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Originally Posted by mheisig
Bullsh!t. Witten had BOTH feet inbounds and was moving forward when Washington hit him. I TiVo'ed the game and have watched the replay several times - it isn't hard to see. Aikman (remember, he played for the Cowboys?) and Buck both called it a lousy penalty.
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Granted I saw the replay too and he was in bounds. But that point is NIL and does not mean a thing!
The whistle had blown, and that was the deciding factor here with regards to the penalty, it does not matter if he was in bounds or not, or making forward progress or not, once the whistle blows, the play is over, done and finished. The hit was clearly AFTER the whistle had blown. Watch your Tivo again and you will see what I mean. And the ref called the penalty for a late hit AFTER THE WHISTLE, not because he was out of bounds. He was probably incorrect in saying that forward progress had stopped, but he was not incorrect in saying that the hit came after the whistle. Again that point of "forward progress" is nil because the play was blown dead, and then the hit came.
Aikman and Buck said it was a lousy call because the ref stated that forward progress was stopped, they did not call it a lousy penalty because of a hit after the play was blown dead though. And that is what the penalty was for, a
hit after the whistle, not a hit out of bounds. The ref was premature in blowing the whistle, but that does not give a player a right to keep going and hit the guy. Once the whistle blows, that's it, the play is over, regardless of whether or not forward progress was stopped
Even if the referee had blown the whistle too early, it does not matter, the play is over. And if you hit a player like that AFTER the play is blown dead, you will get a penalty every time!