Misunderstood rule costs Patriots the game
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| Bill Belichick pleads his case today in OT against the Jets - Photo courtesy of usatoday.com |
"Team B players not on the line of scrimmage at the snap cannot push players on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation"
The penalty, fifteen yards and a first down.
The rule, which is in its first year, is being used to protect linemen in the special teams, but there is one problem, clarity. The head referee had one interpretation of the rule, while Belichick had one that was entirely different. But what makes this even worse, is this quote from ESPN.com
At the same time, it takes only a Google search to understand why there might be some misunderstanding about the rule. The league’s own website, NFL.com, had explained the rule this way for the last six weeks: “Team B players not on the line of scrimmage at the snap cannot push players on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation.”
An accompanying video had NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino saying, “They can not push from the second level, the down linemen into the offensive formation. … These techniques are dangerous, pushing into the offensive formation, and that’s why we want to get them out of the game.”
But within two hours of the conclusion of the Patriots-Jets game, the NFL.com article explaining the rule had been altered, the league perhaps sensing that there would be a lot more discussion about Rule 9, Section 1, Article 3 following Sunday’s controversial call.
The following sentence in the explainer was eliminated: “Team B players not on the line of scrimmage at the snap cannot push players on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation.”
The sentence now reads: “Team B players cannot push teammates on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation.”
Why the change eliminating the reference to players “not on the line of scrimmage at the snap”?
Tom Curran confirmed the report as well
Photo of NFL story prior to 630 before phrase "not on the line of scrimmage at the snap" was edited out. pic.twitter.com/yWebD5UpMT
— Tom E. Curran (@tomecurran) October 20, 2013
Granted one could say that this isn't the only reason the Patriots lost, but they still had a chance until this new rule was enforced, and that is PLENTY enough to make Patriot fans pissed. Be rest assured that this rule will be looked at and looked at for days to come, and there will be some reaction to come out of this day.
- Joshua Powers
@jmano33
