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The writer on that site spins an interesting tale, but it doesn’t match with reality. For one thing, he quotes the definition of a COMPLETION from the rule book and then tries to apply it to POSSESSION, which are two very different things. Touching the ground does not establish possession. The rule book actually states that a player must MAINTAIN possession until they touch the ground. MD caught the ball with two hands, brought it to his body, and held it there throughout the process of going to the ground. During that entire process, all Tate managed to do was touch the ball with his left hand, while flailing his right hand as he tried in vain to strip the ball from MD. Touching a ball does not equal possession, let alone control, otherwise 1/3 of all receptions would have to be ruled “simultaneous” because the defender managed to touch the ball as it was caught. At no point did Tate demonstrate any control over the ball until after they were already on the ground and wrestling for it. Conclusion: There was no simultaneous catch. A clearly blown call, regardless of what the hack at coldhard feels about it.

Wow… So I guess the fact the author of this article never got a judicial appointment, has not been offered a job to do journalism beyong commentary on someone elses reporting nor a won a Pulitzer is all we need to know about his skills in his last 2 careers?

The cheap shots make you look petty Mike… Just stop

You could be dead wrong in that one. I could easily triple my income by being an executive at a huge multinational corporation, but I’ve grown rather fond of my wife and kids and want to see them more than twice a week.

You know what happens when you ASSUME, right?

It was the correct call when you see the local tv angle fox 13 got in Seattle, sorry America, you are wrong
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You have got to be kidding. Seattle is right and the nation is wrong? Is that what you are trying to tell yourself? Get a clue.

That site is an oxymoron to its name. They are only good at one thing, spinning statistics to whichever point of view they want (kind of like both Presidential campaigns)

For one to say that Tate’s control wasn’t enough or insufficient, is coming to a disputed conclusion. Fact is the refs really didn’t mess up the call of simultaneous possession. Remember they made the ruling at real speed and the replay isn’t conclusive.

Nothing the author of this article wrote tells me otherwise and the fact that there is a well thought out alternate view point written is pretty telling that simultaneous possession arguably occurred, thus unable to be overturned.

One of the first things athletes should learn is don’t leave it to the refs to decide the game. No Single Play is More Important Than The Others.

whats so funny is that all of these fans screaming its an interception, if the Losing team had been the Patriots or Steelers, they would be siding with refs and saying, yep definite catch, i saw the ball moving, and you can have a one handed catch.

i think that this is just like our jury system, where if theres reasonable doubt, then you have to go with what the ref called. and there is reasonable doubt jennings had “FULL” control, that the ball “wasnt” moving, BUT the two main facts we do have is both tate and jennings simultaneously had their left hands on the ball, and then both tried to put their other hand on it.

It was just a perfect storm, and a perfect reason to get rid of the replacement refs.

Like I said earlier, make the losing team the Pats or Steelers, and fans would scream it was the right call.

BUT Packer fans are pathetic in they hypocrisy. The replacement refs gave the Packers two major bogus Pass Interence calls against the Seahags, with one of the penalties leading directly to the Packers only TD. Why do we not hear about that side of the lousy refs making calls in favor of the Packers?

Packer fans are clueless since as Rogers said, the game should never have come dow to that one play. The Packers should have scored many more times to in order to win instead of playing so poorly that a bunch of errors by the replacement refs could have decided the game.

Reading his “analysis” was more like reading a paper by someone looking for points to support a pre-determined conclusion.

So, if you’re a Seahawks fan looking to read something favorable about the catch, go over their an read his take. Everyone else, I’d recommend avoiding it like the plague. It’s that bad.

This is not the first time a questionable call has decided a regular season football game. The Packers had many opportunities to put this game away and it’s their own fault that they didn’t. They shouldn’t have let Seattle hang around until the end.

Go back to the Pittsburgh-Miami game in 2010 and see what happened at the end of that game. The referee in that game was a Pittsburgh native and the end result could have changed the landscape of Miami’s season and ultimately their Head Coach’s job.

The beauty of a game-ending hail mary is that ANYTHING can happen, even a “blown call” by a ref. The Packers are 100% to blame for being in that position.

As for the play itself, I have been looking for this “control” of the ball scenario that Florio keeps talking about and have yet to find it. The photo in the original post clearly shows MD Jennings DID NOT have control of the ball. If you watch the replay, you will clearly see the ball still moving after Jennings allegedly gained control of the ball. All before he gained possession with both feet inbounds.

Packers fans will see what they want to see. Having a questionable call go the other team’s way is not unique, but for some reason, it’s such a major offense if it happens to Green Bay.

And to dogpile on these replacement refs is ridiculous. They did not create this situation. The greedy regular refs did. If not for these replacement refs, we would have all had to wait until this week for the NFL seadon to begin. Blame the regular refs for that.

And most importantly, blame the Packers for giving away the game.

Lobbing vitriol at a back-to-high-school ref from the upper floors of 30 Rock — one who’s receiving death threats in fact — is the real travesty, especially when you consider it was not too long ago that bloggers were considered the replacement refs of the sports journalism world.

These refs were in over their heads and did the best they could given severely limited prep time and no game experience. The blame goes squarely on the owners and “real” refs for their unreasonable demands on this one.

As a Hawk fan, I can only say that it takes VERY thick homer glasses to see that play as anything but an INT. As soon as the Giants line up for that game winning field goal, I will start lobbying hard to get this W reversed.

That’s the only way to justify it – and the ref didn’t signal TD until he thought the other ref was about to do the same (which he didn’t)

That being said, let’s not vilify these guys for taking the job that was offered. If they didn’t take it someone else would have and the start of the season could have been even worse. Hold Goodell and owners like Woody Johnson responsible for the impasse – not the replacement refs.