Officials Screwed Up Ballard TD Call At 7-7

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Game officials seemingly missed a call on an apparent first-quarter touchdown catch by New York Giants tight end Jake Ballard on Sunday.

The officials ruled Ballard was out of bounds on the play, and coach Tom Coughlin challenged during the Giants' 38-35 loss to the undefeated Green Bay Packers .

Referee Jeff Triplette reviewed the play and upheld the call on the field.

Asked about losing two challenges in the game, Coughlin said Monday he felt sick about the first one because he had just seen a still photo of the play and Ballard had one knee down in the end zone, making it a touchdown.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said officials don't look at still photos when they review a play.

With the score tied at 7, Coughlin said the original call on Ballard's catch was too close not to challenge. He lost the review but said looking at the still photo Monday made the decision feel worse.

"I just saw a picture which made me sick to my stomach, which Fox produced and showed, that he's in," Coughlin said. "Don't ask me about that because I really don't know why, but I did see the picture."

New York settled for Lawrence Tynes ' field goal after the ruling on the field was upheld.

Coughlin also challenged a 7-yard, third-down reception by Green Bay's Donald Driver early in the third quarter on a third-and-3 from the Giants 40 and lost that one, too.

"I really shouldn't have challenged," Coughlin said. "It was right on our sideline, but it was a third-and-3, and I was very much aware of where the ball was going, where it was headed, and if there was any way that (it) could have been turned around and they were hurrying up to the ball to snap it. So I really didn't get a great call from upstairs."

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

ive seemed to notice a downward trend in officiatung recently

Mocking

I had a couple of very big bets on this game, one of them was a buy of TD shirt numbers (which I wouldn't expect too many to understand) but basically if they'd given Ballard the TD I would have been 85 units better off, which would have helped my weekend P/L enormously.

I saw the play live and the dozen or so replays and I never felt at any point he was in.
There may well be a still picture showing a fraction of his knee down (and in bounds) but when the rest of his knee hits the turf it lands on the white.
I compared it to a receiver catching a ball on tip-toes in bounds but when the rest of his feet land they're out of bounds.

I think Giants fans felt they were on the wrong end of a few decision on Sunday but I saw them all and reckon they got them all right.

They say Driver didn't go out of bounds for his late TD and even if he did he was pushed out so is then allowed to come back and be the first to touch the ball.
The Jennings TD was never a TD until at the very last second he moved the ball into his left hand when (for a fraction of a second) he retained control before it was knocked out.

Grizzly is right.

Had Jennings gone to ground it would have been incomplete, which is where the rule is daft (look at Megatron last year and the Bengals game the other week). In both those cases the receiver clearly had possession then lost in in contact with the ground after establishing the possession. Worse in Megatron's case as he put the ball down of his own volition in the process, rather than dropping it.

To me the rule should apply equally to going out of bounds or contacting the ground - if you have complete control when you leave the boundary of the field its a catch, if you don't (i.e. drop it within a step of going out of bounds) its a drop.