Now let me say that these games are the kinds of games that I like, low scoring, defense, punting, a chess match. The Arizona Cardinals had more total yards in the game and despite the fact that the Seahawks had their defense on the field for almost fifty minutes of the game, they were still losing 3-0, seconds before the end of the game. Arizona had a chance to be up 6-0 in the game with a Chandler Catanzoro field goal in the second quarter, but Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner timed the snap and jumped over the line, clearly touching the long snapper with his feet before landing, and blocking the kick. Originally an official threw a flag for it for "unsportsmanlike conduct", but after a meeting, the officials picked the flag up and head official Terry McCoughly announced that there was no penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Now the rule for "leaping" is simply stated in the NFL rulebook that on a field goal or an extra point, if a defensive player leaps over the line to block a kick and they contact a player on the line while leaping, then they are assessed a 15 yard penalty. Not to mention, you also cannot use your own players as leverage to block said kicks. Now if you can make it over the line by not contacting anyone and you block the kick, then that would be legal, but the rule was mostly put in place to protect linemen who might get their neck crushed after the ball is snapped by a defensive player. The Seahawks should have been penalized, but for whatever reason, they weren't. But at least one of the officials saw the play instead of what happened later in the game.
So the game goes into overtime and both the Cardinals and Seahawks trade field goals to make the score 6-6. Arizona drove down the field and had a chance to kick the game winning field goal. However, instead of going for the touchdown with the ball inside the five yard line, Bruce Arians, Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals, decided to instead kick a field goal. So Bobby Wagner again, times the snap, jumps over the line, and barely grazes the kick and the field goal sailed wide left. You could clearly see on the play that he touches the center and uses a teammate to boost himself over the line, both of which would be considered "unsportsmanlike conduct" and "leaping" penalties. However this time, no flag was thrown and the Seahawks gained possession with a chance to win. Now, it was a poor decision by Arians for not trying to get a touchdown, but an even worse decision by the officials for not throwing a flag.
Now, the game ended in a tie because Pete Carroll made a similar coaching mistake by not trying to score a touchdown, but in all forms, the Seahawks are lucky that game only ended in a tie. The head of the officials committee, Dean Blandino came out and said that the call was correct both times for no "unsportsmanlike conduct", which doesn't surprise me because he always claims that his officials are right, even when they aren't. Right now there is very little credibility for the referees in the National Football League. I can at least give college football credit for suspending a whole team of referees without pay for completely botching the end of an Oklahoma State versus Central Michigan game earlier in the year where with four seconds to go and on fourth down, Oklahoma State committed an intentional grounding penalty and Central Michigan was given an un-timed down in order to win the game. The Quarterback threw a Hail Mary-hook and ladder and Central Michigan won off of the walk-off touchdown. The thing is that the game should have ended after the fourth down play and the officials were suspended for it. This will likely never happen at the NFL level because the people who manage the officials are too inept and let their employees get away with whatever they want.
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| Bobby Wagner "illegally" jumps over the line to block kick |
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