Pass interference?

[Bruce is Loose]

First, I have to say that after not making any games the last two years, my family continued our tradition of traveling from New England to see the Pats game in Buffalo. We changed everything about the tradition in hopes of having some superstitious result in changing the game.

Unreal... Ive never been at a game where the crowd was even close to that.

But to my question...
In the first half, it seemed that everything went NE way (as usual) - including some calls that I wondered about from the stands.

In the second half, the Bills gained momentum on all fronts, and dare I say that there no longer seemed to be any pro-NE calls coming from the stripes...

The one that had me scratching was the PI call in the endzone on the Fitz interception. I watched it the whole way and it appeared to be an awful throw. The only thing I can think of is that the deep defender (not the one who made the pick) held up the WR, but they never showed a replay and I was wondering if it was legit?

Second question: Did Bellicheat get forced to take a timeout there at the end? And did he screw up by ordering the penalty? My math had the Pats getting the ball back prior to that point...

[SabreEleven]

On the 2nd question. Jackson ran the ball down to the 1 and was down. When the refs placed the ball, the clock would have been running. He called it to kill the clock.

[FlyingDutchman]

Thats exactly it, and Im willing to give fitzy the benefit of the doubt that he knew what he was doing since that was such a bad throw...The DB face guarded and wouldnt let the receiver run freely to make a play. Simple call, PI. If the defender wasnt there to pick it off and it dropped to the ground it would have been a lot more obvious he was obstructing him

[Joe Fo Sho]

It was a legit Pass Interference call. It was a terrible decision, and possibly a worse throw, but the call was correct. Nelson could've (maybeee??) gotten near enough to the ball to prevent the pick. No way he was catching it though.

[psubills62]

On the PI, the NE player was essentially setting a pick on Nelson to prevent him from coming back to the ball. I saw some article today mention that they didn't think it was PI because it was an uncatchable ball, but I think that's bull.

[OpIv37]

On the first question, the PI was called on the NE defender who didn't make the interception. He made contact with the Bills' WR and prevented him from going back to make a play on the ball. Yes, it was a terrible throw, but without the interference, the Bills player would have at least had the chance to knock the ball away.

In football, it's pretty common to get PI on underthrown balls because the defensive player ends up between the offensive player and the ball, and it's very difficult for the defender to avoid contact when the offensive player tries to slow down or go back for the ball.

It was luck in the sense that Fitz got bailed out on a bad decision when he really should have just thrown the ball away, but it was the correct call.

[madness]

Yes, they showed the replay and NE's DB cleared held our WR from coming back to the ball.

I'm still not quite sure what happened there at the end but I've heard he held up the ref's so they charged him with a TO.

[ddaryl]

If Nelson could come back to the ball that play takes on a whole different feel.. nelson could of jumped higher and made the catch or at least disrupted the INT...

it was one of those calls that use to haunt the bills at the end of close games.. BUT this time it went for us. Another signal that the times are changing in Bills country


Belichick whining after the Jackson re-spot got him an unsportsmanlike penalty and a loss of a timeout...Bill appeared to be upset that they didn't call it a TD and changed the decision on the field without him throwing a challenge flag. Bill knew the more time on the clock the better off they would be with Brady and their O.

It was nice to see the Patriots lose their composure, they showed a kink in their armor... 3 penalties on that last scoring drive were all the Patriots fault and they cost themselves a chance

[madness]

It was luck in the sense that Fitz got bailed out on a bad decision when he really should have just thrown the ball away, but it was the correct call.
No luck, all Fitzmagic... you know.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zL1gUjIf79s" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

[ghz in pittsburgh]

To ddaryl and madness: both the ref and Belichick came out said the same thing. BB wanted to know when the ref will re-start the clock; after he got an answer, decided to take their 2nd timeout immediately. The confusion came when the ref was trying to waive him off the field after giving him the explanation while BB moved further into the field wanting to use his timeout immediately. BB did not want to waste even 1 second should the ref re-start the clock.

[ddaryl]

No luck, all Fitzmagic... you know.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zL1gUjIf79s" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>


hate the song but love the Jedi Knight pic

[trapezeus]

i read that explanation the Blo news today as well as to why the timeout was charged. i initially thought that belichick was angry that the clock ran like an extra 6 seconds off the clock after jackson got into the endzone. my pats friends were going nuts. i did notice it too. jackson got into the endzone at like 1:51, but the clock didn't stop until 1:43 and they didn't readjust it after the review.

[Mski]

I agree with everything thats been said,
1. when you see the whole replay the deep defender not only got between nelson and the ball, but initially wrapped his arms around him.
2. BB called the time out so that the clock wouldnt start when they placed the ball, and i think there would have actually been a 5 second run off too.

i think the way the pats played on that last series of kneel downs was completely bush league, and the refs should have never allowed the defenders to hit Fitz after he surrendered on the play

[Forward_Lateral]

It was blatant PI. The guy practically tackled David Nelson, and who knows, maybe Nelson makes the catch if he's not interfered with. The PI made the throw look a lot worse than it actually was.

[Michael82]

I didn't think it was pass interference until I saw "The Blitz" last night. They showed it on ESPN and it was blatent...Nelson was held and molested by the Patriots DB before the ball got to him. Good call by the refs on an ugly throw by Fitz!