While We’re Waiting… Buckeyes Tumble, Browns’ Offense Good Enough and More Sizemore
November 21, 2011On Enjoying the Impending Grady Announcement
November 21, 2011
Call it correlation, causation or crazy coincidence, but when the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and NFL referee Terry McAuley get together on the shores of Lake Erie, all hell is bound to break loose.
Thankfully, for all parties, save the Jaguars, the Browns, Cleveland fans, and the referee in question were able to escape any chance of a repeat performance from the 2001 debacle that resulted in Browns fans firing objects of all shapes and sizes on to the playing field. Though Quincy Morgan, Tim Couch and inherent playoff implications are long gone, McAuley’s crew was once again the subject of a questionable call – one of several that occurred on this day – which resulted in the Browns being refused of three points that may have been rightfully theirs.
Ten years following the now infamous Bottlegate which occurred after an overturned first down despite a snap taking place following the play in question, McAuley’s crew declared a Phil Dawson 38-yard field goal attempt as no good despite nearly everyone outside of the men in stripes feeling that the kick, despite admittedly being right of center, cleared the interior of the upright. The Browns were up four at the time and a converted field goal would have made a Jacksonville touchdown drive a necessity if only to go into overtime. Instead, the swinging-arm declaration of the official made the final play of the Browns 14-10 win one of extreme heart palpitations.
Browns head coach Pat Shurmur would tell the media that he felt that he had a good view of the field goal and that he felt it was converted. Nevertheless, McAuley would be forced to hand the team’s challenge flag back to the coach, explaining that football’s glass celieng is in fact alive and well. The team attempted to review the play, but there is apparently a rule that states that the kicked football must at least travel below the top of the upright to be reviewable; an arbitrary rule which is subject to the arbitrary height of an NFL goal post.
“The way we saw it,” MacAulay told the media following the contest, “part of the ball was outside of the outside edge of the upright.” What he would not mention was the complete lack of conviction from the judge who would rule the kick no good following a brief, blind stare to the official to his right who was manning the other upright, knowing he would have to make a decision within a split second.
Dawson would subsequently be livid, and rightfully so. Sure, this “missed” field goal would be the first game since September 19, 2010 that Dawson did not convert at least one attempt, but it was a converted attempt that would have put his team up by seven points rather than four. It was just seven days earlier where a Dawson missed field goal cost the Browns a win over the St. Louis Rams. The team captain would give the officiating crew an ear-full on the field and later from the sidelines. Though, when questioned after the game, Dawson would play the diplomat and focus on the fact that the team won the game.
To play to the fans of Cleveland on Monday morning, Dawson would deviate a bit from his postgame thoughts and tweet, “Hey Cleveland, Browns win! Multiple choice game: The field goal was A) 3 points B) 39 yards C) from the left hash D) good E) all of the above.”
Though there were considerably fewer fans in attendance on this very day, there is no doubting that McAuley and his crew would have at least had a few thousand expletives hurled their way had D’Qwell Jackson not jumped Jacksonville’s final attempt to score. Whether or not bottles, shoes and various other blunt objects would have made their way on the field would have remained to be seen. Let’s just glad that option never made it on the menu.
—
(Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
28 Comments
notice Dawson getting snubbed by his own rule, his pinball kick in baltimore made it legal to review field goals four years ago, and the refs told him it couldnt be on a kick that was more between the uprights than the one from the game with “the drive”
Isn’t it time to move the goalposts up another ten feet?
That looked better than the Karlis kick. 🙁
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2O7bDqMO0I
what’s the basis for not reviewing something above the uprights? Do refs not have eyes? Seeing if something crosses inside the upright has got to be easier than some of the fumble reviews or the point where a catch was controlled with 2 feet in bounds.
The refs were just horrible all day, for both sides. What a terrible game for them.
If Dawson needs to be tweeting, better it should be: that ref had the best view. The snap and hold were good and I need to hit those.
That call didn’t exactly look like a no-brainer to me. The announcers seemed pretty convinced but it looked different from every angle.
I was in the endzone opposite the kick, slightly off-center. It was really, really close. Sadly, I think they got the call right. But gee willigers, batman, they made terrible calls all day.
The refs had a bad day, but it sure looked to me like Dawson missed it.
Overall, it was a poorly officiated game. The push-off call against Cribbs was laughable. On the other hand, the ref did give us a huge break on that pass interference call in the end zone when he inexplicably ruled that McCoy’s pass was not tipped at the line. Wow.
It seems like a kick that goes over the uprights is EXACTLY the type of play that should be subject to further review.
I know that McAuley would never intentionally make a call against the Browns, but I think it still looks bad to have him call a Browns-Jags game in Cleveland. The NFL needs to avoid any appearance of bias with the officiating. But every time that McAuley covers a Browns game, Browns fans like us pay extra close attention to every bad call. It’s not fair to us, and it’s not fair to McAuley, either.
@ Pale Dragon: Yeah, you’d think the NFL would be wiser and just not schedule him here for games. There are plenty of other games he could call.
Regardless of whether it was good or not, why was the kick so bad in the first place? It was a gimme.
As MrCleaveland says, there were a ton of other crappy calls (for and against us) that game. It gets frustrating.
During the game, CBS analyst Steve Tasker stated that if any part of the ball crosses over any part of the upright (even if it looks like it’s on the outside of the upright), the field goal should be ruled as good. Can anyone confirm that this is true? I did a quick Google search and wasn’t able to find any evidence of this ruling.
If that’s the case, I think it should’ve been ruled good.
The goal line wraps aroun the world, is it too much to ask for the goal posts to reach the moon?
*around
/iphonekeyboardfail
It seems like this happens a lot (ball going over the top of the uprights). Can’t we just make the uprights a few feet taller?
Why Nicko, why?!
@14 – sure. And while we’re at it, let’s shorten the 1st base line to eliminate all those close plays.
wasnt Triplett the ref. in 2001until game?
triplett was the ref in the orlando brown game where he had his eye knocked out by the penalty flag.
Phil Dawson’s kick looked identical to the game-winning kick that was called good for the Cowboys.
@16 – can you give me one way that the uprights being a few feet taller would impact the game, other than making it easier to tell if a FG is good? This seems like an easy fix to me, with no downside.
@20 – Extending the goal posts would eliminate our ability to complain on Mondays and make snarky comments!!!
Don’t take that away from me!
Has anyone ever heard of a “leaping” penalty before? Too funny.
@CTownPride
(c) The entire ball must pass through the vertical plane of the goal, which is the area above the crossbar
and between the uprights or, if above the uprights, between their outside edges.
Does anyone understand why the challenge on the pass interference/tipped pass wasnt overturned? I live in Jax and that was the headline story for the newspaper today. That and how Gabbert couldn’t pull a “Tebow.” Ugh.
@24
Stevo, in the Cleveland paper today, the ref said that he wasn’t positive that it was tipped because he has to look at a small screen with a fuzzy picture. He complained that the guys up in the booth get to look a big screens, but he has that little bitty guy.
If he had seen that on a bigger screen, we would have doubtlessly ruled it a tip.
@24 Well, if you complete more than 50% of your passes and throw for over 200 yards, it’s hard to “pull a Tebow.”
“Does anyone understand why the challenge on the pass interference/tipped pass wasnt overturned?”
The only thing I can surmise is that one cannot challenge penalties, merely rulings on the field. The ruling on the field at this time was an incomplete pass; the ball was certainly tipped at the line of scrimmage, but the result of the play was still an incompleted pass attempt.
(Per NFL Rulebook Section 9, c. Note 4.3: Penalty administration)
My seat is directly behind the top of that upright. it was good. AND how do you know if it is above the upright unless you review it. With technology today How hard is it to place a camera at the top of each upright? It’s not – plus the TV angles would be great.