Blitz
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- Mar 20, 2019
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Seattle’s first overtime drive on Monday night included a highly questionable call that became quickly forgotten, given that quarterback Russell Wilson converted third and 16 on the very next play. Wilson was determined to be in the grasp, even though it appeared that he wasn’t.
On Tuesday, coach Pete Carroll discussed his concerns with the call, while carefully avoiding any perception/reality that he is criticizing officiating.
“I talked to [NFL senior V.P. of officiating] Al [Riveron] about it already just to get the conversation going on how they look at the various styles of quarterbacks,” Carroll told reporters. “Some guys can get out and some guys aren’t getting out and how they handle that. Just to understand even more fully what to expect. I’m not complaining about those calls. I just want to know more what the criteria is and how it’s going to go from quarterback to quarterback and week to week and all that. It is a split-second decision that they make to help protect the quarterback. We understand that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing that they’re doing it that way. There’s some magic in there that you can take away from the game by making an early call on a guy who’s got that ability. Some guys are going down. That’s a conversation that we’re having right now. . . .
“Some guys need to be protected differently than other guys I think because of their vulnerability where it’s more likely that they’re going to get hit again and again if they don’t get the whistle blown. They’re doing everything for the right reasons and they’re trying to do the right things. I think there are going to be times that we could always maybe question, was this the right time to protect them?”
The challenge in this specific case comes from reconciling the overtime in-the-grasp call with the decision to not blow the whistle when Wilson seemed to be tied up in the backfield, just before the ball popped out and lineman Germain Ifedi tried to become Jerome Bettis.
“Russ is really in the grasp with two guys and he’s moving backwards,” Carroll said of the play that allowed the 49ers to narrow the deficit from 21-10 to 21-18. “There’s not a long time period there, but there’s time. I’m looking for the consistency, so we know what we’re up against and all that. Russ is still going to dial it in and do his thing and other quarterbacks are going to battle and do their thing. I don’t think it’s all the same. They’re in the conversation. They’ve working to do it as well as they can. That’s all we can really ask of the guys.”
It’s a great point. If Wilson was in the grasp on the overtime play, he was in the grasp for what became a defensive touchdown. If he wasn’t in the grasp then, he shouldn’t have been in the grasp in overtime.