The 'Phantom' Catch

Again...TSN showed the replay 4 times before the next snap. Austin had plenty of time to challenge

And only one of those, the third one, showed the ball may have been loose. There’s also the ten second (?) broadcast delay. Plenty of time? The spotter in the booth would have seen the replay that shows the bobble at most a second or two before the ball was snapped, has to make a snap decision (pardon the pun) and scream down to Austin on the headset. Austin reaches for his flag … and the next play is already in progress.

The replay that definitively showed that the ball hit the turf was shown only after the next play, during the injury timeout as Stamps took a knee.

Yes he had plenty of time because I don’t believe that the spotter is watching the game live for exactly the reasons you listed. There would never be enough time to challenge.

I don’t know if it was a catch or not because you can’t see where Stamps hands are from the third replay but on the first two his hands look like they are between the ball and the ground. I can understand why someone may claim is not a catch but I didn’t see anything in the replays that is sufficient to overrule the official’s call.

I’m not in favor of using spotters and TV replays to call challenges. If the play is that close that the official didn’t call it and the bench didn’t see an obvious error on the call then to me its part of the game. More than half of the challenges are unsuccessful because Coaches are going fishing half the time or their time out about to expire so they use them out of spite or as a no pain gamble.

I’m thinking it wasn’t a catch based on the replays, in particular these two.

His hand might be touching the ball, but it definitely isn’t under the ball. There isn’t room for a hand there.

And I agree that using the replays shouldn’t be the norm, but I gather it is.

It's just me but I don't see anything obvious to overturn the decision. I don't see a hand and I don't see the ball on the ground either. to be honest in both your shots the ball looks above the shadow. To overturn a decision there has to be clear evidence to do so. Using replays especially with the limited angles provided by TSN isn't going to always result in a clear answer.

The goal line stand was a nice consolation prize.
Things like that are a mark of excellence & teamwork.
The D will feed off that.

Fair enough. We see it differently. As you say, there has to be conclusive evidence to overturn. To me, it’s conclusive; to you, not so much. And I guess we probably agree which way Jake Ireland would have seen it, although our reasons are different as well.

I would have understood the officials calling it either way on that one but I can see why Austin didn't challenge it too.

I,m not sure but isn’t it up to his assistant coaches and in the video boxes to advise him that a challenge should be thrown…I’m not defending Austin but it might be hard to see everything…sometimes you are only as good as your help? Does anyone know the procedure of field spotting in such cases?

It doesn’t matter if his hand was under the ball or not, he certainly did NOT have “control” of the ball during the catch and contact with the ground.

I think HFXTC’s point is that, if Stamps’ hand was under the ball, then it never actually touched the turf so it wouldn’t matter if he had control at the point or not. It’s whether it hit the turf or not, or more precisely whether the replays prove conclusively that it did, where he disagrees with others on this forum, including me.

Exactly, I have no idea if it was a catch or not but I don't see in the replay something that would prove it one way or another. If the official had said incomplete would have figured he must have had a view.