My condolences to Bills fans. I just watched that game, and I still think it was a forward pass and not a lateral.
I just saw a new camera angle, and when I’m wrong, I admit it. It was a lateral. Tennessee won fair and square.
I saw ** EVERY ** camera angle, and I still say it was an illegal forward pass. Wycheck threw it from right at the line; Dyson caught it about 5 inches past.
First the foot-in-the-crease thing in the Stanley Cup Finals with the Sabres, and now this. I feel for ya, Buffalo.
“You had me at ‘Hell no.’”
We Bills fans are tough. We’re used to losing. But we at least like to do it by our own efforts.
Any truth to the rumor that this play was called by the same official that screwed up the coin toss in last year’s playoff?
Little Nemo…
he was part of it…
If you can’t convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. Truman
They showed one camera angle that pretty clearly showed the football leaving Wychek’s hand about a foot from the line and then the receiver catching it about 6 inches from the line.
But, then again, the camera angles can be tricky. I wouldn’t swear to either one, but it seems (after further review) that the non-call was correct.
Y’know, I really would’ve loved a Minnesota/Buffalo superbowl. Something would have to give–they couldn’t both lose (again).
I had to counsel my girlfriend, a die-hard Bills fan, after that one.
But in all fairness, let us put blame where it belongs - Buffalo’s special teams. And the fact that Tennesss designed an absolutely brilliant play.
That was NOT a Cal-Stanford 13-lateral accident. It was a designed play that worked to perfection. You have to give Tennessee credit for that.
And as for “shoddy officiating,” if after seeing a dozen or so angles numerous times, I still cannot tell, and since the play was so brilliant, I will give them the benefit of the doubt for the non-call.
Yer pal,
Satan
First Place
Most Popular Poster of the 20th Century Competition
As overseen by Coldfire
Gotta go with Satan [no wonder he’s a fave poster]… Besides, worrying about the precise trajectory there is kinda like throwing out a conviction because the officer may or may not have mispronounced a word in the Miranda Warning - or forgot to mark the bag with the bloody glove.
I thought the rule was to prevent a runner, having drawn in linebackers & safeties, from passing out into an open, taken-by-surprise secondary, well beyond the line of scrimmage. Not what happened.
Frankly Buffalo lost my vote when they dumped Flutie last week. I think they lost quite a bit of fan support last week when they did that.
Looked like a lateral to me; based on what they showed, almost exactly parallel to the 25 yard line, just inches, maybe a foot, upfield (throw and catch both). Certainly too close to call back based on the replay, and I’m sure glad that an official with a bad angle didn’t whistle the play dead in mid-play.
I had no rooting interest in the game (though I agree that canning Flutie was dumb), but it was the greatest ending to a playoff game since at least the Immaculate Reception (Steelers-Raiders 1972), and maybe then some.
I’m resigned to the fact that my beloved Bills lost, forward pass or lateral notwithstanding. They lost.
But the question that nags me is: Why the heck can’t these professional place-kickers put a kickoff in the end zone for a touchback? Especially in a situation like this? College players do it all the time. What’s with these guys?
The Dave-Guy
“since my daughter’s only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?” J.H. Marx
Don’t care much for the hosing of the Bills, all I care about is that the Browns get the first draft pick this year! Woo-Hoo! (the only way they can go is up from here!)
“People must think it must be fun to be a super genuis,
But they don’t realize how hard it is
to put up with all the idiots in the world.”
– Calvin and Hobbes
(__)
/
Dave, I don’t think they kick off from the same spot on the field. In fact I believe they added 5 or 10 yards to the kickoff in the past year or two to encourage more returns. Also you want to kill time the best you can, you kick it into the end zone and no time goes off the clock.
Since I’m the aforementioned die-hard Bills fan, I may as well put in my two cents.
I think that it was a forward pass, but only by a foot, tops. No way it could have been overturned, in either direction. Had an official ruled it a forward pass on the field, I doubt they could have conclusively overturned THAT.
That having been said, I see a firing in the Buffalo coaching staff in the near future. Had they just kicked that ball out of bounds, or even, perhaps, squibbed it, we’d still be in the playoffs. And given the way the field looked, they should have seen that play coming from a mile away.
I hope Tennessee wins the Super Bowl. At least then I can say that they deserved to win this game.
Or drain-
Even kicked it deep!
-Frankie
Lack of charisma can be fatal
Unoffically Godding the meathead community since 1/7/2000
My opinion is that it was an illegal forward pass…NOT a lateral…even if only by a few inches…
Krispy Original – voted SDMB’s 19th most popular poster (1999)
I agree with Krispy. Unfortunately for Bills fans, the camera angle on the replay wasn’t that good. Even the best angle was a little, uh, wide right.
< d&r >
I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!
Here’s my unbiased take, it was a lateral. In most takes I saw, there was a ref right there bobbing and weaving watching the whole thing from a vantage point that couldn’t be better. Anyway, I think it’s the spirit of the rule more than the letter. Those remarks for for the crease as well.
As far as kicking it deep is concerned, remember that I am a die-hard Bills fan, and being so, realize that Christie couldn’t kick one in the end zone if his life depended on it. So I didn’t even consider that as a possibility.
As for the possible crease violation, IIRC that wasn’t even reviewed, which I think was just ridiculous. I mean, they’ll review just about anything in hockey that’s even close to being a violation of anything if a goal is involved, and again, IIRC, a goal had been previously overturned in that game (and if not in that game, in that series) for the same reason. I blame that on the fact that the game had been going on for something like a fortnight at that point, and they were just eager to have it over with.