Michael Crabtree's Sideline Catch Being Ruled a Non-Catch is Your Latest NFL Catch Lunacy

Michael Crabtree made this catch along the sideline, before being shoved out of bounds. Once he was shoved, he stumbled for several steps before putting the ball down and losing control. This, of course, was ruled an incompletion on the field. Jack Del Rio chose not to challenge (who in the heck knows what they would say about this “catch”?) but under any rational basis this is a catch.

I wrote about issues with the catch rule a few weeks ago. Pete Carroll was perplexed by a ruling last week, so it’s fair to say that most coaches have no idea what will be ruled.

This should not be a “going to the ground to complete the catch” situation. Crabtree caught the ball standing up, landed two feet in bounds, and then was shoved by a defensive player after getting possession, which caused him to go the ground after several more steps. Under my “once a player has control and lands a third step” hard and fast rule, this would be clearly a catch without any confusion.