I was chatting it up with Mike Pereira on Twitter and according to him, even though Josh was within the pocket, because he was moving away from the pocket there’s no way an official would say he was in the pocket. So the illegal contact is allowed.

Doesn’t really make sense, but oh well. Also, the rule is obviously not in place so defenders can use it in the mannered it was used against us. In my opinion it needs to be tweaked so if an offensive players is pushed out of bounds (even legally) they can reestablish themselves in the field. I just can’t believe you can push someone out and basically take them out of the play.

Also, the rule says you can make illegal contact with an “obstructing opponent,” which receivers are within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. Beyond that no illegal contact is allowed, because the receiver is no longer an obstructing opponent. The only exception is as followed (and this is the rule that’s being used to say the call was right):

“An eligible receiver is considered to be an obstructing opponent only to a point five yards beyond the line of
scrimmage unless the player who receives the snap demonstrates no further intention to pass the ball (including handing
off the ball, pitching the ball, or moving out of the pocket).”

So let me ask you, did Freeman demonstrate no further intention to pass the ball? Is the process of moving out of the pocket (even if the quarterback is within the pocket when the foul occurs) grounds for demonstrating this? I think not. I think a quarterback would have to tuck the ball and act as if they’re running for the illegal contact to be allowed down field. Clearly Freeman was still intending to throw the ball.

Fact is, it should have been illegal contact on the defense, and by rule, if pushed out of bounds by an illegal act, the receiver can reestablish himself in bounds. TD stands. Bucs tie the game . . . eventually go on to win

The Bucs could have taken that damn game. Bummer…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWfsTXqZ064

the push was 2 seconds before josh threw the ball….mike took 6 steps after he came back in before he caught the ball

Go back and watch the play…..pause it at 10 seconds, when you see mike getting pushed

Josh is still in the pocket, he is right next to the hash mark which is inside the tackles when the play started

should of been illegal contact which could have been declined
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the play was ruled illegal touching because it was supposedly a legal force out(josh had to be out of the pocket for it to be legal), he wasn’t out of the pocket meaning it was illegal contact on the defender.

There are always ups and downs in a game, what happened was a travesty. We fought back against our own mistakes and the other team and put ourselves in a place to send it to overtime. it should have been decided on the field by the players.

It’s really similar to the calvin johnson play from a few years ago when they got screwed. A bad call at the wrong time, call Touchdown and let it go to overtime. Wasn’t even reviewed it was over when they said illegal touching, no review of josh being in or out of the pocket nothing about the play was reviewed and it directly affected the outcome. Some of you guys are out of touch with reality or something.

Correct call, but they did go deep in the rule book this game.