Tag: Marlon Humphrey

Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins wants new officiating leadership after pass interference no-call

Houston Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins says there needs to be new leadership in officiating following missed pass interference versus the Baltimore Ravens.

Houston Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins says there needs to be new leadership in officiating following the club’s 41-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.

On a fourth-and-2 from the Ravens’ 33-yard line with 5:56 to go in the first quarter, quarterback Deshaun Watson heaved a deep ball into the right corner of the end zone that fell incomplete as Hopkins was unable to reach the football. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey hung on to Hopkins and made it difficult to haul in the catch.

After the loss, Hopkins retweeted pictures from ESPN Sportscenter’s official account with images of the alleged missed infraction.

“As a leader in the NFL, we need someone new in New York deciding calls,” Hopkins wrote.

The crew for the game was headed up by referee Alex Kemp. When coach Bill O’Brien challenged for possible pass interference, the call went to NFL senior vice president of officiating Alberto Riveron, who makes all the determinations on challenges and booth reviews. Ultimately, Riveron decided there was no pass interference, and it was a turnover on downs.

Criticism of officials often times leads to a fine from the league. It will be interesting to see if there is a FedEx envelope from the league in Hopkins’ locker this week.

Texans cheated out of obvious pass interference call as officials refuse to overturn

NFL officials again make it clear they don’t like new review rule by refusing to penalize Baltimore Ravens’ Marlon Humphrey on obvious play.

With 5:56 left in the first quarter of the critical AFC matchup between the 7-2 Ravens and the 6-3 Texans, Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson uncorked a deep pass to receiver DeAndre Hopkins down the right side of the field toward the end zone. Hopkins was covered by Baltimore cornerback Marlon Humphrey, one of the NFL’s best defensive backs. However, on this play, Humphrey was outmatched by Hopkins’ size/speed combination, as many defenders have been throughout Hopkins’ career.

The result was what looked like obvious pass interference to prevent a touchdown.

Obvious, perhaps — but not so to referee Alex Kemp and his crew. Pass interference was not called, despite the fact that Humphrey’s hands were all over Hopkins, he pushed Hopkins as the ball was coming in, and he wasn’t playing the ball anywhere near the catch point.

Texans coach Bill O’Brien challenged the non-call, under the first-year rule that allows coaches to challenge pass interference calls and non-calls. However, O’Brien probably knew how this was going to go. The NFL’s head offices in New York have rarely agreed to overturn such calls and non-calls. Per NFL Research, through the first nine weeks of the season, there were 53 challenges, with five calls or non-calls overturned. That’s a 90.6% failure rate for coaches, and coaches should be able to expect a more consistent reading of the rules before and after the fact.

In a major game that could decide the top of the AFC’s postseason order, the NFL has once again refused to do its job regarding a rule that was passed by the competition committee. If NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Al Riveron and his staff are unhappy about their officials being called into question by this new review rule, the time to make that clear was during league meetings. This smacks of collusion in the officiating community, and it’s a very bad look for the NFL.

After the game, Hopkins made his opinion clear.

Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”

Twitter blows up over Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins not drawing pass interference against the Ravens

Twitter was not pleased with the refs not calling pass interference on the Baltimore Ravens for interfering with Houston Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins.

On a fourth-and-2 from the Baltimore Ravens’ 33-yard line, Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien decided to go for it. Quarterback Deshaun Watson dropped back and pulled the trigger for the deep ball to receiver DeAndre Hopkins.

Ostensibly, Hopkins could have made the play, but Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey tackled Hopkins before he could even have a chance to get his hands on the ball.

As a result of the no-call by referee Alex Kemp’s crew, there was considerable Twitter backlash.

Maybe it wasn’t so much the alleged interference from Humphrey as it was the decision by New York to not overturn the no-call on the field and call pass interference after O’Brien challenged.

 

 

Even former Ravens safety Eric Weddle opined that the decision to not overturn the call was highly questionable.

 

 

 

Ultimately, with just five overturned decisions on the field relative to pass interference, the league seems to be sending a message with the new rule to challenge pass interference.

6 Ravens who should go to their first Pro Bowl in 2020

While football is a team sport, several Ravens players have been playing at a high level. It might earn these six their first Pro Bowl nods.

The Baltimore Ravens are having a great season. They sit at 7-2 and have defeated some of the best teams in the NFL to get there. With a quarterback that is hot on the MVP trail, an offense that is seemingly too tough to defend and a defense that is improving rapidly every week, Baltimore looks like they’ll be going far this season.

For as much as football is a team sport, there are a bunch of individual Ravens players having stellar years that deserve to be recognized. With such a young roster, plenty of them have yet to get the notoriety on a national stage, but we’re here to fix that.

These six players very well could have earned their first Pro Bowl nominations with their play this season. Of course, you can always help by voting for your favorite Ravens players.

QB Lamar Jackson

Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images

We start off with the guy in the mix for the NFL’s MVP award. If Jackson doesn’t get a Pro Bowl nod this season, the league might just have to do away with the whole game.

Forget about the stats — though there are plenty to use as reasoning for Jackson to be in the Pro Bowl. Jackson has been electric on the field this season, both with his legs and arm. He’s made Pro Bowl players tackle thin air and he’s torched some solid secondaries. The NFL’s all-star game is supposed to highlight the best and most exciting players, and Jackson is the epitome.

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Ravens promote CB Iman Marshall from injured reserve

Rookie cornerback Iman Marshall was added to the Baltimore Ravens’ 53-man roster after spending the last 10 weeks on injured reserve

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The Baltimore Ravens have activated rookie cornerback Iman Marshall from injured reserve to the 53-man roster, according to the team’s Twitter.

Marshall had missed the final three preseason games with an undisclosed injury and was placed on injured reserve shortly after the Ravens finalized their 53-man roster in early September. Marshall returned to practice on Oct. 28 as one of Baltimore’s two designated-to-return spots and can officially play in Week 11 against the Houston Texans.

It’s unclear how big of a role Marshall will have on defense moving forward. With the trade for cornerback Marcus Peters, the Ravens have four starting-caliber cornerbacks in Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Carr, Jimmy Smith and Peters they’re already trying to shuffle into the lineup. The defense has drastically improved from earlier in the season and given Marshall’s inexperience, it seems unlikely he’d be much more than extra depth if he actually plays at all on defense.

Even if Marshall doesn’t contribute much for the remainder of this season, any playing time will be valuable experience towards his development. The Ravens have liked to slowly develop cornerbacks in-house as they’ve done with guys like Maurice Canady, Humphrey, Smith and Tavon Young. It’s a strategy that emphasizes patience but has worked out well for Baltimore over the years.

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