I wonder what the playcall is from the 1 had they called DPI...

Except the Pats defense, especially the secondary, is completely banged up. This game might not be as hard for the Broncos as we expect...

10,000K in Casino Cash. I'll take Denver -4.5.

Yeah, not true, for the record. Believe the tuck rule had been called earlier that same year.

But you have a story to spin and hate the Patriots, so don't let facts get in your way.

Odd that Jon Gruden is over the tuck rule, but you're not...

I don't think I even have any Casino Cash.

You see several of those a games, on both sides. I specifically saw Denver do it to the Chiefs on Sunday night, in fact.

For good or for bad, what most would think is holding is pretty rampant. It's more about how long you hold for, rather than IF you hold, that results in it getting called.

Of course, the Chargers have been the NFL's butt-monkeys for years, so I'm not surprised at your bitterness.

Dunno if we'll have either Talib, Dennard or Gregory back. Doubt Gregory (broken thumb). Dunno at all about the other two, but yeah, without them, and without Wilfork, Kelly and Mayo, we're basically down SIX starters on defense.

Yeah...that's not likely to work out too well against Manning & Co.

Yea, that might make your defense equal to the level of shittiness of the Bronco defense. But I heard that the Bronco's are supposed to get Von Miller back from suspension at some point...

I'll take your 2,000 if I win, and you'll get 8,000 from me if you win.

Having watched the footage of Gronk being bearhugged in the endzone today, gotta say... they got robbed, that was some pure BS.

Threw the flag then picked it up? BS... normally i wouldn't care a bit, but those mfing refs cost me a 14-2 week on my picks.

I still don't think it's a PI. There's simply no way that ball was being caught. Perhaps Gronk could've kept it from being picked, but with zeros on the clock, an incompletion is the same as a pick there.

That throw was as uncatchable as they got. Had Kuechly died on the field halfway through that play, Gronk still wasn't going to catch that ball because he was being undercut by the DB who was tracking it the whole way (Lester). Brady was facing severe pressure up the middle and he badly underthrew it. None of the contact between Kuechly and Gronk changed the fact that Gronk wasn't going to turn that into a completed pass - Lester would've knocked it away at worst.

I went and looked up both holding and illegal contact - both of those are null once the ball is in the air. As such, neither one of those could've been called there (and I'm stunned by how many talking heads didn't bother to do this research; it's right there in the rulebook and yet idiots like Chris Carter were saying it should've been an illegal contact penalty).

I guess the ultimate issue is what constitutes uncatchable - more critically, is it only the throw that matters or is it also how the defenders react to it? Unfortunately, the rule is mostly silent. However, it does note that the ball has to be uncatchable by the 'involved players'.

Well Lester, who wasn't an 'involved player' snagging that thing well before Gronk would've been able to get to it would seem to make it uncatchable as to the involved players to me.

Honestly, while I think this is a pretty uncommon interpretation of the rule, it does appear to me to be the correct way to interpret it. I think the no-call here is correct.

I would be flipping out if that is how the Bronco's game ended.

Uncatchable has nothing to do with this he was mugged 5 yards past the line you cant do that. Illegal contact Pats should of got 1 more play from the 13 yard line.

Yep.

That's not true.

Read the rule - once the ball is out of the QBs hand, the illegal contact rule does not apply. It's either a PI or nothing.

Kuechly didn't hit him until after Brady released the ball, as such, contact downfield was fair game provided that it wasn't also PI. It's why you're allowed to friggen blast somebody once a ball is tipped at the line. The 'pass interference light' turns off at that point and even if they're 15 yards downfield, you can knock them into oblivion without worrying about an illegal contact penalty.