Favorite quote on Twitter:

Correct call exactly by the rulebook. GB can cry all they want.

Th PI call was correct, the GB defender was pulling on Sidney Rice's jersey. and a simultaneous reception always goes to the offense.

How about Ben Tate OFFENSIVELY PASS INTERFERING before the "touchdown?" PI was getting called all day and that is when they swallow the whistle. Sure.

Sweet karma for the billions of times the Pukers got the critical calls for the past three decades.

Vikes are in 1st place. Skol!

PI is usually thrown out in those situations and they let the guys fight it out.

Absolutely the second-worst call of all time. Pearson pushed off.

This has gone from ridiculous, to laughable, to absurd, to embarrassing. I don't care what the refs want... give it to them before we start seeing soccer riots, because I fear that's the next disaster on the horizon.

BGM - your sig quote was never more true when it comes to refs, but my inner vike still can't help but snicker at the karma that has bitten the packers after years of getting all the favorable calls.

Gotta be honest, I have never bought into all that "favorable calls" stuff. As the Vikings showed yesterday, a good team can win despite poor officiating. I get no joy watching the Packers lose like this. I would rather see them pummeled into dust like the good Lord intended.

Well at least rodgers spent a good share of the game counting the stars in the sky

And THAT is what should have Packer fans truly shaken. 8 sacks!! The Bears, Lions and Vikings DLs are licking their chops...

Now that I've been watching NFL Network AM this morning, I'm not so sure that the "simultaneous possession" call was so bad. I think it was an unfair result, but I think the call was within the rules. The points in favor of anyone (not just replacements) calling it this way:
- The ref that called a TD was much closer than the ref that eventually called the interception. The overrule was technically correct.
- The rule about maintaining possession through the ground means that, even though the defensive player had initial control, that the offensive player gaining equivalent control by the time the players hit the ground meant that it was simultaneous.
[Oh - they just mentioned the Drew Pearson pushoff on NFL Network AM!]
- Simultaneous possession can not be reviewed by NFL rules, so they couldn't go through this in slo-mo. The play happened so quickly that you pretty much had to go with your first impression.

So while I think the Packers deserved the win, I don't think it was a travesty. I think it was your typical marginal call that costs teams wins all the time. One of my favorites of this type is from the pre-replay days. Cris Carter laid out to catch a ball late in a game against the Lions. The catch was so unbelievable that the refs DIDN'T believe it, and ruled it incomplete (the Vikes had to punt, and ended up losing IIRC). And yet it makes the highlight reel of the best half dozen Carter catches that they show every time they mention him!

So my message to Packers fans is: If this is the first friggin' game you lost on bad calls, consider yourself among the luckiest teams in the league. Take on three losses like that in NFC Championship games (1975, 1998, 2009) and then I'll start listening to your whining.

I don't think Tate truly had equivalent control. He had his hands on the ball but the Packers defender had not only caught the pass, he had pulled it in to his chest. Simply putting his hands on the ball wasn't enough for Tate to establish simultaneous possession.



I remember the exact play you're talking about. It was one of the best catches I've ever seen!



I apologize for nitpicking but I assume you're referring to the Vikes/Dallas game in '75 and that was actually a divisional playoff game, not the conference championship game. Either way, the Vikes got screwed!

Agreed. If NFL Network is really trying to justify that piece of crap call today, it's because of directives on high, not journalistic integrity.

I haven't seen if this is elsewhere, but it's not in this thread at least. Kluwe agrees in his typical hilarious fashion
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... ewed_.html

I was watching the NFL network and one of the talking heads, reviewing the "catch" in slow motion, pointed out the fact that when both Tate and the defender were coming down with the ball, Tate clearly released his right hand away from holding the ball and that left only his left hand grasping and or touching it. He pointed out the fact that Tate was not in mutual control of the catch as they were coming down into the end zone and did stop the tape at the point where Tate took his right hand away from the ball and it is quite apparent that this did happen.
I agree that this was not a simultaneous reception.

But somewhere the NFL issued a statement that talked in part about the 'Calvin Johnson' rule - you don't have possession until you make a football move or reach the ground and maintain control. In that context, Jennings didn't have initial control until he had landed on the ground. At which time, it isn't clear to me that Tate doesn't also have control. Given that the call on the field, at full speed, by the closest official, was TD, that interpretation of the rules didn't provide me with clear evidence that Jennings had the interception "first".

I agree that in common practice, Jennings did intercept, Tate did push off, Calvin Johnson did score a TD, Brady did fumble against Oakland, etc. But those types of odd rules or bad calls have been happening for decades. I'm annoyed that a Packers loss in week three gets everyone this much up in arms, but a Vikings loss to the Saints to see who goes to the Superbowl, with dozens of missed calls (guys should have been ejected for their hits on Favre) gets a collective "eh?" because the Saints are America's darling team of the year.

And yes, if you are asking, I'm still bitter...

Me too! After this debacle, I went and rewatched the 4th/OT of that game through gamepass as I was positive I recalled a terrible PI in addition to some of the other stuff. Sure enough, allen got called for a pretty minor one on a 3rd and 6 in OT, but it was a legit. The following one on Leber though was ridiculous. Not only was the pass uncatchable, the receiver wasn't even really touched, just jumped backward as the ball sailed over his head.