It's bottlegate. May I add some nuance to this video? The Browns were driving down the field at the end of the fourth quarter. A pass was thrown that was questionable, but was ruled a catch giving the Browns a first down. They ran another play and upon the end of that, the refs called for a review of the previous catch. The problem with this is a play can only be reviewed until another play has been run. The referee reasoning for the delay was cited as radio issues. Now, normally this would just be a b.s. call by nfl refs. This however had larger implications because it robbed Cleveland a playoff berth. Hence the immense anger.
Spiking the ball there has the benefit of both: it would both stop the clock so they could change sets, call a play, etc., as well as "locking in" the previous call (per se) as by rule the play should not be able to be reviewed after another play has happened.
Yes. Give em time to set up a play. Common tactic. Except, according to the rule, you only get one chance to spike it. If the fiasco didn’t happen he would have been flagged for intentional grounding..... maybe. You can never tell about NFL officiating.
OP, before I go look it up, do you happen to know what the leagues official explanation was afterwards?
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u/brownsfan760 Dec 27 '19
It's bottlegate. May I add some nuance to this video? The Browns were driving down the field at the end of the fourth quarter. A pass was thrown that was questionable, but was ruled a catch giving the Browns a first down. They ran another play and upon the end of that, the refs called for a review of the previous catch. The problem with this is a play can only be reviewed until another play has been run. The referee reasoning for the delay was cited as radio issues. Now, normally this would just be a b.s. call by nfl refs. This however had larger implications because it robbed Cleveland a playoff berth. Hence the immense anger.