Roy Williams = dirty tackler

[offiss]

Originally Posted by sandtrapjack

Well we agree to disagree then, I have gone back to my DVR a few times and watched that hit and the whistle had clearly blown. I agree that forward progress had not been stopped, and I agree that Witten was still in bounds. I believe that the whistle was pre-mature. And when the ref made the call over his stadium microphone he said that the penalty was for a hit AFTER THE WHISTLE, he did NOT say it was for a hit out of bounds. If the whistle had not blown, it would have been a good clean hit. But the fact is, the whistle had blown and the hit was clearly after the fact.

But even though the whistle was pre-mature, it was still blown and the play is dead, regardless if it was "ref error" or not. Even if Witten was in bounds and progress had not been stopped, once the whistle blows the ball cannot be advanced and the official would have marked him down at the spot where the whistle was blown.


I cannot say that Washington did this on purpose. That would be purely out of context for the situation. It was the Cowboys second possesion of the game, it was the 1st quarter, the addreniline for all players had to be on overdrive, two biggest rivals in the game with play-off implications for each team. Anybody, Cowboy or Redskin could have done the same thing it that scenario.

I watched the replay and as Witten spun away from the intial tackle he partially stepped out of bounds as he was trying to go forward, no way for a player to make that call that he was out of bounds, the ref made a bad call there, especially against a player like Witten who breaks a lot of tackles, no way was that a dirty hit, Witten was defiently going forward, and his forward progress was never stopped.

As for the whistle I didn't hear one before the hit, if there was one the ref was at fault, because there is no way he should have blown the whistle that early, you can't blame Washington there.