Ravens Pats

BTW, since Rex Ryan was the one calling TO on the 4th down play, should it have been awarded in the first place? I thought only the HC or a player on the field could call a TO.

 

by rule, I think that is correct, but Billick said something to the effect in postgame comments that he called it. Too bad for the Ravens, because they played well enough to win.

 

Let's look at the next play, shall we. On that play, the Ravens stuffed another run, but the play was nullified by a false start penalty against the Patriots.

The replay showed the right guard pulling early to get to the hole where the run was going on the left side. I had two thoughts about this. First, the guard can pull early, knowing that the worst thing that can happen is that they'll have to run the play again from five yards further back (not really that big a problem for the Patriots). The benefit, of course, is that if he gets away with it, he has created an advantage for himself and he will be able to help his team cheat its way to a first down.

My second thought was, "Is this really a false start?" It's not like he flinched. He made a deliberate move to start early. He continued with his assignment. Can't this type of infraction be called something else and can't the Ravens, then, get a chance to decline the penalty and take the result of the play?

 

It's a false start. Anytime a lineman makes movement out of his stance, it's a false start, whether its a little wiggle mistake and back or attempting to anticipate the snap early. It was only barely early enough, but still a foul.

You could change the rule to an "illegal shift" type penalty, but that's not what it currently is, and I'm not sure how to do that without adding subjectivity to whether he was looking for an early start or flinched.

 

In the current sitaution of the Patriots I think they really need to play better and start getting some actyion by running the ball. I think Lawrence but dude has some skinny legs. And so thats what it is.

 

Hmmm...I didn't see the press conference, but they showed Rex Ryan calling TO on the sidelines on Sportcenter.
You're right though, the Ravens definitely played a good game....it was a heartbreaker any way you slice it.

 

Billick took one for the team in the presser. Ryan obviously called the TO, but when someone asked Billick "who called the time out?", he started to say something then caught himself and said "we did, we called the timeout"

 

This has to be about the worst way to lose a game, but it really wasn't the refs fault. There just seemed to be a series of unfortunate situations that went against the Ravens.

- The false start was obvious.

- The time out, I believe, was just unfortunate. Most likely, the ref just heard someone from the Ravens sideline frantically calling for a TO just before the ball was going to be snapped. Since there wasn't time to look and verify who was making the call and everyone on the sideline is well aware that the HC is the only one allowed to call a TO, it's a logical assumption by the ref that it was Billick and granted the time out before NE got the snap off.

And could you imagine the uproar if it was Billick calling for the TO, and the ref did turn to make sure he was the one yelling for it, but NE snapped the ball before the TO could be granted and NE got the first. Once the play starts, the ref can't stop the play for a TO, so Baltimore would be SOL...that would have been even more ugly, if possible.

- The pass interference was obviously the correct call. The receiver was clearly hit and knocked out of the way before the ball got there.

- Finally, the TD. I think no matter what the call on the field was the booth would have upheld. That was so close that it could go either way. On first view, I thought it was a catch, but after the initial replay, I thought that maybe he didn't have control. However, after watching it again, it seemed like he had control with the ball in his hands when both feet came down, but what looked like a lack of control was just him shifting the ball to tuck it. But it was so close that I don't think anyone can say with 100% certainty...unless, of course, they watched it with biased eyes.

 

spot on. Billick fell on the sword there.

 

What many people are failing to point out is that, prior to the final desperation drive, the baltimore offense failed to pick up a first down in the fourth quarter. one of those drives ended after starting at the NE 26 yard line with boller throwing and awful interception that was returned to the almost mid field. the ravens had a ton of momentum that was killed by this turnover.

pick up just one first down and they probably run the clock down far enough where it makes it very difficult for Brady and the NE offense to score at the end.