When Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson made the bonehead play of the year by dropping the ball just before he crossed the goal line on Monday night against the Cowboys, I wrote that Cowboys cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones should have jumped on the loose ball.But NFL.com has a video with head of officiating Mike Pereira in which it's made clear that in reality, Jones saw that Jackson had fumbled, and he was about to go recover the fumble -- until he saw an official incorrectly signaling that Jackson had scored a touchdown.
"Adam Jones really stopped because he heard the whistle and saw the signal," Pereira said.
So as it turns out, Jackson's bonehead play was followed by a heads-up play by Pacman: Except that the officials negated the heads-up play by their own bonehead play. Kudos to Pacman, and those officials are lucky that their mistake didn't make a difference in the outcome of the game, or else they'd be getting the Ed Hochuli treatment this week.


















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-18-2008 @ 4:10PM
BigShock said...
It wasn't a heads up play by Jones, it was an almost heads up play. In these days of review, you can't play until the whistle, you have to play until just after the whistle. If you think the ball is a fumble, you pick it up and run with it regardless of the official on the field's signal. Let them sort it out upon further review. Jones didn't make the heads up play, he thought about making the heads up play and then decided not to (something, in my opinion, more boneheaded than an honest mistake [the official] or a brainfart [Jackson]). We can blame the official for getting the call wrong (but only if he had the right angle to see that the ball was dropped before Jackson entered the end zone) but we can't blame the official because Jones lacks the courage of his convictions.
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9-18-2008 @ 11:24PM
PTDoc said...
Are you kidding me, Big Shock? He probably saw the game the night before (Denver/SD) and realized (correctly) that what the official had signaled stopped any chance for change of position. "Lack courage of his convictions?" What is that? Did you watch the video link from nfl.com? You must be an Eagles fan.
9-22-2008 @ 5:57PM
Phil said...
Have to disagree BigShock...what came clearly out of Monday's inquest into the Hochuli debacle was that the ONLY time a whistle can be ignored for a change-of-possession is when a down-by-contact decision is reviewed. Since Jackson's action was a no contact, straight-up fumble (dumb or otherwise), there was no way that the Cowboys were going to get that ball after the whistle was blown.
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9-19-2008 @ 12:17AM
chris said...
It is great he started to get the ball but he really should have picked it up.It is something you are taught to do from pop warner through nfl.In fact ive heard players say in practice they are told to always pick up the ball no matter the situation because you never know.Yea the ref screwed up like the rest of them all weekend but Pac man needs to grab the ball whether it was a td or not because it was that close and reviewable.He needs to think a little more about it next time.
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9-20-2008 @ 4:25PM
DC_fan said...
Are all of you stupid? Have you paid any attention from the recent coverage of the play in Denver? Once the ref blows the whistle, the play is over and the ball is dead. I wouldn't have mattered one bit if Pacman picked up the ball and ran it all the way down the field into the other endzone. If they reviewed the play (which they did) the ball would be called dead where it landed because the ref ended the play when he blew the whistle. So Pacman picked the ball up would have made zero difference. Take off your stupid hater glasses and use some common sense.
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9-19-2008 @ 6:34PM
Sonny said...
Jones clearly went for the ball and stopped when the ref stopped the play like you are taught. The refs in this game should be getting crucified for this play as much as Hochuli did! Not to mention the totally botched pass interference call where Henry was pulled into the receiver since the receiver knew he couldn't catch the ball. That's 2 gift TDs in 1 game in my opinion.
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9-19-2008 @ 11:03PM
Quiet Storm Kev said...
BIGSHOCK are you serious??? The Refs have had a terrible first 2 weeks.
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