Proof NFC Championship Niners vs. Giants Rigged "Forward Progress" Call Warrants Cons

[Mozart'sGhost]

I haven't watched the video yet, but the text at the beginning seems wrong. Forward progress, in my experience, is most often called when RBs have the ball. I don't know what inspired the rule, but I've always figured it was one of the earlier rules that arose when a defense might literally pick up an offensive player and carry him back several yards (can't you just picture that in some of the clips from the '20s?). And I don't think safety is the primary concern. I think forcing a late fumble is.

My recollection of this play was that Bowman ripped the ball out as Bradshaw was falling backward from a single hit. I think it's a close call, but blowing it dead and calling it unreviewable seemed kind of bogus. At the least, they should have had to review it.

Agreed. Good point. He could have laid off the whistle and allowed the officials up above to review it. That probably would have been the best approach.

 

[MHSL82]

Too close to call. Three Niners in contact with him and he was going backward when the ball came out. When watching the game, with a biased eye obviously, I thought it was a fumble but seeing it several times now, I'm OK with the call. It could have gone either way and unfortunately it didn't go ours.

It depends on the whistle for me. If it was too close to call and "could have gone either way", then the tie should go to the whistle (the only indication to the ball carrier, defense, or rest of offense that the play was over - that they needn't continue).

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

It depends on the whistle for me. If it was too close to call and "could have gone either way", then the tie should go to the whistle (the only indication to the ball carrier, defense, or rest of offense that the play was over - that they needn't continue).

Well, I think he has to see the forward progress stopped and then reach up and blow the whistle. That is what it looked like to me; that he saw the progress stopped and in the time it took him to blow the whistle the ball was out. Have to give the ref the benefit of the doubt there. Like Crimson said, the best option would have been not to blow the whistle and let the boys upstairs review it.

 

[Texas9erFan]

Meanwhile, the fans were waiting for the season to begin...

 

[iHATEdodgers]

Watching it again. I had thought it was a 50/50 call.

Now I see we got shafted. Goldson flies by after making some contact. 26 lets go of him before he is even down. You have seen some plays where a RB or Tebow will spin out of that and put a hand in the ground to keep balance and then run forward for more yards.
Bowman strips the ball while Bradshaw is almost completely free of 49er contact and just started falling down/back.

Yep. Fuckin A. That call fucking sucked. Glad I just relived it. I gotta say though that the call didn't bother me much at the time because I thought we were going to win at that point regardless... and then Williams went fucking brain dead.

 

[iHATEdodgers]

Meh, although it sucks that the defense did more than enough to win this game. The offense and special teams did more to lose the game than the officials did to help the Giants win by being quick on the whistle with this play.

Yeah but our offense did more to win this game than the Giants offense did. That is all we should ask for imo.

A bad call and a horribly stupid play later and whoops down the crapper. Sigh.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

Bottom line is that it never should have come down to a "missed" call by the refs. Harbaugh played it ridiculously conservative and hamstrung the offense like he did so many times during the season; only this time it came back to bite them. All year long we were one or two plays from losing games and we got lucky; this time we didn't.

 

[iHATEdodgers]

Bottom line is that it never should have come down to a "missed" call by the refs. Harbaugh played it ridiculously conservative and hamstrung the offense like he did so many times during the season; only this time it came back to bite them. All year long we were one or two plays from losing games and we got lucky; this time we didn't.

I completely disagree with the "we got lucky; this time we didn't." Luck has nothing to do with being 13-3. Luck had nothing to do with the Niners losing the Championship game. They lost that game because Williams let a ball - that he had no business being near - bounce off his knee. That's not luck that's just stupid bad football.

However despite this if they had just run the ball a little more - especially in the 4th quarter that might've been enough to win despite the kneebounce. We will never know.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

I completely disagree with the "we got lucky; this time we didn't." Luck has nothing to do with being 13-3. Luck had nothing to do with the Niners losing the Championship game. They lost that game because Williams let a ball - that he had no business being near - bounce off his knee. That's not luck that's just stupid bad football.

However despite this if they had just run the ball a little more - especially in the 4th quarter that might've been enough to win despite the kneebounce. We will never know.

There was a lot more to it than "Williams letting a ball bounce off his knee". Take, for example, one three yard completion to a wide receiver all day long. They played waaaaay too conservatively and got burnt for it. The defense was extraordinary and it still wasn't enough to overcome their anemic offense.

 

[MW49ers5]

Well, I think he has to see the forward progress stopped and then reach up and blow the whistle. That is what it looked like to me; that he saw the progress stopped and in the time it took him to blow the whistle the ball was out. Have to give the ref the benefit of the doubt there. Like Crimson said, the best option would have been not to blow the whistle and let the boys upstairs review it.

The play happened outside of the 2:00 warning...So I don't think that was an option at all. They would have had to call it a fumble and Coughlin would have had to challenge it.

 

[iHATEdodgers]

There was a lot more to it than "Williams letting a ball bounce off his knee". Take, for example, one three yard completion to a wide receiver all day long. They played waaaaay too conservatively and got burnt for it. The defense was extraordinary and it still wasn't enough to overcome their anemic offense.

Once again I completely disagree. At the time Williams let the ball bounce off his knee the Niners were up 14-10 and the defense was dominating - despite not having completed a pass to a WR up to that time - so that meaningless statistical fact had no impact on the potential for the Niners to win up to that point.

I'm pretty sure we would have won either 14-10 or 17-10 if Williams didn't fuck it all up - and it wouldn't have mattered if the WRs didn't catch a thing.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Bottom line is that it never should have come down to a "missed" call by the refs. Harbaugh played it ridiculously conservative and hamstrung the offense like he did so many times during the season; only this time it came back to bite them. All year long we were one or two plays from losing games and we got lucky; this time we didn't.

I completely disagree with this sentiment. On the contrary, I feel that we got too aggressive, or at the very least overthought things and ended up throwing WAY more than we should have. We needed to run the ball down their throats in the second half. Instead, we kept throwing it with absolutely disastrous results.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Ok, "absolutely disastrous" might be a bit melodramatic. The offense didn't cost us the game, per se, they just didn't do a damn thing to win it for us, either. Let's call them poor to very poor results.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

The play happened outside of the 2:00 warning...So I don't think that was an option at all. They would have had to call it a fumble and Coughlin would have had to challenge it.

Ya, that's right. I was thinking last 5 minutes the calls went upstairs for some reason. But the call still should have been the same. Don't blow the whistle and let Coughlin challenge it.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

Once again I completely disagree. At the time Williams let the ball bounce off his knee the Niners were up 14-10 and the defense was dominating - despite not having completed a pass to a WR up to that time - so that meaningless statistical fact had no impact on the potential for the Niners to win up to that point.

I'm pretty sure we would have won either 14-10 or 17-10 if Williams didn't fuck it all up - and it wouldn't have mattered if the WRs didn't catch a thing.

My point is that we let it get to the point where one mistake can cost us the game like we did so many times during the regular season; and it did this time.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

I completely disagree with this sentiment. On the contrary, I feel that we got too aggressive, or at the very least overthought things and ended up throwing WAY more than we should have. We needed to run the ball down their throats in the second half. Instead, we kept throwing it with absolutely disastrous results.

You fell for the fallacy that we are a running team and were effective at it. Somehow that got to be the mantra of the NFL pundits but it was never true except for a few games in the middle of the season. The disasterous results came from being afraid to throw the ball outside.

 

[MW49ers5]

Ya, that's right. I was thinking last 5 minutes the calls went upstairs for some reason. But the call still should have been the same. Don't blow the whistle and let Coughlin challenge it.

A heartbreaking non-call for sure...This loss is still stinging...You watching the game? I'm all in for NY...

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

A heartbreaking non-call for sure...This loss is still stinging...You watching the game? I'm all in for NY...

Oh ya, I'll watch it for sure. I think its going to be a great game. I'll be rooting for the Patriots but I think the Giants will win; especially with Gronkowski in the condition he is.

 

[MW49ers5]

Oh ya, I'll watch it for sure. I think its going to be a great game. I'll be rooting for the Patriots but I think the Giants will win; especially with Gronkowski in the condition he is.

Do you think Gronk is injured as bad as it appears or do you think Belichick is just gamesmanshipping??...I kind of think this is Bill just being Bill - but then I don't know...

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

Do you think Gronk is injured as bad as it appears or do you think Belichick is just gamesmanshipping??...I kind of think this is Bill just being Bill - but then I don't know...

Ha ha. I wouldn't put it past that old bastard but man, that injury looked bad when it first happened. The Patriots have lost a little of that mystique they had. I think the Giants will pull out a low-scoring game. I'll say 23-20.