re: James Bradberry: “It was a holding. I tugged his jersey…”

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I mean Fred Biletnikoff would be the GOAT if they called that back in his day.

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While I don’t think it would surprised anyone that you’re old enough to have watched and remember watching Fred play at his peak 50+ years ago, but believe it or not, while the rules have evolved with the game, players are still expected to follow the rules, and “I could have held Fred Biletnikoff 50+ years ago” isn’t a very valid excuse if caught holding. Luckily, James Bradberry seems aware of that and owned up to it.

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And the flag was thrown 16 yards down the field after the refs saw the ball was overthrown. They call it a wait and see flag.

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I haven’t seen any actual video of the flag, but I’m pretty sure the ref who called it was exactly down the line from the hold at the line of scrimmage, and it doesn’t matter whether the ball was overthrown or not since it’s not pass interference.

Even then, Smith-Schuster was at the goal line about 3 yards from the sideline on a direct path to where the ball landed about halfway through the end zone right at the sideline.

Using a little Pythagorean Theorem, he was about about 6-7 yards from where the ball landed, which given he was already running, he probably would have made it in maybe a bit over a half a second.

So I guess we could assume that one of the GOAT QBs, and the current NFL MVP, who was quite accurate last night (75% even if we add that play as an incompletion), suddenly missed a wide open receiver, by a half second or so, but the hold could not have affected the timing. But I don’t think that’s particularly likely to be true.

The issue isn’t whether there was a hold. Clearly a hood occurred by definition. Likewise , how many previous PI, illegal touching down field, and holds occurred PRIOR to this play that were not called. This is the real issue. NFL referees have a knack for setting a tone of “allowing teams to play” then suddenly calling a penalty on a play at a crucial moment in the game on behavior that has been previously tolerated. It’s no different than an umpire calling strikes on balls just off the outside edge of the plate all game, but suddenly the same pitch is a ball in the 9th inning with a full count and tie game. Have to be consistent , unless it’s really egregious.