The Seahawks thought they forced a fumble early in the fourth quarter when the ball was ripped out of Rashard Mendenhall’s hands, but he was ruled down, and after the Seahawks challenged, the call was upheld.
Later in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks’ hopes of a comeback ended when a pass intended for Doug Baldwin hit his arm (and it sure looked like the ground as well) and was intercepted by Karlos Dansby. That play was reviewed, and despite it looking an awful lot like the ball hit turf and arm, it the call was upheld.
Baldwin said he saw the ball hit the ground, but obviously his opinion wasn’t the one that mattered. The person who did have the final say, referee Scott Green, said on both plays that there wasn’t enough evidence to change the call on the field.
On the interception, Green told a pool reporter, “We didn’t have indisputable evidence that it hit the ground and therefore we went with the call as it was made on the field, which was an interception.”
As for the non-fumble, he said, “We could not determine the status of the runner’s knee. The ball does come loose, but we never got a shot that showed the status of his knee or any other part of his body being down, so therefore you go with the call that was made on the field.”
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