Was Hernandez catch ruled a TD? If it was that's ludirous. Even if the ref screwed up, what's the replay offical doing?

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You know what? He knew the ground was coming. Just hold on to the freaking ball next time, whatever the rule says.

(I have Finley as my TE. That drop cost me 6 pts)

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The Hernandez netted me a TD, so I'm okay with it, haha.


Yes, if the ball hits your hands, just hold onto the dang thing. Between that and players failing to wrap up on tackles, I don't know which fundamental aspect gets to me more.

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The refs all around showed a very wide range of inconsistency this week with those touchdown calls and the roughing the passer calls (there was one called on Roman Harper hitting Cutler). The refs need to get their shit together...I can understand human error here and there but this week was brutal.

The refs also didn't have any issue in throwing a flag for holding on the Packers but there were a few times Carolina's o-line was blatantly holding and didn't get a call. Newton's 3rd and 8 rush for a 1st down comes to mind when Walden was raped.

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I'm not sure but I think I saw during the Calvin Johnson non-catch on the later tv review they said the rule has been in place for a long time. They just didn't start enforcing tougher until some Raiders non-catch in 09.


Honestly I don't see the big deal.... hold onto the ball and there is no problem. He didn't hold onto the ball... it's not a catch. Pretty simple...

I do think the Raiders one and the Calvin Johnson one were robbed of a TD. because they had the ball but just let it go too early to go celebrate...

Other have dropped them... it's their fault for dropping them.

But PFT.com wrote a pretty good article  which has both of these issues.

And how the replay guy have messed up and the rule confusion. But hold onto the ball and there shouldn't be not confusion.

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I am part of the minority of fans who have no problem with the rule. Hold onto the damn ball and quit bitching already. The rule is designed to avoid getting into a gray area with players who lose possession of the ball as they go down in the end zone, and it's also designed to avoid what the league considers to be "cheap" fumbles on other parts of the field. There is still a gray area with this rule, but I think it's a smaller gray area and it has helped eliminate cheap fumbles. That's why I'm okay with it.

People get caught up in this "the ground can't cause a fumble" thing, but that does not apply here because these are not situations where the player has already established possession. The ground can't cause a fumble but it CAN cause an incompletion.

I can't see the Hernandez play well enough on my computer (it's all herky-jerky) to see what happens. The only possible reason I can think of for the refs to rule that one a completion is if Hernandez held onto the ball after hitting the ground but the defender then ripped it out, in which case the drop was not caused by hitting the ground, but by something that another player did to him after hitting the ground. I don't know what the rule is with those situations.

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I don't mind the rule at all. I despise this interpretation of it.

The process of a catch ends when possession is established by normal means. If you go to the ground in the process, that means possession was not established before going to the ground. IE he caught it in the air and hit the ground, losing the ball. I like that interpretation.

If you make a catch, take 3 steps get a knee down and then hit the ground or roll over and start to get up it is no longer the process of the catch. It is after and should be a TD.

Both Finley's and Johnson's catchs it was after the process of making the catch when they went to the ground. Johnson was even starting to get up from hitting the ground when he lost it.

It is a terrible interpretation of a good rule. The NFL is covering for the Refs blowing it by explaining it away. Just like the tuck rule. The refs blew it and the NFL backed them by saying that is how you are suppose to interpret it.

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Eh. Hernandez had control on the ground then it was popped out by the defender, not the ground itself. TD.

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I think Greg Jennings had a play that was taken away because of this rule too ... last year? Although I think most of us agreed it was not a catch.

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I think that was two years ago, and I think it was against the Bears. Jennings caught the ball in the end zone and got both feet down, but then he went to the ground behind the end line and the ball popped out. No catch.

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