Pilfering the Rams

Monday Night Football is nothing but trouble. Any Bears fans have a list of grievances against the officials? Because, from my mostly impartial perspective, the Rams took the brunt of it, including two head-scratcher holding penalties against defensive lineman. But there were two important calls in particular that especially hurt their chances.

With thirty-five seconds left in the first half, Isaac Bruce slid out of bounds untouched. But, for some reason, the officials decided the clock should run, and the Rams had to waste a play, and fifteen seconds, stopping it. They took one shot at the end zone and then had to settle for a missed field goal attempt as time ran out. Because untouched, he was not technically down until he touched the sideline. Therefore, he was clearly out of bounds. (In fact, the play-by-play recap at NFL.com says "M.Bulger pass deep right to I.Bruce ran ob at CHI 23 for 24 yards". And yet.)

In the second half, the Rams sacked Rex Grossman and the ball came loose, recovered by St. Louis. But, after a review, the referee ruled Grossman's arm was moving forward, so it was an incomplete pass.

There are two problems with this. First, his arm was only moving forward because he was hit from behind. Duh! Where else was it going to go? Second, if he did attempt a pass and throw it into the ground while he was still in the pocket, then the correct ruling would be intentional grounding. The Rams not only got screwed out of a turnover here, but they also were stuck with the worst possible outcome—loss of down, for the Bears, but no change of field position. The Bears went on to score a touchdown on the drive, I believe.

Digression: this is clearly a problematic ruling. If the quarterback decides to throw the ball down before he gets sacked, then it's intentional grounding, and the outcome is the same as if he had been sacked. But if he actually gets sacked, and loses the ball in the process, then it's just an incomplete pass? How is that fair?

If you put both of these problematic calls together and take them to their logical conclusions, you take seven points away from the Bears and add as many as fourteen for the Rams. Damn the officials, once again. It wasn't even a close game, it seemed. But it should have been.