The Arizona Cardinals lost their Week 8 home game 31-24 to the Baltimore Ravens. Ultimately, they did make enough plays in the game to win, but they were hurt by a pair of calls that went against them.
The league explained both calls.
One was an overturned strip sack of Lamar Jackson and another was on a failed fourth-down attempt.
At around the 12-minute mark of the second quarter, Cardinals linebacker Zaven Collins hit Jackson and the ball came out, appearing to be a fumble. Budda Baker recovered it. Based on what fans could see on on the television broadcast, it looked like the ball was out of Jackson’s hand before it went forward in a pass attempt. At worst, it looked like there was no way the call could be overturned.
The league disagreed.
Walt Anderson, the league senior VP of officiating, explained what was seen to pool reporter Bob McManaman.
“We had a couple of really good shots after we stopped the game to review that showed that the ball was firmly in his hand,” he explained. “The defender (Collins) actually contacted the back of (Jackson’s) hand, but his hand continued to move forward really for several frames and he eventually ended up losing it. But by rule, all the hand has to do is keep coming forward with the ball still in control and then, if he subsequently loses it, it’s still a pass.”
The Ravens missed the 53-yard field goal on the next play but the Cardinals felt they should have taken over right there with momentum.
The other play was on fourth-and-1 at around the nine-minute mark in the second quarter when Emari Demercado appeared to get the first down and continue the drive.
The ball was spotted for a measurement and then, before the measurement occurred, an official re-spotted the ball to be clearly short of the line to gain. The Cardinals turned the ball over on downs.
Anderson explained that it was the result of replay assist from the booth.
“With the replay assist rule, what that allows us to do is provide officials with objective information if we end up with clear and obvious video evidence,” he said. “We waited a bit because we weren’t exactly sure where the officials were going to initially spot the ball after all the players cleared and we could see it was actually spotted on the big line.
“Then the replay official told the officials that the ball was clearly short and that’s why the umpire ended up moving the ball. And obviously with it being short on a fourth down with the new rule this year, a failed fourth-down attempt is a booth review. But since we had already assisted, we knew it was short. That’s why we didn’t stop it further to review it again.”
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