Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Top 7 Calls that made me want to put a fist through the television set - #7: Matt Hasselbeck not allowed to tackle Ike Taylor

As you might be able to tell from typing in the web address for this blog, I tend to remember bad calls. As a fan of teams that aren’t considered “marquee”, I’m used to the guys I pull for not getting the benefit of the doubt. It's not all bad though, as the number of these bad calls is partly responsible for getting this blog off the ground. But what goes into a bad call? What makes one call worse than another? First, we're going to look at how the call affects the fan. So I'm going to start with the top 7 poor calls that affected me.

We’ll start with a call from Super Bowl XL (which, admittedly, could provide me with material for every spot on this list). To set the scene: it’s 14-10 Pittsburgh, with 10:54 remaining in the game. After a holding penalty (more to come on this later) wiped out a 1st and goal at the Pittsburgh 1, Seattle was facing a 3rd and 18 at the Pittsburgh 27. Matt Hasselbeck dropped back to pass, didn’t see anyone open, and decided to channel his inner Brett Favre. Instead of checking down or throwing the ball away, Hasselbeck decided to try and force a pass to his favorite target, Darrell Jackson. Unfortunately, Hasselbeck missed Jackson. Badly. Brett himself would have been proud. Instead of Jackson, Hasselbeck deposited the ball in the breadbasket of Ike Taylor (Steeler cornerback).

Now’s where it gets interesting. Taylor catches the ball at the 5, and starts running up the sideline escorted by 2 teammates, 1 on each side. Enter Hasselbeck as Taylor crosses the Pittsburgh 25. He stutter steps, freezing the first blocker, then he dives for Taylor and makes a tackle that would make any defensive coach proud. The problem: Hasselbeck is called for an illegal block below the waist.

The rule is as follows: after a turnover, it is illegal for an offensive player (well, now a defensive player, but you get the picture) to take defensive players out of the play by blocking them below the waist. This differentiation has to be made because without any turnovers, this type of block is called a cut block and is a) legal and b) the easiest way to make defensive players angry, as they are sort of attached to their knees. This rule holds even if it’s done while tackling the ball carrier.

Here’s the problem: Hasselbeck never touches anyone but the ball carrier! It’s true. Want proof? Go here. Go ahead, watch the first 10 seconds. I’ll wait. As you’ll notice, #26 is so faked out by an immobile quarterback that he has to lean forward just to touch Hasselbeck with his hands. His hands! Now go back and watch those 10 seconds one more time. This time look in the top left corner of the screen. Notice the exotic zebra. Watch what he doesn’t do. He never reaches for the flag in his pants. The flag comes from off screen. This is a microcosm of why this game is controversial. The officials called what they assumed must have happened, not what they actually saw happen. On one hand, you can’t blame an official for assuming a geeky bald quarterback wasn’t able to cleanly tackle an athletic cornerback running with a buddy on each side of him. The problem is, these are the all star officials of the NFL that season. They’re supposed to be great at their job, which means they are in the proper position to see what happened. What actually happened. Instead, someone made an assumption, and well, you know what happens when someone assUMEs.

This call was so obviously wrong, the NFL actually admitted error after the game. So why isn’t it higher on my list? Because it didn’t affect me that much. I pretty much lost hope for this game the moment that pass was caught by the wrong team. The penalty was purely salt in the wound. When you've been knocked down by a body blow, you're numb to the kick that comes 5 seconds later.

Anti-Quality of call: 10/10
Effect on game situation: 3/10
Effect on my mood: 2/10

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