Many people on this board were outraged, claiming it to be a horrible spot and that the refs were at it again, trying everything they could to screw us over. However a few members noticed what I noticed, and that was that the TV's red first down line was actually a full yard ahead of the actual first down marker, and that the Ravens TE did indeed catch the ball at the marker. So at the time, I just wrote it off as a mistake by the broadcast booth, as they often do say the 1st down line is not official.
But while reading the comments on Facebook of a picture posted about the horrible officiating game today, I stumbled upon this comment:
Horrible job by ref's today, if you recorded the game, go to 5:03 left in fourth quarter. Check the spot of the ball on the pass interference. Then check the guy with the FIRST down stick. He marks it 1st and 9. REFS DON'T CORRECT IT. the Vikings hold them the next 3 plays to 9 yards. Ref's give them a first down. What the hell?? This not as obvious as all the other BS calls but makes ya wonder about the agenda.
This seemed pretty fishy to me, but seeing how it actually explained the horrible off place red first down line, I decided to check it out.
And sure enough, Dan Christiansen was indeed correct, and I have photo evidence to prove it.
The play directly after the phanom PI call on Blanton:
(I have reduced the sizes of these images as not screw with the margins, but if anyone wants to see them clearer, I can post them)
Baltimore has the ball 1st and 10 on the Minnesota 17 yard line. The TV's red first down line is correctly placed at the 7 yard line, however you can clearly see that the sticks are right in line with the 8 yard line..... First and 10 is actually first and 9
Sharrif Floyd tackles Bernard Pierce for a 3 yard loss, leading to:
2nd and 13 from just behind the 20 yard line. This one is harder to tell because of the score being in the way, but it is still pretty clear that the red line is about a yard further than the sticks and the sticks are still at the 8 yard line, only 12 yards away from the line of scrimmage.
After a 7 yard pass to Ed Dickson:
3rd and 6 from just behind the 13 yard line. As you can see, nothing has changed, the Ravens only need 5 yards on 3rd and 6
Here is the pass to Pitta:
and the subsequent spotting of the "1st down"
As you can see, the ball is spotted correctly and as far as anyone who wasn't paying attention (which apparently was everyone), it looks like a properly called first down. But that's far from the case.
Making matters worse, here's what nfl.com has listed for the play-by-play for the sequence:
1-10-MIN 17 (5:03) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 30-B.Pierce left guard to MIN 20 for -3 yards (95-S.Floyd).
2-13-MIN 20 (4:32) (Shotgun) 5-J.Flacco pass short middle to 84-E.Dickson to MIN 13 for 7 yards (57-A.Cole).
3-6-MIN 13 (4:03) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 5-J.Flacco pass short right to 88-D.Pitta to MIN 7 for 6 yards (52-C.Greenway).
1-7-MIN 7 (3:20) 27-R.Rice left guard to MIN 1 for 6 yards (34-A.Sendejo).
Everything looks good until you get to the bolded part. The play is listed as 1st and goal from the 7 yard line. You look at the above image and tell me that's from the 7 yard line........
This is an absolute joke.
