Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
I know that it is undignified after your team loses a big playoff game to whine about the officiating, particularly when your other team just won the World Series and, thus, clearly the Fates have been smiling on you in some considerable measure such that you should not resort to complaining in defeat.
But look, I’m from the Philly diaspora, and dignified is not how we roll. So allow me to refer you to the Eagles’ last offensive play from scrimmage last night and ask you WHAT THE FRICKIN FLIPPIN FRIG? If that wasn’t pass interference, what the hell is pass interference?
If you didn’t watch the game, the situation was this: With about 2:50 or so left in regulation, the Iggles needed a touchdown and an extra point to tie, a two-point conversion to win. Their offense had been helpless all first half, but in the second half they tore it up, posting three unanswered scores to go from being down 24-6 at half to being up 25-24 (due to a missed extra point and a failed two-point conversion) with 10:45 left in the fourth quarter.
At which point, after getting seriously stuffed by the Eagles’ D in the third quarter, Kurt “Godspell” Warner and the rest of the Cards’ offense got its groove back, marching on a near-seven-minute drive downfield that culminated in a Warner-to-Tim Hightower eight-yard TD. Cards went for two, converted, and there we were -- 32-25 with 2:53 remaining. Enter D-Mac.
The way McNabb and his crew had gone all Dr. Jekyll in the second half led me to feel pretty confident at that point, I must admit. All I was wondering was -- would Andy Reid have the audacity to go for two and the win? I was thinking that if he did and they converted, he would be a legend in Philly forever and all bad blood concerning his era would be immediately forgiven by the Phaithful.
With the pressure on, however, Donovan reverted to his first half edition and started spraying passes all over the place, behind Hank Baskett, over DeSean Jackson. The next thing I knew it was 4th and 10 for all the marbles.
And that 4th and 10 … that was the offending play. Kevin Curtis runs a simple down-and-out 15 yards downfield along the right sideline, McNabb nails him, but as Curtis goes to catch the ball, his cover-man, former Eagle Roderick Hood, falls down behind him. As he falls, he reaches out to pull Curtis down as Curtis goes toward the ball -- a rock-solid second before the ball arrives. Stumbling to the ground, Curtis almost makes the catch anyway, leading one to feel sure that, unmaligned, the catch was a lay-up. To my eyes, it was about as clear-cut P.I. as you can see out there, and Curtis felt the same way, leaping to his feet immediately afterwards and yelling for the flag.
The flag that never came. Man, it was criminal to sit there staring at that flagless field filled with celebrating Cardinals, scrutinizing all that green for some tiny shred of yellow. None other than Troy Aikman, who every Eagle fan will tell you has no love lost for Philly in his announcing bias, pointed out that it looked like pass interference. What he didn’t point out, however, was how much damage Hood saved his organization by pulling Curtis down at that opportune moment. If he didn’t, Curtis catches the ball with a lot of field behind him and his cover-man on the ground.
Earlier in the game, Curtis had proven to the national audience just how fast he is by managing to get outside and turn the corner on noted speedster, Cardinals’ cornerback Dominque Rogers-Cromartie. When they showed a wide shot replay, based on the nearest Cardinals defender that I saw downfield, I thought Curtis had at least another 15 yards of open sideline before he was likely to get pushed out of bounds, and I was being conservative in that estimate.
So there you have it, I’ve gotten it off my chest. It was a horrible non-call at a crucial moment to say the least and a genuine testament to the powers of home-field advantage, because I feel absolutely certain that if yesterday’s game was at the Linc, the flag would have been thrown. Would the Eagles have scored the tying (or winning) touchdown? Who knows? We’ll never know. But a conversion of a 4th and 10 right then certainly would have had an already shaky Cards’ D pushing the panic button. You can never be sure, but I would have loved our odds.
In conclusion, I thank the heavens that the Phils recently won the World Series or I might have been up all night writing letters to Roger Goodell. As it was, I merely annoyed my wife about it for a few hours and went to bed in a bad mood. God bless you, Cole Hamels.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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Officiating usually evens itself out…The Eagles caught a break on the kickoff ball being called dead, after replays showed the ball never went out of bounds and the cards would have had it recovered in pretty good scoring territory…
by fonz3480 on Jan 19, 2009 10:15 AM EST reply actions
That was a terrible no call, but it was no worse than the phantom roughing the kicker call against Baltimore. That was a small illustration of why punters are not football players; no self-respecting football player takes a dive like a FIFA soccer player.
by ChiAdam on Jan 19, 2009 10:20 AM EST reply actions
I think I need to add right here that I watched that kickoff blown dead play about 20 times n slo-mo and it was an excellent call. The ball bounced up and hit Abiamiri when his foot was out of bounds. Not to mention that it definitely DID NOT hit him on the way down. So either it hit him off the bounce when he was out of bounds – Eagles’ ball – or it didn’t him off the bounce which is… Eagles’ ball. The fact that Aikman and Buck couldn’t seem to get their minds around what happened there and made out like the officials were so effin blind that they couldn’t see that the ball stayed in bounds the whole time was ridiculous. As I pointed out to Mottram this morning, the officials are bad, but not that bad.
by No Mas Large.tsn on Jan 19, 2009 10:35 AM EST reply actions
If Kevin Curtis makes that catch, or Rod Hood gets called appropriately, it seemed to bring back another great Eagles conversion involving one Freddie Mitchell, and a fourth and twenty six play. I agree that it was a total bad call, but in the same token, shouldn’t the team be performing well enough not to have to hang its head on that call? Just my opinion from here in Philadelphia. Great blog though!!
by natas124 on Jan 19, 2009 2:57 PM EST reply actions
you say that if the ball didnt hit him off the bounce it would still be eagles ball. thats not true. if the ball stayed in bounds the whole time and didnt hit the guy not ruling it dead its a live ball which the cardinals recovered…thats how an onsides kick works, after 10 yrds its a live ball, not like a punt where a person on the return team has to touch it first.
by union728 on Jan 19, 2009 4:02 PM EST reply actions
I’m still not convinced that ball ever hit Abiamiri (sic). From the replays I saw that should have been Arizona’s ball.
by The Great Snook on Jan 19, 2009 4:19 PM EST reply actions
I have to agree with this blog.I’m not an Eagles fan, but it was an exciting game to watch. And, I feel that we the fans were robbed of a great ending to that game!On that 4th down play, if the defender came up and picked off the pass or at least deflected it away, as a fan of the game, you come away with the feeling that you just witnessed a great play and you would feel that the Cardinals deserve to be in the Super Bowl from such a great performance.Instead, what we got was watching a defender making a incompetent play by getting faked out by the receiver, that the defender falls down and in a flailing effort to prevent a completion, grabs the leg of the receiver as he’s going for the ball.I’m sorry, but I can’t cheer for that play the way the Cardinals did. In my eyes, it was nothing more than cheating, and feel that it taints the victory. Not only that, but I felt like the plug was simply pulled on the ending. Throw the flag, give the Eagles a first down, and see if the Cardinals D could stop them. It would’ve been a great finish. And if the Cardinals D did stop the Eagles, then it would’ve been that much more impressive of a victory. No team should want to win a game like the way that one ended.
by hutthutt2 on Jan 19, 2009 4:48 PM EST reply actions
whine whine whine. There was no great angle to prove your point. We do know that Curtis ran straight into the defender and that there was plenty of hand checking. then the defender fell. You claim that he reached up and grabbed the receiver. What i saw was that the defender fell on Curtis’ legs helping Curtis fall to the ground. Yes the defender’s arms made contact with Curtis but i was not convinced by the replays that the defender INTENTIONALLY grabbed him. His hands had to go somewhere. They are connected to his body. You are reading a bit much into this (based on the replays I saw. there should have been an endzone one that would have cleared up any doubt).
I think we can all agree that the phantom roughing the passer call in Pittsburgh was horrendous. it shouldn’t have been a call at all and if you were gonna call it, it should have been a running into the kicker. Almost as bad as the Immaculate Reception call.
(and before you guys flame on, I’m neither a Cards or Ravens fan… or a Raiders fan, for that matter).
by tom_humphries on Jan 19, 2009 6:13 PM EST reply actions
by the way, if you want see clear PI, just look to Asante Samuel’s mugging of Fitzgerald in the endzone…the one where he turned around to the ref and said, "I was going for the ball." it was such an egregious claim on his point that it makes it clear to me that the refs shouldn’t even bother listening to the players. what’s the point? they’ll just lie to your face. Samuel’s excuse was the American equivalent of those pansy soccer players who dive and act like they’ve been shot only to get up and run around 15 seconds later. It was shameless.
by tom_humphries on Jan 19, 2009 6:26 PM EST reply actions
Union – you got me. I had a brain freeze when I was writing this post and thought it was a punt. Of course, you’re right – if it didn’t hit Abiamiri, it’s Cards ball. But I’m almost certain that it hit him. It misdirected as it came up, and he was the only thing it could have hit. Plus the official was right there, and that’s obviously what he saw. No way the official thought the ball went out of bounds. The main problem was that the officials on the field never explained themselves on that call.Natas124, I’m going to have to brag a little here and tell you that I was in the Lurie’s box at the Linc for the 4th and 26 game. Long story.Tom, Asante’s protests were indeed ridiculous. That was a clear PI, no doubt. Hood’s was clear as well, took him down before the ball arrived. The most ridiculous play of the game for a an Eagles-hater I would imagine was the cheap hit on Warner that came out of nowhere. I can’t remember who did that, but it was low and I was ashamed of it.
by No Mas Large.tsn on Jan 19, 2009 6:55 PM EST reply actions
hey, thanks for the response, my bad for not commenting on the article im sure you spent alot of time on…to correct my error: it really did look like pass interference, unfortunatly in football as most sports you have to account for the human element of the game. Jeff fischer knows this well, and im sure jim harbough would be having a tough time dealing with the same element if any points came about that roughing the kicker call…its unfortunate it happened at the end of the game but i dont think the whole game can be marred by that single call. also i see the arguments of the unintentional contact and obviously only hood knows his intention but to me it looked like he could have done more to avoid the "incedental contact"
by union728 on Jan 19, 2009 7:38 PM EST reply actions
For all of you Eagle fans(especially <a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/imp;v7;j;211237746;0-0;0;29237085;0/0;29947364/29965241/1;;~okv=;dcopt=ist;pos=top;sz=728×90;tile=1;~cs=c?http://m1.2mdn.net/2007363/MLBInterstitialtemplate.html?t=20&cT=http%3A//ad.doubleclick.net/click%253Bh%3Dv8/37be/2/0/%252a/g%253B211237746%253B0-0%253B0%253B29237085%253B255-0/0%253B29947364/29965241/1%253B%253B%257Esscs%253D%253f&l=http%3A//www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/author/No%2520Mas%2520Large.tsn">Dave "Large" Larzelere ). The real crime in this game was the dropped ball by Hank Baskett on third and 10. There were no defenders within five feet of him (I blame Mcnabb because he threw the ball behind him) and he would have been close to the first down if he would have just caught that ball. There were so many missed opportunities by the Eagles in this game, that one so called missed call should never have mattered to the outcome.
You can’t rely on the refs to win the game for you, if you can’t take care of the bussiness at hand (pressuring Warner and covering Fiztgerald).
by Dbackers on Jan 22, 2009 7:33 PM EST reply actions
For all of you Eagle fans(especially Dave Large Larzelere). The real crime in this game was the dropped ball by Hank Baskett on third and 10. There were no defenders within five feet of him (I blame Mcnabb because he threw the ball behind him) and he would have been close to the first down if he would have just caught that ball. There were so many missed opportunities by the Eagles in this game, that one so called missed call should never have mattered to the outcome.
You can’t rely on the refs to win the game for you, if you can’t take care of the bussiness at hand (pressuring Warner and covering Fiztgerald).
by Dbackers on Jan 22, 2009 7:35 PM EST reply actions
When I was a little boy my Dad taught me, "If you’re a good receiver, and you can get your hands on the ball, you can catch it. You SHOULD catch it. PERIOD. NO EXCUSES."
EXCUSES seem to eptimoze Philly sports. It wears thin.
The right team won. For the right reasons.
You diminish anything that might be respectable about Philly teams by crying like this. (And, to pre-empt certain inevitable responses, when faced with similar circumstances, I tell my Bears-brethren the same thing).
The loss was earned. As was the victory. Blame of your sort is a little girls’ game.
by Amishbear on Jan 22, 2009 7:56 PM EST reply actions
You diminish anything that might be respectable about Philly teams by crying like this.
I didn’t realize they were capable of doing anything else.
by J Bone A on Jan 23, 2009 8:55 AM EST reply actions
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