I was watching the game at a sport's bar and it looked like Ronnie hit the ground before the ball came out late in the 4th. Why didn't Sparano challenge the fumble??? Great win, I just don't get why there was no red flag thrown????
You must have been watching another run...his knee was clearly on the ground? Ohh and why save a red flag with several minutes left in the game?
As others have said, clearly a fumble. I don't like it any more than you do, but it was the right call and smart to not waste a challenge on that play or the 4th down that wasn't really converted.
Initially it looked like he was down, but on the replay I thought it was pretty clear that the ball popped out before his knee hit the ground. Our guys have to do a better job of holding onto the football. Pretty much the only reason Minnesota was breathing in the 4th Q.
Agree with guys above. At first I wasn't worried because I thought he was down too -- and was waiting for a challenge at any moment - but they showed two or three different angles of the run after and it was clearly on the ground before he was.
While I agree that it was very clearly not enough for a 1st down, there was not enough video evidence to overturn it anyway. It was smart to not challenge there.
We should have thrown a flag on our 1 4th down stop, where we got raped by the refs on that spot. We stopped their FB cold, and the refs gave us a massive hose job.
OK I will take your guys word for it. I recorded the game on my DVR and will try to watch it again tonight. Hopefully no more drops for Ronnie and Ricky. Good thing we forced Favre into many mistakes and some picks.
You don't challenge a play because you think they got the ruling wrong. You challenge a play because you think you can get the ruling reversed. There's a big difference there. And I think that it shows a lot of maturity by Sparano as a head coach to NOT throw the flag in that situation (referring to the 4th down.) It would have only cost us a challenge and a time out, which we couldn't afford to spare.
Okay, since the last 6 responses to this thread have been saying we should have challenged the 4th down conversion, I have to ask you, Why? Why would you want to challenge that play? There was clearly not enough video evidence to over turn it. Do you just want us to throw time outs away like some of our former coaches have done?
I personally thought it was OBVIOUS he was stooped short. That's why I was fuming. My first thought was there wasn't going to be enough evidence but when they showed the replay I thought it was a no-brainer he was stopped short.
Yeah that spot was crap...he got about two extra feet and they got the first by half the football. That's another play I am going to replay a couple times.
Don't quote me on this, but if I'm remembering the stats correctly, only 13% of those calls have been overturned in the past 5 years. Or something like that. Either way, smart money is to save the challenge in that spot.
Agree with RR. Besides, you can't always be 100% sure there's enough video evidence. Sometimes you just gotta throw the red flag and go for it. But, that was a case in which the video evidence did support the challenge IMO (i.e., they didn't get the first down). JMHO...
