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The Art of the Challenge…
By DanKnip | November 10, 2008
In last night’s big game between the New York Football Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles, Tom Coughlin showed how to use the red flag and Andy Reid proved he would have been better off covering it in mustard and stuffing it on top of the dozen donuts he ate at half-time.
I can guarantee at whichever bar you happened to be watching the contest, there was a collective series of moans and groans when Coughlin tossed out his red flag in the 3rd Quarter to challenge the call that Eli Manning was across the line of scrimmage before completing a pass to Kevin Boss to set up a would-be 1st and Goal. The fact is… Tom Coughlin knows more about football than you do! More specifically, Eli Manning knows A LOT more about football than you do!!! (as it turns out, Manning was the first to clarify the rule to his coach and prompt the challenge— “I kinda told him that rule,” Manning said. “My whole body’s gotta be across. If you have one toe on the line of scrimmage, it’s a legal pass. Why not take a shot? Let’s look at it.”) Credit still needs to go to the Superbowl Champion Coach for having the clarity to listen to his players in a key spot.
Having a portion of Manning’s right foot behind the line was enough to get the call overturned, and the reversal set up the G-Men for a key score as they punched it in a few plays later.
Unfortunately for Philly fans, Andy Reid is not that bright. He proved that later as the Giants drove into the Red Zone again. Even though “Butter Fingers” Brandon Jacobs had a bad case of the fumblies all night, Reid completely threw away a challenge (and an important timeout) when he tried to get a fumble call for a ball that slipped out of Jacobs’ hands… the boner on Reid’s side was overlooking that although there was a loose ball at the end of the play, it was after the runner’s left-knee, right-knee, rear-end and elbow hit the ground. After losing that one, Reid was forced to use another challenge on the very next play as Jacobs coughed the ball up again as he crossed the goal-line. Reid lost a time-out on that play as well, and the go ahead touchdown counted for Big Blue.
The moral of the story is… eat less, think more!
Go Big Blue!!!
Topics: NFL Football |
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