I live in Wisconsin and I am sick of the wine and cheese. Let me clear things up for Packer fans.
The grabbing of the face mask happened after the fumble. Rodgers is no longer a passer. When the ball is loose, there is no possession. The right call would be hands to the face. Even if that was called it would still be Arizona ball 15 yards from the spot of the foul.
One final tweet on end-of-game controversy -- there was no penalty because, by rule, roughing the passer cannot be called on a fumble.
"marstc09" wrote:
http://twitter.com/Adam_Schefter/status/7613866340
Key point: Prior to the 2008 season, a rule change was approved that eliminated the foul for the incidental grasp of the facemask.
http://twitter.com/Adam_Schefter/status/7635041235 Maybe next year.
Big Schef fan went it comes to getting insider news, but he's wrong.
The last play was not roughing the passer like he said. It was a facemask and that's a penalty. You don't have to twist it or do anything now. Just grabbing it is 15 yards and a first down. That's the new rule.
There is talk that the penalty should have been 15 yards from the spot of the foul and Cardinals ball. That would've placed it at like the Packers 25 yard line.
That again is wrong.
Possession didn't change. It's clear on the replay that Rodgers either just loss possession or still had possession while his facemask is being grabbed. The possession of the football did not change. You only gain possession when you recover and Arizona didn't do that prior to the foul.
The correct call is 15 yards and a Packer first down. The ref missed it and he also missed the helmet to helmet call two plays prior to that.
I personally hate both the rules. I think you should judge intent like they do with pass interferences and I don't think there is any intent on either play, but that's not how the rule is written and I didn't write the rules.
I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I'm just saying what should have been called. The Packers did not deserve to win the game because of their defense, but it's worth saying that neither did the Cardinals. Their defense stunk too. The offenses were great and deserved to win. My view is Dom Capers deserves a little heat for not coming up with away to answer the Cardinals' offense, but that doesn't take away from the fact that their should've been some yellow on the last play.