The Austin/Cromartie simulcatch

Cro fucked it up. If he catches the ball at the high point, not at his breadbasket, it's a sure interception. Instead, he gives Miles a slugger's chance to fight for the ball - and lose.

 

I thought Cro was down before he got it ripped out

 

Honestly thought it was a good call, Cro should have had it but the bottom line is when they came down it was impossible for the officials to see who caught it. Simultaneous possession goes to the offense. Austin wanted it more and turned a should be INT into a TD.

 

The point is... if the refs were to have a whole day to study every single picture of the action then Cromartie would've been awarded the INT. In a perfect world this is how it would've gone.

However because of (1) limited time and (2) a rule clearly indicating what to do in case of "dual posession" no fan should possibly get mad at the fact the refs made a mistake. Maybe I'd be less ok with it if we actually lost but all in all I think it really doesn't make sense to fault the refs for this decision.

 

I thought so too, but it was never going to be called. Too close to simultaneous possession, and Austin looked like he had it controlled at the end.

 

I look at it like the maintain possession through the entire catch rule when catching the ball in the endzone for a touchdown. Cromartie did not maintain possession of the ball, I thought it was pretty clear it was a touchdown.

Austin just wanted the ball more than Cromartie in that situation.

 

That they gave it to the offensive player in this case actually pisses me off more about what happened last year in the Packers game when TWICE they gave it to the Packers defender instead of our receiver

 

Exactly, shows how inconsistent these guys are, in this case it was the right call, in that case it wasn't.

 

thought it was a good call as well. Austin made a nice play to get his hands on it when Cromartie gave him an opportunity by not shielding the ball with his body/arms. Just an unfortunate play and its a good thing the Jets were able to pull it out or else that play is all everyone would be talking about.

Cromartie has some strange technique issues.. some things will never change I guess because he's a vet but somewhere along the line it seems like he was taught the position wrong or something: he plays CB like a WR..

I'm not going to get too angry with him though it wasn't his best game but he gets a bad rap because he's not Revis but he is still a good, good CB when he wants to be and despite the struggles he had Sunday it wasn't a lack of effort just genuinely beaten. He will be okay and I was happy to see some fire out of him after that play despite its result. Very happy he's still showing that fire/pride and not complacency/content from it not being a contract year anymore.

 

Don't think Austin wanted the ball more than Cromartie, I think he is just a lot stronger than Cromartie and when he got his hands on it he was able to muscle it out.

 

Well, the rule clearly specifies that whoever has control of the ball first has possession: "It is not a simultaneous catch if a player gains control first and an opponent subsequently gains joint control."

And it looks like Cro had control of the ball first.

 

Not the point. He had possession before Miles fought for it.

 

That is the rule.

 

Refs knowing the complete rules? That's a foreign concept.

 

I thought it was a good call but it was very very close.

 

remember those two bullshit INT calls against GB last season?

 

As others have already pointed out, I had no problem with the ruling. It's just one of those unlucky plays. What I do have a problem with is if its as cut and dry as that, why the hell was GB rewarded for 2 picks last year? Those picks were absolutely critical in that game which led to our demise. Plus Mark has 2 more picks on his stat sheet that he otherwise shouldn't have. I can't stand when a rule is called one way in one situation, but not in others. Keep it uniform damnit.

 

No, they didn't screw it up. It doesn't matter who had it first. Cro didn't hit the ground with possession of the ball and then have it stripped away. Austin went in there, got two hands on the ball as they were headed to the ground, and ripped it away. It was a smart, physical play by Austin.

 

I blame this on Dennis Thurman. You know they have drills for this situation in practice. Thurman obviously told them to pretend someone is taking a child from their hands. And during the play, Cromartie probably thought to himself, 'He's trying to take The Little Girl one away from me'.

Bad coaching, Cromartie is just misunderstood. Next time they should tell him to pretend it's a stripper's fat booty.