Moss Pass Interference Call

[ddotderek]

The Offensive PI called on Moss for the TD..is it me? or was that the biggest BS call you have ever seen? I know Moss has gotten away with a 1 or 2 this season for TD's..barely..but todays PI call was horrid, Ive watched it about 10 times on my dvr and it looks like the guy flopped, just like basketball..Moss's fingertips touched his jersey..not even his hand, the tip of his frickin gloves..I feel like they are unfairly targeting him in the endzone..that is like 4 td's they have taken from him this year because of offensive PI.

 

[Patradomous]

Worst call I saw since the Colts game.

 

[patsox23]

Great teams win anyway. Helluva job.

 

[Deus Irae]

It was a bad call. I actually wish Belichick were more willing to call out the officials after lousy games. I think his silence doesn't help because the spotlight doesn't get shown on what's happening on the field.

 

[DisgruntledTunaFan]

The Offensive PI called on Moss for the TD..is it me? or was that the biggest BS call you have ever seen? I know Moss has gotten away with a 1 or 2 this season for TD's..barely..but todays PI call was horrid, Ive watched it about 10 times on my dvr and it looks like the guy flopped, just like basketball..Moss's fingertips touched his jersey..not even his hand, the tip of his frickin gloves..I feel like they are unfairly targeting him in the endzone..that is like 4 td's they have taken from him this year because of offensive PI.

Yep-even Madden was bewildered by that.

Having watched alot of Eagles games myself, they seem to get the big benefit of the officiating in the last stretch run of the season.

 

[patfanken]

what bothered me the most was the ref who threw the flag was BEHIND the play and couldn't have possibly seen a push off, even if there were one. It was clearly something he was told to look for and he made the ASSUMPTION there was a push off even though he couldn't see it. Yet on at least 2 occasions that I saw, Shephard clearly grabbed a hold of his jersey, and it was never colled OR commented on. BTW I wouldn't have mentioned the 2 holding calls that weren't called if they HADN'T thrown the flag on the OPI.

I think the league has got to do something about the PI situation. They have completely forgotten 2 key elements of the PI rule. I. the player has to be INTERFERRED with, not merely touched. They call the play on contacted even if the conctact didn't interfer with the players ability to catch the ball. 2. I'm begining to wonder if the uncatchable ball rule has been eliminated, since it dosen't seem to matter. I saw 3 cases yesterday where they called PI on very incidental contact on balls that were totally UNCATCHABLE. In essence they were rewarding a bad play with huge gains.

 

[FilPats]

Worst call I saw since the Colts game.

Can anybody post that outrageous PI in youtube, to show all the fans the onesidedness of the NFL refs against the Pats. Lets put pressure on Goodell and the NFL. Go Pats:rocker:

 

[ddotderek]

what bothered me is that Sheppard had his hands ALL OVER MOSS first and moss simply negiated the contact, and he gets called..that is such bs..if you didnt tivo the game then watch nfl networks clip of the game on nfl.com, 2:59/4:30 is where they replay it in slow-mo...How is that not being brought into the limelight? How come they dont make a big deal of something so obvious..its sickening that the ref who called the PI can get away with that, oh well.

 

[BadMoFo]

I bet we are going to see a lot of what you described, flopping. It's tough to defend Randy Moss that close to the end zone, so why shouldn't defenders just flop and hope for the call. That really killed that drive, which ended with the missed FG. What I don't get is how Wes got caught from behind by the defensive linemen. It looked like he was stumbling already before he got tripped up.

 

[Aqua4Ever04]

Worst call you've ever seen? Damn, how warped if your guys' perception of reality if that was the worst call you've ever seen? That was a classic push off, you can't get your hands into your opponents chest then seperate to make the catch.

 

[ddotderek]

aquaaever please tell me that you *dont* have the play on tivo..if you do, i seriously am judging your credibility..please watch the play in slow motion and tell me who touches who first..please tell me that you do not see sheppards hands around moss..his left hand on randys right chest, and right hand on randy's left shoudler..please tell me that you do not see that..randy merely responded with a mickey mouse touch which sheppard realizes he got beat goes almost to the ground then flying torwards out of bounds as randy had just pushed off so hard that he was knocked off balance in result to randys push off..

 

[Deus Irae]

Worst call you've ever seen? Damn, how warped if your guys' perception of reality if that was the worst call you've ever seen? That was a classic push off, you can't get your hands into your opponents chest then seperate to make the catch.

The booth looked at every angle available and noted that they never saw pass interference on the play.

 

[Aqua4Ever04]

Perhaps I need to get a better look at it. What I saw was Moss getting his hands into Sheppard first. The difference I could argue is that Moss used that leverage for seperation while Sheppard did not.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

what bothered me the most was the ref who threw the flag was BEHIND the play and couldn't have possibly seen a push off, even if there were one. It was clearly something he was told to look for and he made the ASSUMPTION there was a push off even though he couldn't see it. Yet on at least 2 occasions that I saw, Shephard clearly grabbed a hold of his jersey, and it was never colled OR commented on. BTW I wouldn't have mentioned the 2 holding calls that weren't called if they HADN'T thrown the flag on the OPI.

I saw that too on the replay. The guy with the absolute best view was near the pylon and didn't throw a flag. To me it seems likely that Moss is going to get some of these calls on reputation. No other explanation for it. The type of so called "push off" he has been flagged for (both taking away TD's too - interesting) is so common place, there would be flags too often. Micheal Irvin, Jerry Rice, Ben Coates etc etc lived on the push off and would have had a ton of flags under that incompetent referee's threshold for this type of infraction. And the Eagles were guilty of it tonight too (but correctly not called imho). I have no problem with the way this game was called tonight in the first half. Just let 'em play and flag the egregious ones. And I agree completely with you that I would be totally ok with this game and the missed calls happening if not for that sham episode of refereeing.

However, in the ref's defense, the DB's NBA style over acting might have sold it to a feeble mind. So maybe it wasn't a call due to reputation and incompetence.

 

[FilPats]

Best defense against Moss is flopping. Blueprint? Go Pats. :rocker:

 

[wizwor]

Perhaps I need to get a better look at it. What I saw was Moss getting his hands into Sheppard first. The difference I could argue is that Moss used that leverage for seperation while Sheppard did not.

When I saw the play live, I saw the guy fall away from Moss and assumed it was a good call. Another angle clearly showed that the guy fell away from Moss when he let go of Randy.

They showed the play so many times after that that I figured RM would get a payback call. He didn't -- Moss was bumped and held all night. Must be some sort of de-emphasis...has the competition committee be working overtime?

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Perhaps I need to get a better look at it. What I saw was Moss getting his hands into Sheppard first. The difference I could argue is that Moss used that leverage for seperation while Sheppard did not.

What you can't argue, however, is that it was selectively enforced in this instance. That type of usage of the hands is absolutely common place among receivers, and even DB's, in EVERY single game (and almost always uncalled). And it is unreasonable to believe that the receivers and DB's are going to run down the field and go into the pattern/go for the ball not using their arms like some kind of Michael Flatly Wide Receiver. So how about we only call PI when a "push off" is at least hard enough to make an 8 year old girl have to take a step back?

I bet if you step back and look at it objectively, I think you will see that the NFL game and entertainment factor would be distinctly lessened if they routinely called PI's under last evening's Moss threshold for it.

 

[DisgruntledTunaFan]

Perhaps I need to get a better look at it. What I saw was Moss getting his hands into Sheppard first. The difference I could argue is that Moss used that leverage for seperation while Sheppard did not.

Madden's probably the biggest critic when it comes to the officiating-however, he's HONEST when he makes his assesments.

 

[solman]

The refs are watching tape before the games, then calling what they saw on the tape during the game.

Its absolutely unacceptable.

The Pats are going to deal with this (as they always do) behind the scenes. But you can be sure that they are pissed off.

 

[Buchanty]

According to the rules

Actions that constitute offensive pass interference include but are not limited to:

(a) Blocking downfield by an offensive player prior to the ball being touched.

(b) Initiating contact with a defender by shoving or pushing off thus creating a separation in an attempt to catch a pass.

the problem I have with the second part is that the rule brings focus to the act of separation rather than the contact itself. If separation is seen then the flag will more than likely be thrown. Unfortunately this encourages defensive theatrics, as was the case with Shephard. There should be a commensurate penalty for taking a dive as in soccer (10 yds from point of infraction or if on a TD then 10 yds after the KO return).

I think the emphasis this season on Moss has been unwarranted (why not other WRs in the limelight?), as he is far from being the most physical receiver on contact with defenders.

Here's a challenge - how many times this season have the Patriots been called for PI on both sides of the ball, and how many times have their opponents been called for the same infractions? I can guess that we are still waiting for our first OPI against an opponent. These things are meant to balance out over the course of the season, but I get the feeling that we have accrued quite an imbalance for OPI and DPI.