Dropping the Ball at the 1/2 Yardline
 

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I watch a lot of college football, and a lot of pro football.

And for the life of me, I can't tell you how many times I have seen Division-I college football players and NFL football players drop the ball before crossing the goal-line.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I have seen this happen at least 10 or 11 times in the last 5 years ...... and those only include the games that l I l watch ...... I'm sure that it probably has happened several dozen times in the last 5 years throughout college and pro football.


I really don't understand it, and I'm not just saying that because a player on my favorite team just did it today ...... every time I see it happen, I just cannot believe that players that have been eating, breathing, and sleeping football for the better part of their lives keep on doing this over and over again.



Taylor wasn't the first player to do this on a big stage, and he won't be the last ...... for those of us who will continue to watch a good deal of both college and professional football, it will happen again, and again, and again ...... because for some reason, a lot of players will never learn.

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And a good team, a team with a real foundation, an real identity, a real system of leadership and a team that has a goal of winning, would not tolerate said players hurting their team.

We are going to be sitting at home again this year, and it is very easy to draw a straight line for that back to Jonathan Taylor. Fuck that dude!

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In 1992, Leon Lett allowed the ball to be knocked out of his hands just before he crossed the goal-line in the Super Bowl against the Bills.

In 1993, Leon Lett cost the Cowboys a game on Thanksgiving Day with a boneheaded play in the final seconds of the 4th quarter by touching the ball after the Cowboys had blocked a field goal attempt, which gave possession of the ball back to the Dolphins. The Dolphins then proceeded to kick the game-winning field goal as time expired.

The Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1992, 1993, and again in 1995. Leon Lett was a starter on the Cowboys' for 9 seasons, from 1991 through 1999. Jimmy Johnson was a great coach, and the Cowboys were a great team from 1991 through 1996 ...... so what you are asserting is not necessarily true.

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You're right. JT isn't the first and won't be the last player to drop the ball celebrating before he crosses the goal line (apparently a Bungles defensive player did the same thing against the Tits today). But JT probably is the highest paid player to have done so.

It just boggles my mind that these dumbfucks prioritize trying to look cool on social media over doing their fucking job that pays them millions of dollars.

I just cannot image that somewhere along the lines in pee wee football, middle school, high school, college or the pros that it was not drilled into them again and again, "TWO FEET INBOUNDS."

Okay, yeah, I know college is one foot inbound but you get the concept. ONE - TWO. Two steps is a catch. Two steps is a possession. Two steps in the endzone is a touchdown.

It absolutly boggles the mind that pros don't carry the football across the goal line, put two steps in the end zone and THEN do their stupid celebration by doing whatever with the football. After they scored.....

I just had to laugh. I am so over being mad about the Colts because I would just be mad all the time. We are never sniffing success again with current leadership or AR as the QB.

It is similar to a mic drop, it is arrogant and is intended to show up the opponent.

I may be the only one but I never saw definitive proof that he actually dropped the ball before he crossed the goal line.

Every shot I’ve seen shows the ball still touching his hand when he was across the goal line, even though he was in the process of dropping it. If that’s the only footage, that’s not definitive proof that he didn’t actually cross the goal line while still possessing the ball.

Remember, it was called a touchdown on the field. They needed to have ABSOLUTE proof in order to overturn that.

Maybe there was and I just missed it.

Of course, none of this excuses Taylor’s dumb ass.

Jonathan Taylor has always been a dickhead, and I have said as much. His "Six less points" comments after the game just adds more to it.

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I thought so, too.

The rule is that the split-second the the ball touches the front end of the thick, solid white line, then it's a touchdown ....... it's like a zap of electricity the nanosecond that any part of the ball even touches that imaginary plane that goes straight up from the ground to the sky.


I don't think that any angles showed definitively whether or not he did or did not cross that imaginary plane ...... but just the fact that Taylor made it at all questionable and reviewable is the reason why it will now go down as the worst day of his professional football career.

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No excuse what JT did. The refs may have fucked up, but I don't care.

He wanted to look cool and ended up looking like an ass. Inexcusable to the highest extent. The bottom line is that ended the Colts playoff hopes because I truly believe that screw up deflated the whole team. Play calls had to be different after that. It had the opposite affect for the Broncos, Those lucky bastards.

No excuse what JT did. The refs may have fucked up, but I don't care.

He wanted to look cool and ended up looking like an ass. Inexcusable to the highest extent. The bottom line is that ended the Colts playoff hopes because I truly believe that screw up deflated the whole team. Play calls had to be different after that. It had the opposite affect for the Broncos, Those lucky bastards.

Let me translate "Six less points" for you. "I don't give a fuck about anyone but me. I refuse to take accountability for a mistake because it had no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the game. I don't give a shit what you think because I'm laughing all the way to the bank with my contract."

This is the kind of leadership the team has.

So out of character for JT, I’m still baffled by it myself


But him saying it will never happen again I believe him, I can see him Barry Sanders the shot from now on and hand it to the ref every time

KB was talking about this today. JT normally doesn’t even HAVE extravagant celebrations. He normally just high fives his teammates.

It was so bizarre, the whole thing.

I believe players learn. If it happens once, it never happens again by the same player (that I know of).

I remember DeShaun Jackson did that playing for the Eagles in 2008. Fortunately it didn't cost them the game.

Small poll, who thinks he should be fined?

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My point about players never learning has to do with the fact that the idiocy about dropping the ball at the 1/2-yardline has been going on for decades, and somehow these feeble-minds continue to do it ...... not whether or not once they do it will they ever do it a second time.

So no, Jonathan Taylor DID NOT learn ....... any player who ever did this one single time did not learn from the fact that this nonsense has happened more than 100 times in the last quarter century, yet they still continue to do it.

So, the fact that Taylor did it in the first place is evidence that he (and each and every player who ever did this even one single time) never learn.

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Replace the N with R and I am cool with it.

Get him off this fucking team!

Tired of fucking players like him. Tired of 2 fucking linemen standing there watching as the DE breaks on the ball instead of knocking his clock off as he is sprinting. Tired of fucking players like AD Mitchell that can't be bothered enough to acknowledge their own incompetence.

Tired tired tired---- of CHRIS BALLARD FOOTBALL PLAYERS!

Thank You C&O! 100% agree.

Sorry, didn't read into that. Thought you meant repeating that move. I 100% agree with you. They ARE feeble minds; celebration dances, punching another player, taking a helmet off. Fortunately, those moves don't take points off the board.

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For the record, I have always been a big Jonathan Taylor fan ...... and I still am.

He's very talented, and I hope that he is back with the team next year.

If he ever drops the ball at the 1/2-yardline again, I'm going to blow up his fucking car in the parking lot.

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JT does have a lot of talent and I can't see him going anywhere next season. JT seems to let us down an awful lot. He's had some brutal fumbles that have cost us games, always seems to have some nagging injury, and then the holdout, and then the drop down at the 1 inch line. I'm just not much of a fan anymore. Outside of the long run against the Patriots a few years ago, I don't really remember many game winning plays from him. There probably were some, but I just don't recall them.

Replay after replay… I’ve still yet to see clear conclusive evidence he didn’t get in the endzone. Where’s the pylon camera?

Every other instance this has happened the player dropped it a yard or 2 early and it was clear and obvious.

Until you show me a view down the line I still say that ball crossed before he dropped it

While I agree with you, all he needed to do was wait one more step, and the zebras have no chance to screw it up.

I said this in the game thread when it happened, but nobody on the Colts seemed to be upset about it. Unless they had an angle we never saw, there is no way they could take that away...I have to believe they wanted to take it away because the Broncos and Sean Payton have more clout in the league than we do!

Why hasn't Steichen said something about this, like show me the angle you used to take away our touchdown!

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I agree that there is not conclusive evidence that Taylor dropped the ball before the nose of the football touched the imaginary plane, but this portion of your post is not true ...... I don't think a player has ever dropped the ball 2 full yards or even one full yard before it crossed the plane of the goal line in all of the times that which I have seen this happen. It is almost always 1/2 of a yard or less when they have done it. It's almost always very close whenever it happens. It has often been clear and conclusive when a player dropped the ball early, but it's almost always 1/2 of a hard or less (1/3 of a yard, or a foot.)

My thread title says the 1/2 yardline, but that was just a general description of the overall scenario of this occurrence ...... in Taylor's case, MAYBE he dropped the ball at about the 6-inch line, but again, I think that you are correct is asserting that there is/was not any clear and conclusive evidence that it did come out of his hands prior to it crossing the plane of the goal-line.

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He's only good at one thing; running the football. He can't run routes. He can't catch. He can't block. He can't hold on to the football. I've never heard him once, say that he would like become a complete RB, and improve in any those areas. Now he's become the equivalent of a football dumb ass.

JT can go fuck himself. He's selfish prick who got his, and thinks that he doesn't need to improve.

Draft a RB in 2025 as his eventual replacement.

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I remember when Lydell Mitchell set the all-time record for receptions by a running back in 1974. He caught 72 passes in a 14-game season.

Just by coincidence, the Colts were playing the Jets in the final game of the season, so I got to see that game live (I got all Jets and Giants games here in New Yok State.) I was in 4th grade at the time, and even though the Colts lost the game by a score of 45-38, I will always remember the announcers telling us that Lydell Mitchell had just set the all-time record for receptions by a running back late in the 4th quarter of that game.

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Just my 2 cents but over here in the "Kingdom", I get a lot of La Liga (Barca fan of course) and Premire League games as my son follows Chealsea after seeing Tedd Lasso... (thats Soccer for you US folks).

They use goal line technology with sensors in the ball the moment it hits the goal line, a signal is sent to the umpire/refs via wrist band (buzzing) that signals the ball broke the plain. Takes the guess work out bad angles, etc.

Just sayin it seems to work well here and may be worth a look by the NFL to fix fucked up ref calls. :cool:

Danny Trevathan(broncos) picked Joe Flacco (ravens) and returned it for an apparent TD until closer review showed him dropping the ball just as he crossed the 2 yard line.

My point is the farther away from the goal line the easier it is to confirm.

Desean Jackson not only dropped it early but it landed behind him, again making it clearly evident

JT made a colossal mistake by dropping early but I’m still not convinced it wasn’t a TD

Either the Colts coaches saw an angle that we didn't that clearly showed JT dropped it too early, or they were all so dumbfounded that JT would be so stupid that they were in shock and didn't know what the fuck was going on for a few minutes.

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DeSean Jackson dropped the ball at the 1/2-yardline. It landed behind him because he flipped it backwards.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvPaTX2Ha4E


Trevathan did not drop the ball at the 2 yardline, he dropped it at the 1 yardline.


https://www.baltimoreravens.com/vide...p-six-11077318


I know what your point is, and I agreed with it. Almost every time that it has been called, it was clear-cut, and ruled a drop upon review. As I stated, players almost never drop the ball at the 2 yardline and rarely drop it at the 1-yardline. They almost always drop it 1/2 of a yard early or less. Trevathan's dropping against the Ravens was a rare case in which a player dropped a full yard early.

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He had decent receiving stats his first 2 seasons: 36 receptions for 299 yds and 1 TD in '20 and 40 for 360 and 2 TDs in '21 Since then he hasn't done much though, so probably a combination of him regressing along w/ the QB and change of offense.

Can't argue w/ the pass blocking comments. He's horrible at that.

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I just did some research, and believe it or not, I found a player who dropped the ball at the 4-yardline ........ the 4-yardline !!! ) :eek:

It was in a I-AA game between William & Mary and Hampton University.

Fast-forward to the 10-minute mark of this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFb311jx_c

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It is a shame. I would have liked to see how that game played out if the Colts had a 20 to 7 lead. It's possible they still would have been overwhelmed by the 24 straight points the Broncos scored, but maybe not.

I’ve seen it happen a couple times, mostly in college. It’s just a lack in concentration on your current task.

They likely never would've tried that ill advised double pass, because even if everything else up to that point had gone the same (which it likely wouldn't have), they would've been up by 3 at that point instead of down by 4. Steichen would've been looking to preserve a lead at that point, and I don't think he would risk a lead on a trick play like that.

The Colts coaches would have had no way of challenging the overturned call that I know of.

Every scoring play is automatically reviewed and once that got overturned, there was nothing the colts could do about it.

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This video was made immediately after the Colts' loss to the Broncos last week ....... and in the first 45 seconds of this video, the narrator explains the situation precisely.



"We gotta put the ugly behind us for ourselves ...... NOT for Jonathan Taylor, but we gotta do it for ourselves. You can't let that kind of negativity eat you up from the inside out, don't allow it, so we're not gonna allow it. We're gonna move on. The Titans come up this weekend, there's a 7% chance of making the playoffs, so were gonna move on ....... BUT, we're still within the 24-hour period of it happening, so we ARE gonna talk about it, AND THEN we're going to move on."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-Yi4sj7IY



More importantly than US FANS putting it behind us, Jonathan Taylor put it behind him and had one of his best games of the season to salvage the Colts' 7th win of 2024 ...... the Colts' playoff chances are almost non-existent, but the last thing that we need is for them to crawl up into a ball and give up in the home-stretch of this maddeningly frustrating season.

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NFL executives, coaches, and scouts have dropped Jonathan Taylor down 2 sports from last rankings (from #5 in 2024 to #7 in 2025.)

Even if Taylor rushes for more than 2,000 yards in a single season, I'm going to blow up his fucking car in the parking lot if he ever drops the ball at the goal-line again while wearing a Colts uniform.



Execs, Coaches, Scouts Rank NFL’s Top 10 Running Backs for 2025

(By Jeremy Fowler)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...s-best-rushers

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