Kevin Walter's Touchdown Catch, Or Non-Touchdown Catch

by Alfie Crow on Nov 15, 2010 12:01 PM EST in Jacksonville Jaguars Post Game

Houston Texans wide receiver Kevin Walter had a controversial touchdown catch on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars to tie the football game. It was a ruling that many Jaguars fans disagree with (as evidenced by the boos and raging anger on Twitter). Oddly enough however, I agree with the call and knew it would be overturned when I saw the replay. While many will compare it to Detroit Lions Calvin Johnson's "touchdown" on Week 1 against the Chicago Bears, it's not the same. Walter caught the pass, landed on his back and held the ball in the air to show it to the referee, losing the football. Initially it was ruled an incompletion but was overturned on replay review.

Initially I felt it was a catch because Derek Cox brought Walter to the ground, making him down. Typically when a receiver or runner has the ball and is "downed" by a defender, the play is instantly dead. My thought was that since he was posession and was "downed" by Cox, holding the ball in the air and losing it was akin to fumbling after you are downed by a defender.

FoxSports former director of officials for the NFL Mike Pereira explains why it was ruled a catch and different than the Calvin Johnson play in Week 1. Oddly enough, the referee in this call was the same who made the Johnson call in Week 1.

"No question this should be a touchdown. The action where Walter lost the ball was clearly after he completed the catch, and he actually seemed to be showing the officials he had maintained control.

The referee, Gene Steratore, who was the referee in the Lions-Bears matchup in Week 1 for the controversial Calvin Johnson play at the end of the game, made the right call again. This time there was clearly a second act, which to me, is reminiscent of a second baseman losing the ball while taking the ball out of his glove in an attempt to turn a double play. So the Texans win this challenge, but ended up losing the game on a wild Hail Mary by the Jaguars on the last play of the game."

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Gene Steratore's crew may be the best in the league.

by Jewasaurus on Nov 15, 2010 12:04 PM EST reply actions

Yet they are the same bunch of morons that cant tell when the Dolphisn recovered a football in the endzone

when all evidence points to the fact that we did.

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by Patssuck456 on Nov 15, 2010 2:41 PM EST up reply actions

The only evidence was someone coming out of the pile with it, which means nothing.

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by Alfie Crow on Nov 15, 2010 5:40 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

I also thought

they missed an obvious PI call during the hail mary play with Kareem Jackson face-guarding and knocking down MSW.

I do agree however, that the Steratore crew is pretty good.

by Ewdtrey on Nov 16, 2010 1:32 AM EST up reply actions

If this was Sims-Walker with this catch

we would all be saying it was a catch, so can’t get too angry it was overruled. What really set this up, was I believe a play or two earlier Andre Johnson had that amazing over the shoulder catch in the endzone that was called back due to penalty on the Texans. Still probably the most amazing catch I have ever seen live. Don’t know how he came down with it and got his feet down with the Jaguar defender drapped all over him in the endzone.

by Slawsc on Nov 15, 2010 12:19 PM EST reply actions

Thanks for posting the explanation

I found it ironic, considering your tweet about him being downed, that the Pats\Steelers game had the incident with Hines Ward where his knee hit the ground then he lost the ball. He obviously had possession up to the point of extending it so this was definitely the right call.

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by Brian Fullford on Nov 15, 2010 12:21 PM EST reply actions

Glad they scored it a TD

I don’t care that it was against us. He possessed the ball in the end zone, was touched down, held it up, and then it got knocked out. I wanted to slap that ref silly for taking away the Lions win week one. Both of those plays were clear catches. Pereira had to agree with the call made week 1 cuz otherwise he’d start a whole “why did the Texans get the call and not the Lions?” thing, but IMO both should have been scores.

by Brian Levenson on Nov 15, 2010 12:46 PM EST reply actions

Arian Foster

also had a TD very much like Calvin Johnson’s ruled no catch just last week….

DG is the best we have and help is not on the way. I realize he's not perfect, but I feel a lot better about him at QB than I do the O-Line, DB's, or LB's ability to cover a TE.

by pksiv on Nov 15, 2010 1:12 PM EST up reply actions