I understand Falcons fans' frustrations about what happened yesterday. Well not really, but today a LOT of Falcons fans that are Flyin' with Ryan were disappointed yesterday that Matty Ice never got a chance to stage his second straight comeback. Late in the fourth quarter the Eagles led the Dirty Birds 20-14 after Matt Ryan had led the team down for a TD a few plays earlier. (I guess all of the Falcons fans are forgetting that Matty Ice had thrown two Picks, including one in the endzone...) The Eagles ran on first down-no time out. The eagles ran on second down-time out, the Falcons' second. The eagles passed on third down, but came up short-time out, the Falcon's final time out with 2:31 left in the game.
The Eagles punter, who according to Dave "Arch" Archer couldn't kick it out of his shadow, punts a ball from his own 26 to the Falcons' side of the field where Adam Jennings doesn't catch it, instead opts to let it bounce...but AJ doesn't get away from the ball. Instead he is close enough that one of the officials thinks that AJ touched/muffed the punt and the Eagles recover. Because the Falcons don't have a timeout, they cannot challenge and since it isn't within the last two minutes, the replay booth cannot touch the blown call. Replays show that Jennings didn't touch it, but because of the timeout rules, the play cannot be challenged.
The Eagles would go on to post a garbage TD to ice the game and the Falcons lost 27-14, but many Atlantans believe that the Falcons got screwed.
How though. The NFL rules are the rules. The Falcons could have challenged if they had had a time out, but because the team had used one earlier in the half on a third down play, they didn't have the time out to use. In college every play is challengeable by the booth, but that isn't the case in the NFL. Now will the rules change? Probably. Did the Falcons get screwed.....maybe by crappy rules, but the rules were followed. Did the Refs cost Atlanta the game, maybe, but who is to say that the Rookie would have led them down the field and actually gotten the TD? He had two INTs and didn't have his left tackle in the game.
Matty Ice's turnover in the endzone earlier in the game didn't help. Michael Turner's poopoo game didn't help matters either. He has piled up some HUGE numbers against crappy teams, but against the big boys, suddenly THE BURNER's pilot light has flickered out.
Bottom line, it would have been fun watching Matt Ryan with a chance to win the game, but we wouldn't have known FOR SURE he could have gone against the Eagles' defense for the score. Does the NFL replay system need changing? Maybe. I think the college edition is better, but then again I am a bigger college fan than I am pro fan, so maybe I am biased. The rules were followed to the letter of the law yesterday and the Falcons just need to move on. They go to Oakland this Sunday and they cannot let the loss to the Eagles stick with them, otherwise the RAIDERS will beat them. And you can't let that cancer D'Hall have that over you. You just can't.
PS, if Adam Jennings had caught the ball, there wouldn't be any question about a muff or not. OR if he WASN'T going to catch it, GET THE F AWAY FROM THE BALL! Some of that has to fall on AJ for being an idiot.
1 comment:
Definitley got screwed out of the chance to win this game. The reason this call is so bad is because the ref claims to see something that did not happen, which is impossible. It is excusable to miss something that does happen, but essentially, the ref "made up" the call. You do not make that call unless you know for sure that he did touch the ball, not if you just "think" he touched it. The first rule of refereeing/umpiring is "if you didn't see it, it didn't happen." Seems this ref has forgotten this all important rule.
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