There was a play in Sunday’s game vs. the Baltimore Ravens that I felt Joe Philbin made a poor decision on. But I didn’t have a chance to write about it until now, because there were too many other Philbin mistakes to write about.
But now that I had a chance to review and analyze the play in depth, Joe Philbin’s error is 10 times more devastating than I first thought. He cost us yet another game because he made an incorrect decision. Again. And this one is a doozy! All Dolfans should be furious at him all over again.
It was the 3rd Quarter play where Joe Flacco got tackled in the endzone for a safety. As you will clearly see below with indisputable visual evidence, Flacco was down in the end zone, and the Dolphins should have received 2 points and the ball back.
The referees simply missed it. They blew the call.
But that’s not the end of the world, because Joe Philbin has the ability to let the refs know they made an error. He has the right to ask them to look again, with the aid of high-definition video equipment. All he has to do is throw that little red flag, and the Dolphins get 2 points.
But no. Clueless Joe didn’t want the points. He didn’t want the momentum. He didn’t want to do what it takes to win.
John Harbuagh has the guts to go for it on 4th down in his own territory, but Joe Philbin doesn’t have the guts to challenge a game-changing safety. That’s all you need to know about the character of Joe Philbin: he doesn’t have what it takes.
So here we go.
This picture shows the play when Flacco’s knee first hit the ground. (It also shows Cameron Wake being held in the endzone, which should have been a second reason to call a safety, but the refs missed that too).
Anyway, you can see that when Flacco’s knee is down, the ball is clearly still in the endzone. Safety. Period.
Some Raven fans claim that the angle is all wrong. So here we have made a vertical adjustment. The fact that this is a safety is even more compelling when seen from this angle:
The refs blew the call. Period.
But Philbin allowed them to blow it by not even challenging. It is infuriating for the fans and players to have a coach who won’t stick up for his players…who won’t at least try to get the call corrected.
Let’s say Philbin challenges and loses. The worst that can happen is that Miami is charged a timeout. But Philbin always blows his timeouts on defense anyway, so what’s the big deal?
Let’s skip ahead a few more frames on the same play. At this point, both of Flacco’s knees are down, and he is fully prone. No one can argue that he is 100% down here. Again, look where the ball is. It is STILL not over the goal line fully.
Remember, on a safety, the ball doesn’t have to just cross the plane out of the endzone. To get the ball OUT of the endzone, you must fully get the entire ball out of the endzone. It is NOT like going INTO the endzone.
DIRECT FROM THE NFL RULEBOOK:
It is a safety or touchback if any part of the ball is on, above, or behind the goal line (plane) when dead.
So now that we know the rule, let’s see if the entire ball is is fully in the field of play, or if a part of it is ON the line (safety):
As you can see, at least half of the ball is still sitting ON the goal line. It is clearly a safety. The video evidence is damning, clear, indisputable, and accurate.
The refs missed the call, but the video proof would have caused a reversal. But only if Joe Philbin asked them to look again. He did not. A massive error by an inept head coach.
I know what Philbin was thinking, but it’s the wrong thought process. He was thinking, “Ah, the Ravens are about to punt from their endzone, and we’re about to get the ball at midfield anyway. Why bother to challenge?”
The problem with that is that it simply is not bold leadership.
A hardened, skillful coach will not settle for a sack when he can get a safety. A strong head coach will go for the jugular. Don’t just accept the ball after a punt. Go out and get those 2 points, PLUS you’ll get the ball back after the punt.
Philbin made the amateurish mistake of settling for a good play when he could have had an excellent, game-changing play.
But that simply is not how Joe Philbin manages a game. He does not go for jugulars. He does not go for points. He does not go for momentum. And that is why he himself must go.
IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/iqacuw.jpg[/IMG]
http://i57.tinypic.com/iqacuw.jpg
Not too clear where that ball is from that angle. Also not clear if that knee is down or not.
Where is PhinsUp for his objective opinion?
Interestingly, that photo was taken from about the same angle where the ref stood. You can see why the ref made the mistake and thought the ball was outside of the endzone, but it wasn’t.
Come on man. Joe Flacco is over 6 foot tall and his left knee (which you can clearly see is not quite down yet) is right behind the goal line, where do you THINK the ball is, considering it is above his shoulder and he is leaning at a 45 degree angle. It’s really common sense. Again, don’t be THAT fan.
@FinGuest . I am accomplished with photo analysis as required by self owned business making T-Shirts for years. I am politely asking you to not be that fan. Save the photo and if you know how load it into an editing program for the purposes of zooming onto his knee. I understand why you think his knee isn’t down. Because the contour and background falsely outline a portion of his knee and make somewhat difficult to see the part touching the ground. I so wish we could post photos here because I would show you how your incorrect and photo enhance (not change) his knee. And further even if this pic shows his knee wasnt down. (hypothetical because it actually does) it doesn’t show conclusively where the ball is when his knee would have touched according to your opinion. This is too easy bro and I ask you please take a very close look at the photo you suggested because it proves our point not yours. For the rest of this debate I gladly knod to D-Truth’s reference to the rulebook which states when the ball is dead/player down if the ball is in anyway touching the endzone its a safety. Photographic proof shows that. Thats my 2 cents about our 2 points.
PhinsUp,
Fixed! Now you guys can add your photos.
Preface. This photo is not accurate. It shows Flacco with his knee down after it first touched and he then lunges forward. Its doesn’t match up with the video of the first moment his knee touches when Flacco is in a different more compromising and obvious position of a confirmed safety. I only did this to try out the awesome new option given here by D-Truth and to prove my point to FinGuest. But honestly I understand when first viewing this pic that it looks like his knee is above ground. But its not.
Yes, and if you watch the video, it is 100% obvious that the knee hit first, and then the lunge. Meanwhile, on the other side, Vernon is getting blocked in the back inside the endzone, but the refs missed that too. Three different safety scenarios on one play, and the refs missed them all. Philbin simply has to throw the red flag there and at least hope.
Please keep the photo option for now. I know random sh*t heads will post stupid things so if you need to shut it down I understand. But I so wanna show my point about the forward pass which should have been a fumble. Come to think of it. Any way youtube videos can embed here? I would love to make one later about it.
I will keep it up for sure.
I told Houston Dolfan, and he already posted some hottie pictures. lol.
Other than left knee which is totally touching the turf. Maybe FinGuest was looking at his right knee? I dunno but thanks for adding the option!
If you know where I can access the video (I tried to get NFL Rewind but for some the payment wont go through (Yes, I have the money.)?
I will be honest, live, I thought it was a safety. I should have DVRed it. After I saw the live replays, I changed my mind. The photos I have seen support my opinion. So, if you have video access, I’d like to see it.
@Finguest
I did DVR the game and offer my conclusion to save you the time , effort, and money. If D-Truth’s photos aren’t good enough then go ahead and see it for yourself. Go frame by frame as I did and stop when you see his back jostle. A sure sign his knees underneath him have touched down sending an impact shock up his body and causing his waist to bend slightly. At this point the ball is about 2 feet inside the endzone. He then lunges forward albeit very quickly and places the ball out of the endzone. But heck now that I think of it and if your really a dolphin fan, please purchase NFL rewind. We could use another fact finder with the talent of pursuing the truth on our side! Seems like this is nagging at you as it did me. And no matter what your opinion is , I like and respect your tenacity.
It was definitely a safety and NFL Rules guru Mike Carrie was even saying so on national tv. So fine. You shoulda been awarded that safety. You shoulda had 2 more points, and then we win the game 28-15 anyways. Quit crying. We won!
Yes, Ravens Nation, you won.
We’re not crying. We’re not criticizing the Ravens. Not even criticizing the refs. We are criticizing our coach for not recognizing what is going on before his very eyes.
Ha ha Ravens Nation. You were on the correct side of a horrendously called game and benefited from many momentum killing calls for a day possibly due to league politics. Your team may have gotten those calls against the Dolphins but when you play even bigger league darlings/tv draws like the Broncos and Patriots in the play-offs we’ll see whose on the wrong side of questionable officiating. And we’ll see how funny it is then. Same thing that can make you laugh can make you cry and I suspect we’ll see soon enough.
Excellent article. Great photo proof and reference to the rulebook which I feel resolves any doubt. The ball was not out when he was down and your photo proves that. Yes we lost but this would have been a momentum shifting play. What it did do was decrease our morale even though it was a defensive stop. And yeah holding on Wake heres another example. He was getting held all day. NOT ONCE WAS THIS CALLED!
B.ecause .
I. .
A.m .
S.hady .
Fans who don’t understand momentum or timely calls or bounces are just idiots. I’m not sure why the refs were so biased but this game they were. They missed push offs, unnecessary roughness on QB’s, phantom linemen down field, etc… most going against the Fins. The catch that Wallace made was at the 30 they were driving to go up potentially 17-0 ravens may have been done for but as the announcers said that isn’t a penalty never seen it all year. Momentum changed and that was it. Fins also did some ridiculous things stopped running the ball but if they had a 17 point lead who knows.
Either way I’m a realist they simply don’t have the depth to win a super bowl right now. The injuries are killing them although not many teams could lose their 2, 3, 4 CBs and 2,4 safeties and survive. LB’ers too are decimated but upgrades are needed anyway. If they make the right off season moves they will be better next year….
Flyer, it wasn’t just ANY announcer who said it was never a penalty, it was announcer Steve Tasker. He HATES the Dolphins and never calls our games fairly. So when even a Dolphin hater like him admits we got screwed, then we got screwed!
Come on guys are we not over analyzing this game just a tad ? Yeah it was a safety and yes sleepy eyes missed the chance to be a man and throw the red flag, yeah I get it, but really we played a uninspiring game from the second quarter on. One play dose not lose a game guys. The entire game from the second quarter on was a total disaster. Blame it on sleepy eyes if you want, but really this was an entire team melt down. Trap game guys, simple as that. Lets move on to Foxborough and deal with the Patriots and stop beating a dead horse already.
We usually overanalyze until about Wednesday, and then it’s time to move onto the next opponent. 🙂
Ye, it was the players who failed to deliver. Don’t think I forgot about Brandon Gibson dropping that beautiful pass right to him that would have extended an important drive. Don’t think we’re overlooking Dallas Thomas getting smoked. Etc. Players hurt us. But overall, the head coach certainly didn’t help matters when he could have.
And I’m still digging into the cause of Jared Odrick’s meltdown. If Odrick disagreed with a play call, he would have yelled at Coyle. But for some reason, he yelled at Philbin and said that Philbin does the same thing “every week.” It seems to me that perhaps Philbin is overriding the calls that Coyle wants to make. That would explain why Odrick yelled at him.
I completely agree with your analogy of the Odrick incident. Philbin has been getting in the way far too often by changing calls or overruling the OC simply out of fear of failure. Philbum dose not have the cojones to take chances and it has cost us several close games this year. I am well aware of the team’s anger over this and it stems back to last year when Philbum got the “finger” from you know who, that act alone showed me that the team was fed up with his ineptness and wanted a change. Philbum should have been shown the door with the rest of the staff, but Ross for some reason unknown to us decided to give him a break, stupid move and it will cost us this season as well. My only hope is that the team will win in spite of Philbum and take control of their own destiny and beat the living crap out of the Patriots this weekend. All they need to do is to focus that anger on Brady and all will be good in my world. 🙂
Finnegan will play vs. Patriots, hints he could retire: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000441652/article/finnegan-will-play-vs-patriots-hints-he-could-retire
Now this is a damn shame, hope it isn’t true, but if it is maybe he can hang around as the secondary coach?
Just by judging Finnegan’s personality, he wont and cant retire. He can make gestures fueled out of frustration all he wants. No way he will retire even if he says it outright. I wont believe it until it actually happens. But the article is very interesting.
Yeah my thoughts exactly, but the article did catch me off guard a bit, maybe he is showing the same frustration with Philbum as the rest of the cast and crew, something to ponder.
We handled several injuries fairly well this year, but when Finnegan went out, we seemed to be a much worse team. We didn’t handle his injury too well. So glad to get him back.
We’ll see how this pans out. Hopefully his return will spark some life into our secondary. We need his leadership especially when we have to face Mr. Brady and company. This could be just what the Dr. ordered. 🙂
THANK YOU!
That was 100 times more Safety than the one awarded to us vs. The Bengals last year in Overtime.
My friend from the Goodyear airship saw clearly from up there it was a safety.
I was also speechless and going like: “What the …….?”. You don’t even challenge it???
Disconcerting to say the least.
I’d actu 0ally back us this week if we were a 8-point plus dog but we’re only like +7 1/2 as an underdog and that Patriot defense is better than the Broncos were we went in as less than a td underdog at kick-off. So we’ll probably lose by at least a td. Any weaknesses we have in the secondary, against the run, and on the o-line will fully be exploited by Belicheck. This may be the game that finally gets Philbin axed as i wouldn’t be suprised by a total team meltdown. You don’t win games like this with guys like Wallace, Dallas Thomas, and Phillip Wheeler getting considerable playing time. This team has good players but needs more good “football” players to get over the proverbial hump.
While Wheeler and Dallas Thomas appear to be dead weight, I’m still a fan of Mike Wallace, and I just can’t put him in the same category. I don’t think Jarvis Landry would be having such a breakout season this year if Wallace wasn’ t on the other side of the line causing havoc on the D. Yes, I know Wallace had some drops and some plays that looked like he wasn’t trying. But sometimes the visuals can be deceiving. He is constantly open, and it’s not his fault that T-hill doesn’t see him.
Don’t get me wrong. Wallace has had a bounce back year. He’s just not worth 15 mil a year. When you pay a guy that much he should either be your qb or your best player. And Wallace is nowhere near our best player. He’s not even a true #1 receiver. Wasn’t in Pittsburgh(he was the third receiver behind Brown and Emmanuel Sanders)and wouldn’t be anywhere else in the league.