The Washington Redskins appeared poised to tie or even take the lead against the New England Patriots when Rex Grossman rolled out and found Santana Moss for a five-yard touchdown with under a minute to go in the game. Had the Redskins gone for two and converted (which Mike Shanahan said was a possibility, via CSN Washington's "Redskins Postgame Live"), they would have led, 36-35. Instead, an offensive pass interference call brought the play back, and Grossman was intercepted two plays later, sealing the 34-27 loss.
After the game, Moss was "irate" about the call, according to Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post, and said he thinks there's a "double standard" with these kinds of things. Does Moss have a point, though? Let's go to the video, ripped by @recordsandradio.
There are a couple things going on here.
- Moss definitely seemed to hit the defender, Julian Edelman, a bit while making his cut. In that sense, it technically was a penalty. However, Edelman was also jamming him, so it's the kind of thing that many referees would see as incidental contact. But here's the kicker...
- ... As you can see, Edelman falls down, giving Moss an easy catch. It's at this point that the referee's flag comes out. But did Edelman slip because of Moss' bump, or did he slip on his own? It certainly looks like the slip happened a beat after the push.
In the end, the call was probably right in a technical sense, but it also probably never would have been called if Edelman didn't fall down. In that sense, I can understand Moss' frustration when he says there's a "double standard."
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