JWL wrote:The big sin in the Bills-Seahawks game was the refs' clock fiasco after the Sherman-Carpenter incident.
Exactly! That is where the Bills were screwed, the ref standing over the ball which essentially caused the delay of game.
Not prior to that.
Roughing the kicker wasn't in question because the play was 'supposed' to be blown dead - plus Sherman got to the ball first so it wouldn't have been roughing anyways.
What the NFL is saying is that it was the same as being offsides, the play being blown dead, and continuing on to hit the QB.
Except the play wasn't blown dead, no official ran up to 'protect' the kicker (as they do in "unabated to the QB" situations) and had the kick been made then it would have been a good FG. So Sherman did exactly the right thing, play to the whistle. If he just stops and gives up and the kick is made then he would be in the wrong.
The excess/4th timeout and the kicker having to come out for a play was handled correctly (plus the kicker wasn't actually injured and was trying to draw a penalty so he put his team in that situation himself.)
Of course all the talk is about the 'dirty' hit on the kicker so the always reactionary NFL fines Sherman. Laughable.
They did give negative marks to the officiating crew, though. Then hyped up - what was already known - how the officials grades determine who gets the playoff assignments. As if that absolves the league and it's officials of completely screwing up yet another simple thing - not resetting the play-clock.
Typical response from the league. First with the "Look over there!" asinine Sherman fine then with the "we punished the officials with a bad grade" as if that makes anything up to the Bills.