A really strange play took place at the end of the second quarter in Sunday’s wild-card matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears.
Not surprisingly, as we’ve seen so many times this year, NFL refs had a lot to do with this, botching things completely.
Anthony Miller caught a deep pass from Mitchell Trubisky. Only, on his way down to the turf, cornerback Cre’Von LeBlanc got his arm in between the ball and his arm, ripping the ball out right before Miller’s knee hit the ground.
What we have here is a clear catch, and a clear fumble.
https://twitter.com/barstooltweetss/status/1082049992758620161
The replay clearly showed both of these actions. Miller had about five steps with the ball in his possession. Only, nobody recovered the ball because an official did. As such, after the official review, the refs determined that there was “no clear recovery.”
https://twitter.com/JimmySpencerUN/status/1082051789845721088
By rule, they did make the correct call.
Instant replay was correct in staying with incomplete pass. In order to go from incomplete to catch and fumble is if there is a clear recovery by either team or if the ball goes out of bounds. Case book plays 15.114 and 15.115.
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) January 6, 2019
Because they picked the ball up.
https://twitter.com/MikeDixonSports/status/1082051620764938241
It’s hard to screw things up this bad, this consistently. But NFL refs almost seem to have a quota, and they’re certainly meeting it right now.
Al Michaels: “They’re not making this up on the fly, are they?”
Terry McAulay: “It does seem that way.”https://t.co/tK6daVsvLp
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 6, 2019
And people on Twitter are getting really tired of it.
If the rule is that they can’t rule that a catch because no one recovered the fumble (which makes no sense), then why was the play even reviewed?? The ref picked up the football.
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) January 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/xmasape/status/1082050255401693185
https://twitter.com/dsantana310/status/1082051578624987137
BREAKING: The NFL still doesn’t know what a catch is in 2019
— James Rapien (@JamesRapien) January 6, 2019