And now the thread goes from an understandable question about why certain things weren't done on a very confusing play which the refs probably botched and did a horrible job of explaining, to "here comes the stupid!"
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And now the thread goes from an understandable question about why certain things weren't done on a very confusing play which the refs probably botched and did a horrible job of explaining, to "here comes the stupid!"
harbage is an idiot and a terrible game day/Xs and Os coach...that is all folks
Excellent summary. I agree with everything you said. We can all agree that Harbaugh is a very good (albeit inconsistent at times) motivator and pre-game manager. However, he is a catastrophic liability on game day because of his inability to manage the game and make good tactical decisions.
He's not the only coach that has those problems, though. Andy Reid has been derided as a bad game-day coach for a long time. Harbaugh can improve in those respects, although it seems unlikely after he cost this team a chance to tie the AFCCG last year and blew several games this year. I still hope he does.
I am far from upset about attempting a hail mary.
What he really should have done is have Jones call for a fair catch so we could have tried a free kick.
If he didn't blow the whistle, then he must of thought it wasn't an incomplete forward pass, but a fumble. But then changes his mind at the end to declare an incomplete forward pass. If he declared it was a fumble, the automatic review would take over on the turnover, and it would be Giants ball on the recovery after the review.
They didn't blow the whistle until after the ball was stripped from Upshaw, as I remember it.
Given how confused the officiating crew was, I'm not going to blame Harbaugh for holding onto the challenge flag. Those idiots would have probably wound up awarding the Giants the ball on the Ravens' 1 yard line.
I sit in the endzone where that play happened. I have not seen the replay of the game yet, but one official was signaling an incomplete pass as soon as the ball hit the ground. I did not hear a whistle while the ball was bouncing around with all of the cheering going on. The way those guys called the game, I would not have expected that they would get it right.
There have been so many explanations about what happened, I can not figure out what they saw. If there was no clear whistle sound, they could have said "incomplete", Ravens' ball because the whistle blew as soon as Upshaw touched the ball, or the Giants' ball after Upshaw gives it up (1st and ten). Since they said that the Giants would not benefit, it then limited it to an incomplete or Ravens' ball. If Harbaugh throws the flag, they could have called it an incomplete just to say the whistle blew as soon as it hit the ground.
They were incompetent in calling the game, so nobody can tell what the blind mice would have ruled.
When they blew the whistle doesn't matter.
You can't review when the whistle was blown.
When they made the final ruling that it was an incomplete pass, that was it.
It was a dumb non challenge bottom line...I even think the refs were looking for Harbaugh to challenge it.
I noticed during that play that there was someone on the Ravens' sideline running down the field waving his arms like a fair catch sign. I don't know if he was yelling at his guys to get down the field, or whether he was telling Jones to call a fair catch. I think Jones caught the ball around the Ravens' 40. That would be a 70 yard kick. No defenders, for sure, but I think they don't get to use a tee.