Arizona defeats Seattle, but nobody still has any idea what a catch is

Go find a football. Hold it with two hands. Take one step, then another, then another. Then throw the ball through your television screen because that’s the only way you’re not going to lose your mind at the way officiating, and in particular the definition of a catch, is going these days.

In Sunday night’s matchup of NFC West hopefuls, Arizona defeated Seattle 39-32, but we’ll get to that in a bit. First, let’s talk about what constitutes a catch. At this point, a receiver apparently needs to adopt a ball, put it through college and walk it down the aisle in order to establish possession. Take, for instance, the bang-bang play in the second quarter in which Cardinals tight end Daniel Fells appeared to catch the ball, turn, and take a step before the ball was stripped from him.

Not so, replay officials ruled. The play took the ball back from Seattle and returned it to Arizona, which turned the possession into three points. It was a more-than-fair trade, since the Cardinals had lost out on a likely safety earlier in the game. Seattle’s Earl Thomas intercepted an errant Carson Palmer pass in the end zone, appeared to take a step out, and then returned back into the end zone. Officials ruled he hadn’t brought the ball all the way out of the end zone and thus awarded Seattle a touchback.

The bottom line, though, is that officials are exerting an outsize influence on the game now because there’s no consensus on what constitutes a catch, and thus no means of standardizing the rulings. The problem has been present all season, simmering. The result is rage, confusion, and in the case of the New York Giants earlier in the day, a lost game.

Why are we here? Blame technology. The fact that cameras can now slow replays to the point of being able to watch a player’s fingernails grow during a play means that it’s easier to determine the precise point at which a player starts to lose control of a ball. More information gives more ability for officials to dissect, and dismiss, virtually every remotely controversial catch.

In a way, it’s not dissimilar to a controversy that wracked the golf world—stick with me here—a couple years ago. When golfers prepare to hit the ball, they get assessed a stroke if the ball even wobbles slightly because of wind. Viewers with high-definition televisions could observe wobbles of the ball indistinguishable even to the golfers themselves, since viewers were “closer” to the ball. (For a time, viewers could even call in penalties on players, a state of affairs so absurd that the current NFL controversy seems mundane by comparison).

We’re at the same point here. Because we can know everything, we don’t know anything. Absolute certitude is impossible in quick-twitch judgment-call plays. The NFL needs to go with a common-sense set of rules that value perception over dissection, reality over some utopian ideal of a catch. And it needs to do so soon, before this kind of ticky-tack officiating has an effect on a game of importance.

Then again, perhaps it already has. Sunday night’s game was for dominance of the NFC West, and the fact that Seattle has even allowed that to be the case shows how the Seahawks have faltered this season. The two-time NFC champs are now 4-5 and, if not reeling, at the very least in real trouble. Arizona now is 7-2 and owning a huge edge over Seattle for the division championship, and Sunday night showed why.

Arizona put together a thorough effort on both sides of the ball, controlling the ball by a two-to-one margin. Many of Seattle’s points were a direct result of turnovers, most notably a second-half run of two straight strip-sacks that led to two touchdowns. Arizona led by as much as 19-0, and while Seattle led briefly, keeping its longstanding games-with-the-lead streak intact, the Cardinals were able to rally with drives of 83 and 80 yards to ice the game. Arizona’s Carson Palmer solidified his surprising status as one of the year’s most reliable quarterbacks, throwing three touchdowns against one interception and finishing the night 29 of 48 for 363 yards.

His counterpart, Russell Wilson, was much less steady, throwing for 240 yards and one touchdown, with a less-than-50-percent completion percentage at 14 of 32. In a further reminder that this is not the Seattle team that won one Super Bowl and came one ill-advised play call from winning another, Seattle’s vaunted defense surrendered the most points it has given up in nearly five years, since Week 14 of the 2010 season. The Legion of Boom is still here, but the boom isn’t particularly threatening these days.

In the game’s most sobering moment, Cardinals left guard Mike Iupati left the game in an ambulance after suffering a neck injury that silenced the entire crowd. But thankfully for Iupati, both a CT scan and an MRI came back normal. Iupati was judged well enough to fly back with the team after the game.

Seattle has a workable next few weeks, with San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Baltimore in its immediate future. Arizona, meanwhile, draws unbeaten Cincinnati, followed by San Francsico, St. Louis, and Minnesota. But the Cardinals have wrested the division for themselves, and Seattle now has an uphill path to even make the playoffs, much less thrive in them.

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