Harrison INT - Fitz out of bounds

[SidSmythe]

OK . . . during the review I watched Fitzgerald intentionally run out of bound, then run down the sidelines to chase down Harrison.

Anyone know the ruling on this??? I know on special teams you can't intentionally run out of bounds.

[Iron Shiek]

Yeah I'm unclear as well. When you are going out for a pass and you accidentally step out of bounds, you can come back in but have to re-establish both feet in the field of play before touching the ball I thought.

But I know the rule is you have to make a valiant attempt at re-establishing being on the field of play as quickly as possible. Him sprinting down the field for over 20 yards obviousl doesn't qualify and as long as nobody was continuously blocking him out of bounds (which would be a penalty on us), then this should've have been a flag on him anyway.

Chalk another up in our favor

Wow the reffing was horrible this game.

[MeetJoeGreene]

I noticed that too but, for some reason, I thought it only applied to special teams... I could be wrong.

[steelnavy]

But I know the rule is you have to make a valiant attempt at re-establishing being on the field of play as quickly as possible. Him sprinting down the field for over 20 yards obviousl doesn't qualify and as long as nobody was continuously blocking him out of bounds (which would be a penalty on us), then this should've have been a flag on him anyway.

If Fitz doesn't get there, Harrison never gets in the endzone. The other defender would have knocked James out at the one. Only Fitz sandwiching James from the other side and then falling underneath him saved the TD for us. Divine intervention, or the Immaculate Interception!

[feltdizz]

If you watch the replay you will see Timmons or Woodley lay a block on a guy who bumps Fitz out of bounds.

Someone actually said they thought Fitz being out of bounds made Harrison out of bounds..lol. I think that would make it real easy to tackle players.. just step out on D and touch the guy with the ball.

[SidSmythe]

OK.
My insurance guy is an NFL Umpire ... so i stopped into his office to ask him about this today.

He said he didn't see it BUT Fitzgerald has to make his best effort to stay in the field of play. He said on replay they wouldn't go back that far so they probably wouldn't have noticed him going into and/or coming out of bounds.

I said, "Fitz ran at least 20 yards out of bounds"

He replied, well it's a good thing it was a TD b/c that would have gotten pretty complicated.

[Iron Shiek]

Something I just noticed is that he lunges towards Harrison from out of bounds so is he even a legal player? I know you can't touch the ball without re-establishing the field of play...but can you touch the ball carrier even. Its odd they never mentioned that...nobody did.

Oh well.