NFL reportedly admits messing up call when Cowboys held Ndamukong Suh

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Mistakes were made. That seems to be the growing theme of Sunday night’s wild-card playoff bout between the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions. Along with a much disputed retracted flag on the Cowboys that looked to be clear pass interference against Dallas, the NFL also missed a Cowboys holding call on Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. Dallas benefited from both non-calls, but at least the NFL has reportedly admitted the referees were wrong about the latter. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the news via a short post on Facebook.

“NFL admitted to Lions today that officials missed a hold on Ndamukong Suh on the 4th-down conversion from Tony Romo to Jason Witten with 6 minutes left in the game (after the controversial Brandob Pettigrew play and before the Dallas TD).”

Had holding been correctly called, it would have put Cowboys in 4th and 16 on Detroit side of the field. Dallas would have punted and Detroit still would have the lead. One person said that this is “even worse than the PI call/no call.”

The non-call on the 21-yard pass allowed Dallas to advance to a new set of downs, which the team later converted into the go-ahead touchdown with under 3 minutes on the clock. Had the call been made, the Cowboys would’ve been backed up to fourth-and-16, which would’ve likely stopped the scoring drive and sent Dallas’ punter on the field instead.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/01/06/nfl-reportedly-admits-messing-up-call-when-cowboys-held-ndamukong-suh/?tid=trending_strip_5

[GGJohn]

1. Those were some big time missed calls which very well affected the game.

[Ken Burch]

4. Those calls make it hard to avoid concluding that, in some way,

the fix was in.

[frylock]

7. i have to agree

[GGJohn]

12. I can't argue with you there,

those were really easy calls, there's no reason, IMO, that they missed those calls, one missed I can maybe agree with, but 2? And those were blatantly missed calls.
If Dallas goes to the SB and wins it, it'll be, again IMO, tainted.

[Doctor_J]

24. sure looked that way. cowboys on tv means big ratings.

The nfl doesn't have much dignity left, so a little fix wouldn't be a stretch

[brush]

33. And there was the non-call on Dez Bryant charging unto the field . . .

to protest the pass interference call. That's another 15-yarder the officials ignored in order for the Cowboys to advance.

But the pass interference call was the worst since the infamous 'tuck rule' rule call against the Raiders vs the Patriots a few years back.

There are certain franchises that the league wants to succeed and some they don't want to secceed.

I see the Lions are the new Raiders.

[Ken Burch]

35. Should we come right out and say...

...that the NFL will do all it can to stop the Lions from getting into the Super Bowl until Detroit becomes a city with a white majority, primarily non-union workforce population?

After all, the racial composition of Oakland had to be a big reason they didn't like the Raiders doing well at one point.

[brush]

38. Hadn't thought of that angle.

I would say you might be onto something except that the league had long had it in for Al Davis of the Raiders because he always beat them in court in his many suits against them, not to mention the Raiders original bad boy rep that Al had instilled in the franchise.

Remember they rubbed it in the league's face time after time in winning 3 Super Bowls back in the day. Guess you can tell I'm a Raider fan but I was routing for the Lions this year.

They got hosed and then they have to go home with their season ended. What a load of crap.

[Ken Burch]

39. I also had the feeling that the league, for some reason, didn't want the Rams winning the Super Bowl

while they were still in L.A.

You'd think they would have wanted that, given the size of the media market in SoCal, but they seemed to be bound and determined to have it be the Cowboys(or the Steelers) instead.

[Drahthaardogs]

48. It is not about racism, it is about ratings.

Look at the last few SuperBowls, more drama than an entire season of Days of Our Lives. Two years ago we have Ray Lewis miraculously recover just in time for the playoffs in his last year. Denver is leading with seconds left. The safety has one job left, keep contain. Flacco bombs the ball, the safety for some reason cuts off his coverage, jumps for the ball, letting the reciever sprint into the end zone. Overtime. Baltimore wins. Then, two brothers go against each other in the SuperBowl, Ray Lewis gets his coveted title and ends his career...WHAT A STORY!

Last year, Seattle, a team with a quaterback no one really scouted in college, full of a bunch of late rounder and undrafted defensive players plays lights out defense. Led by a cornerback from Stanford with stiff hips and limited man to man coverage skills (sorry Seattle, r
ichard Sherman is NOT Deion Sanders) plays Denver. For some weird reason, Seattle gets three times as many Superbowl Tickets than Denver and gets them at a discount price. The famous "12th Man" gets to travel to NJ and they bring it home! WHAT A STORY!

This year, Detroit gets hosed, but man, it sets up a classic Green Bay and Dallas game -- just like the glory days. Now, here is how I see the NFL Soap Opera playing out this year. Call this one, REVENGE OF MANNING!


The aging quaterback with the surgically repaired neck gets to vanquish the young stud who vanquished him and gets to hang one on an owner who dissed him on National TV. Look for the Ravens to beat the Patriots -- then this sets up the great rematch of two years ago. This time, Peyton tastes sweet sweet revenge and sends Flacco home and back to the Superbowl where he gets to meet-- wait for it, here it comes, yep, you guessed it. SEATTLE.

Fool me once shame on you...Peyton has his revenge and wins the title. Next year he comes back to defend (he already said he won't retire this year), and wins his third title. Now he has THREE one more than his incompetent brother and he can finally silence his critiques. He does not return for the last year on his contract and rides off into the sunset.

Its all bullshit and its just as fake as pro-wrestling, but at least the WWC is honest about their hokey shit.

[undeterred]

2. Suh should have been suspended from playing in the game

after deliberately stepping on Aaron Rodgers twice in the game against the Packers.

[Chakab]

5. Cut the guy some slack. His feet were freezing.

[undeterred]

6. So he was warming his feet up on Rodgers injured calf?

[Chakab]

8. I don't know about you, but nothing warms my feet up faster than stomping on the nearest person.

[navarth]

3. Well whoopie doo

Not directing sarcasm at you kpete, just the wonderful NFL. That apology doesn't put the Lions on the plane to Seattle, where they should be. These ass clowns stole the rest of our season and I greatly resent it. I haven't felt this ripped off since the 2000 election. I'm not screaming 'FIX!!' yet but I am screaming incompetence and cowardice.

[Suich]

9. Lions got screwed, navarth.

A neighbor came over half-way through the 3rd quarter and I told him, "Detroit is outplaying the Cowboys but it's like the refs are trying to give the game to Dallas!"

Sorry you're not coming to Seattle...Go Packers!

[navarth]

17. I'm sorry we're not coming too, thanks.

I really couldn't expect to beat the Seahawks, in fact I expect you guys to repeat. But I really wanted to see our guys go up against the best. Who knows? We were on a roll.

[Ken Burch]

36. You WERE on a roll.

Something is very, very dirty in all of this.

And I say that as a Seahawks fan.

[SolutionisSolidarity]

10. Lions were gifted a fumble in the last 2 minutes of the game and did nothing.

They don't belong at Seattle. And there were plenty of missed penalties against the Lions, but no one will care about those since the Cowboys won. An example is the penalty against the Cowboys for hitting the lions punter, followed by a non-call against the Lions far more viscous hit against the Cowboys punter a few drives later.

[navarth]

15. again horse shit

The impact on our kicker's leg was obvious.

Maybe you didn't look at the video and maybe you're not intellectually dishonest. Look at the video again. His lower leg was run into. You can especially see the result of the impact around the knee. Why did he shank that punt later? I can't say if his knee was hurting. Maybe he choked, even though he's been picture perfect all year. But he was run into. That call was proper. The 'viscous' hit against the Cowboys punter was nowhere near his lower leg. I saw them both.

Missed penalties against the Lions? Go ahead and list them and we'll see if any of them changed the game.

They belong at Seattle. The game was taken from them. Good luck to the Cowboys, they didn't do anything dishonest. But the game was stolen.

[former9thward]

30. BS. Suh should not have been playing.

He deliberately tried to end Rogers career last week. Screw him.

[navarth]

40. More hyperbole

deliberately tried to end Rogers' career? Please.

You have plenty of evidence on your side if you want to claim he was trying to hurt him, even though there is a particle of reasonable doubt on that IMO.

But keep it real.

Even if Suh had not been playing somebody else would have been held in his place. And it doesn't effect the picked-up flag. Our defense was swarming them the entire game and, in case you had not noticed, Suh isn't the entire defense. You can theorize that we wouldn't have been as dominant without Suh, but that's just theory. The reality is that the officials gave this game to the Cowboys. And the Cowboys were glad to get the gift. Who wouldn't be?

[former9thward]

45. You are right, hyperbole.

I was just irritated at Suh's excuse. And you are right, the Cowboys got some calls.

[navarth]

46. no worries

Appreciate the honesty. Some on this issue can't manage that. Good on ya.

I get really irritated with ignorant behavior myself, especially when it hurts the team.

[mountain grammy]

21. "Home Cooking" is what Warren Sapp tweeted..

and he was right. Cowboys at home and the refs cooked it. Sorry, navarth, it was a great game, Lions won it in my book.

[navarth]

41. Appreciate that, mountain grammy.

Should have turned out different. Next season is a long way off. We'll just have to wait.

In some ways I'm sorry for the Dallas fans; hard for any honest fan to really enjoy a 'victory' like that.

[brush]

37. IMO it wasn't incompetence or cowardice.

It was on purpose to keep the Cowboys in the playoffs.

It was so in-your-face — they didn't call THREE 15-yard penalties on consecutive plays:

The picked up flag negating the pass interference
The non-call on Dez Bryant coming onto the field to protest the call
And the non-holding call against Suh on the next play

That was nothing but blatant fixing to help the Cowboys win.

[Faygo Kid]

11. Been a Lions fan since 1962, when I turned 11.

The league wanted Dallas at Green Bay. Period. And they got it.

[navarth]

18. Wow that's longer than me, Faygo.

I've been a Lions Sufferer since the late 70's.

I hate to believe there was a fix on this game so I'm going to resist believing it.

Remember when the Tigers didn't make it in '67? They made good on it in '68. I can't wait for next football season. GO LIONS!

[MrScorpio]

13. Sounds like the check from Jerry Jones cleared.

Hoping that the Packers decimate Dallas on Sunday.

[George II]

14. Could it be that having the Dallas Cowboys moving on in the playoffs is more profitable....

...than the Detroit Lions?

TWO blown calls that could have cost the Lions a touchdown and given the Cowboys a chance to score the winning touchdown.

A 14-point turnaround.

[navarth]

16. It's all too easy to indulge in conspiracy theory on this one but

I'm putting it off to cowardice and incompetence until I proof of anything else.

[whereisjustice]

19. suh has a bad habit of stomping on green bay players, piece of crap isn't worth the liability

From the "here we go again category" who can forget this (2011) ... I guess this time of year Suh tends to lose his balance and corrects it by trying to break someones arm or leg.

on edit: yea I know this has nothing to do with the holding non-call, but as far as non-calls Dez Bryant should have been nailed as well.

Screwed up game. Seeing Christie dancing it up with J Jones made me want to puke.

[Lobo27]

20. Oh well.

At one point Detroit was up 20-7 and still. Can't blame refs for the choke job.

[navarth]

23. choke job?

Is it choking if you're being held? If your offensive momentum is stopped by picking up a flag on a clear pass interference?

I think the choke story is questionable. They got stopped a couple of times and Dallas started to get its act together. But they did it with help.

[Lobo27]

34. Detroit had no momentum in the 2nd half.

Lions only scored 3 points the entire half. Bad calls are bad calls. They even said the holding call on Witten that negated a Cowboys TD was a bad call. Should have been reserved too.

Honestly, even after all the bad call BS. I'd blame the Lions coach more than anyone. 4-1 and you don't go for it? Cowboys went for it on 4-6. Of course he didn't know the punter would shank. But still needed to show trust in his offense.

[navarth]

42. Momentum comes and goes. It was in our favor when it was stolen.

Sure they lost momentum, and some of it was their fault. How do you get momentum? But making plays. The momentum was back and we would have scored the winning touchdown. I know this in my bones. We would have been too close to the goal line and we were playing too well not to score.

Your comment about Coach Caldwell not going for it is the most creditable comment you made there.

[The Wizard]

22. You may as well bet on

professional wrestling. The NFL is fixed.

[davidpdx]

25. Too little, too late

There will always be questions about these types of calls.

[1step]

26. The Refs Didn't Get The Memo:

The Cowboys haven't been "America's Team" for a long time!

[Drale]

27. Suh shouldn't even have been playing in that game

because of that bullshit he pulled on Rogers. He fooled the system and got to play but as far as I'm concerned that call was Karma for him playing.

[navarth]

43. He didn't fool anybody.

They thought he was guilty and they fined him. But because of the ref being near him and seeing the entire incident in REAL TIME which looks a lot different from what we saw, and because that ref said it wasn't as bad as they were saying, and because it's a fucking playoff game for chrissakes they reduced it to a fine.

Suh is at worst, immature. I think you can make a legitimate argument that he should have been out of the game. I probably would feel the same way if it wasn't my team, in all honesty. But he didn't fool anybody.

[1Greensix]

28. Change instant replay rules

If the rules are changed then the officials would have an opportunity to get it right. Why not penalties called if they are seen on a replay, even if they weren't called on the field? Just two or three plays after that one Romo threw for the end zone and the replay clearly showed offensive holding at the line that should have negated the pass. Two plays clear penalties within two or three plays that would have changed the outcome of the game, and both favored the same team. Looks an awful like there is something crooked, Once Again, in a Dallas game? I will never be convinced there isn't a fix involved when it happens time and again in Dallas. I've just seen too many games between the Eagles and Cowboys, or Redskins and Cowboys, where the officiating crew continually missed obvious holding, pass interference, off-sides, face mask, etc. calls that helped the Cowboys. Wait until legalized sports betting becomes legal and every game will be fixed, not just one's like the Cowboy/Lions game last weekend.

[DeSwiss]

29. It was fixed.

Only the best officials do playoffs.

- I think they just wanted to see if Chris would kiss Jerry. Almost....



K&R

[cilla4progress]

32. Gag and puke

What's that pretender doing in Jones' box? Oh yeah..they trade favors.

[Lint Head]

31. When obvious calls like that are missed by well paid

professional refs, the thought does cross my mind if money is crossing palms somewhere. It's not like cheating has ever happened in sports or anything. Right?

[randr]

44. This will guarantee that the CowBoys

will remain as the most despised team in the NFL. A title they have held for decades.
I have never seen such an obvious bad call in decades of enjoying NFL football. It really opens up the question of who is paying who and having the thug Christy as part of the scenario only makes it worse.
The cowBoys think he is some kind of charm but in fact he is a pariah bringing shame in his wake.

[navarth]

47. I hate the owner not the team

Ever since I saw Reince Preibus in the suite with Jerry Jones I knew where he was coming from. But I don't hate the team. Probably because one of my friends is a diehard cowboys fan and he and I suffered together this entire season.

We had a 'frank and honest' discussion about the way this one turned out.