution.com]
- Quick calls from Week 7 [Football Zebras]
- Pereira, flanked by two buckets of chicken, says Washington safety Brandon Meriweather is likely facing suspension for two unnecessary roughness fouls, in light of Meriweather’s past history of hits drawing fines. [Fox]
- Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant on pass interference calls: “I’m not going to lie. I don’t want to be a pain for the refs. But damn, some things are just obvious. And that ref –you know what? I’m just happy he called it.” [Carlos Mendez, Dal Star-Telegram]
- Bengals tight end Jermain Gresham lightly pushed off the arm of back judge Scott Helverson, which drew an unsportsmanlike conduct flag, but luckily no ejection. Coach Marvin Lewis sent him to the locker room to cool off, anyway. [Fansided]
- Bill Vinovich’s crew had a major fight to break up in Carolina. “The fracas continued for a couple of minutes, with at least a couple of dozen players pushing and shoving. Then [Rams defensive lineman] Chris Long threw a punch in the direction of Panthers right guard Chris Scott, and was ejected. [Rams coach Jeff Fischer said] ‘I thought the crew did a pretty good job getting things under control.’ ” [Jim Thomas, StL Post-Dispatch]
- Later in the same quarter, Panthers receiver added his business to the game by taunting the Rams on a touchdown reception. It was technically legal, because taunting cannot happen in a live-ball situation. But, apparently the risk of a 15-yarder was justified: “When you embarrass people you rub it in their face. When your dog pisses on the carpet, you rub it in his face.” [Jonathan Jones, Char Observer]
- Smith was fined an undisclosed amount for his charm offensive on the officials [David Newton, ESPN]. Of course, his beef is with someone else. [Football Zebras]
