Vikings insist officials missed interference call

[Patler]

Things are murky inside 5 yards from the line of scrimmage. So it's legal to bump inside 5, but then if the ball is thrown, magically, bumping becomes interference, even if the receiver is engaged - bumping or hold you (like happened to Al Harris this week and last). If a receiver starts blocking before the ball is caught by another receiver or running back, it's a penalty. There again, a receiver being bumped and pushing in 'bump and run' is magically converted to a receiver committing a penalty.

There's no good fix for this - it has to be a judgment call by the refs. If Harris and Woodson are engaged in pushing and shoving and the receiver is pushing back, inside 5 yards, I would think that the rule for calling interference (offensive or defensive) would be if one player is gaining an advantage. Otherwise you'd have to abolish all contact - then it would be worse than Arena league. So when Ty Davis pushed off last week against San Diego, he gained an advantage and pass interference was easy to call. Sunday, when Al Harris and the receiver were pushing each other, no advantage was gained, so nothing should have been called. I'll have to look at that Woodson coverage again, but I recall the receiver giving him a pretty good stiff arm - so I suspect the ref figured it was a pretty fair exchange and didn't call anything.

Also factor in that both players have the right to go after the ball, so if they are shoulder to shoulder bumping one another the officials will ignore it close to the line of scrimmage.

[Patler]

I guess they have decided to ignore the fact the ball was tipped, negating PI. It further shows how dumb they are.

I think their argument is that the interference was before the tip. It was actually tipped at the point where they feel interference occurred.

[LEWCWA]

In my opinion, the call before on Harris was bogus as well.

[4and12to12and4]

I've watched the game three times now, and our corners got bullshit calls on them. Most of the bumping was legally within the 5 yards, which is what Harris was yelling at the officials about. The reason they were getting called for it was because the receivers were so bad, they couldn't get away from the "bump" and it virtually became a pushing match, and when the receiver would then grab on, it looked like a mauling was taking place. It was a joke. There was a play in the third quarter that the Vikings RB ran ten yards downfield and just ran straight into Hawk knocking him back three yards, spun around hoping his shitty QB would throw him the ball. Of course, Holcomb threw some shit pass out of bounds or something, but, I sat there rewatching that thinking, holy shit, right out in the middle of the field, not one official saw that? Players get away with shit on EVERY play. If you rewatch games, you can pinpoint so much holding and picking and interferences, it's ridiculous. To bitch about officials after a game is sad. The Vikings lost because their QB is beyond horrible. If he starts next week, Childress should be fired, I don't know who their third stringer is, but he needs to be strapping it up next week.

Adrian Peterson is a monster, BTW. Thank god their passing game is horrific, or we'd be 3-1.

[cpk1994]

I guess they have decided to ignore the fact the ball was tipped, negating PI. It further shows how dumb they are.

I think their argument is that the interference was before the tip. It was actually tipped at the point where they feel interference occurred.

OK, good point. But, Childress still looks dumb and petty for bashing the refs in pulbic like that. He should look at himself if he is looking for someone to blame for losing the game, and not the refs.

[mngolf19]

As was stated earlier but some have ignored, bumping inside of 5 yards is fine until the ball is thrown. Once it is thrown there can be no contact by either player. If contact was made while the ball in air, it's a penalty on whoever the ref feels made the most contact and therefore the interception would not have happened if the defender was called. It would have been a 5 yard penalty and I believe 1st down again. In this particular instance the ref stated he was not looking that direction so he could not make the call. Chicago DBs played this way last year and clearly GB has picked up on it this year. It's a good choice in my opinion but you are going to have these types of calls made on you from time to time. So I wouldn't whine about it from either perspective. It's not like Childress is the only coach to complain about a call. Nor should he call that the reason they lost. (he didn't)

[esoxx]

Holcomb showed no leadership at all yesterday. His demeanor all day was that of someone looking for someone to blame whenever things went wrong. I suspect his own teammates probably don't respect him much.

But it wasn't just Holcomb who was bitching. Childress and others said the same thing. It sounds like the whole Minny team was blaming their loss on that call.

Green Bay was in control of the game the entire way. Minn never led at any time.

I can see nit-picking officiating in a back and forth game or when you lead all game and lose late, thinking you were hosed.

But if not for a late score and then a gift fumble, this wasn't even really that close of a game. It was clear all day who the better team was/is.

These whiney comments will just be used to refocus the players when Minn visits Lambeau later in the season.

The Vikings talked shit all week and then got punked on their turf. Deal with it.

[mngolf19]

Holcomb showed no leadership at all yesterday. His demeanor all day was that of someone looking for someone to blame whenever things went wrong. I suspect his own teammates probably don't respect him much.

But it wasn't just Holcomb who was bitching. Childress and others said the same thing. It sounds like the whole Minny team was blaming their loss on that call.

Childress and the WR(I forget who it was) were the only ones that mentioned the call. And neither blamed the loss on that call.

And I agree with Joe, Holcomb did not show good leadership out there today and I'm sure that will also go into the decision to start Jackson in the next game.

[HarveyWallbangers]

They didn't blame the game on the call, but I live in Minnesota and the whine-line on KFAN sure had a lot of fans who did.

[mngolf19]

They didn't blame the game on the call, but I live in Minnesota and the whine-line on KFAN sure had a lot of fans who did.

I'll give that.

[4and12to12and4]

As was stated earlier but some have ignored, bumping inside of 5 yards is fine until the ball is thrown. Once it is thrown there can be no contact by either player. If contact was made while the ball in air, it's a penalty on whoever the ref feels made the most contact and therefore the interception would not have happened if the defender was called. It would have been a 5 yard penalty and I believe 1st down again. In this particular instance the ref stated he was not looking that direction so he could not make the call. Chicago DBs played this way last year and clearly GB has picked up on it this year. It's a good choice in my opinion but you are going to have these types of calls made on you from time to time. So I wouldn't whine about it from either perspective. It's not like Childress is the only coach to complain about a call. Nor should he call that the reason they lost. (he didn't)

You just lost ALL credibility with that statement. If anything, the Bears CB's are the copycats. Al Harris and Chucky have been playing this way their entire careers. The Vikings pussy receivers just couldn't get away from the contact and got stuck in a pushing match, due to their incompetence it made it look like we were mauling them. They didn't have the talent to seperate. That's not our fault. We got jacked on calls in this game, not the Queens. Save it.

[mngolf19]

As was stated earlier but some have ignored, bumping inside of 5 yards is fine until the ball is thrown. Once it is thrown there can be no contact by either player. If contact was made while the ball in air, it's a penalty on whoever the ref feels made the most contact and therefore the interception would not have happened if the defender was called. It would have been a 5 yard penalty and I believe 1st down again. In this particular instance the ref stated he was not looking that direction so he could not make the call. Chicago DBs played this way last year and clearly GB has picked up on it this year. It's a good choice in my opinion but you are going to have these types of calls made on you from time to time. So I wouldn't whine about it from either perspective. It's not like Childress is the only coach to complain about a call. Nor should he call that the reason they lost. (he didn't)

You just lost ALL credibility with that statement. If anything, the Bears CB's are the copycats. Al Harris and Chucky have been playing this way their entire careers. The Vikings pussy receivers just couldn't get away from the contact and got stuck in a pushing match, due to their incompetence it made it look like we were mauling them. They didn't have the talent to seperate. That's not our fault. We got jacked on calls in this game, not the Queens. Save it.

What do I need to save? If they are pushing and the ball is in the air, someone is supposed to get called. Has nothing to do with talent. Nor did I say it was all the Packer's fault. Why the venom?

[4and12to12and4]

As was stated earlier but some have ignored, bumping inside of 5 yards is fine until the ball is thrown. Once it is thrown there can be no contact by either player. If contact was made while the ball in air, it's a penalty on whoever the ref feels made the most contact and therefore the interception would not have happened if the defender was called. It would have been a 5 yard penalty and I believe 1st down again. In this particular instance the ref stated he was not looking that direction so he could not make the call. Chicago DBs played this way last year and clearly GB has picked up on it this year. It's a good choice in my opinion but you are going to have these types of calls made on you from time to time. So I wouldn't whine about it from either perspective. It's not like Childress is the only coach to complain about a call. Nor should he call that the reason they lost. (he didn't)

You just lost ALL credibility with that statement. If anything, the Bears CB's are the copycats. Al Harris and Chucky have been playing this way their entire careers. The Vikings pussy receivers just couldn't get away from the contact and got stuck in a pushing match, due to their incompetence it made it look like we were mauling them. They didn't have the talent to seperate. That's not our fault. We got jacked on calls in this game, not the Queens. Save it.

What do I need to save? If they are pushing and the ball is in the air, someone is supposed to get called. Has nothing to do with talent. Nor did I say it was all the Packer's fault. Why the venom?

No venom. Just letting you know that credibility is a key ingredient to having people listen and respect what you're saying, and when you said that our corners were copycatting the Bears corners, I lost some respect for you're knowledge of our team, because it's a wide known fact that our corners have played this way while the Bears corners were in PeeWee league. That's all. Be careful what you write.

[hoosier]

As was stated earlier but some have ignored, bumping inside of 5 yards is fine until the ball is thrown. Once it is thrown there can be no contact by either player. If contact was made while the ball in air, it's a penalty on whoever the ref feels made the most contact and therefore the interception would not have happened if the defender was called.

Not necessarily. It could be ruled incidental contact, for example if the referee thinks the contact was initiated before the ball was thrown and neither player gained an advantage. I looked at one replay and it's clear contact happened before Holcomb threw it, but less clear who initiated it--did Woodson run over Wade or did they run into each other?

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d802db1d2

[mmmdk]

They didn't blame the game on the call, but I live in Minnesota and the whine-line on KFAN sure had a lot of fans who did.

That makes the win even sweeter :P