Would love to troll the Ratbirds forum right now.
Did they get a penalty on the play ? Isn't it against the rules because of their complaint ?
Did they get a penalty on the play ? Isn't it against the rules because of their complaint ?
I wondered this as well. I think, basically, it came down to they had 5 "normally" eligible and 5 "normally" ineligible players so they didn't have to "worry" about any of that ever-so-challenging-of-the-spirit-of-the-game shit. The issue comes with 6 "normally" eligible vs 4 "normally" ineligible or vice versa.
Something like that. Essentially, what they did is actually more tricky because they didn't even have to report "Player Y is reporting as eligible/ineligible"
So it's the old "everything you can do I can do better" complex.
Except win.
#0-2
Did they get a penalty on the play ? Isn't it against the rules because of their complaint ?
This offseason, the NFL passed a rule making what the Pats did illegal, saying that otherwise eligible receivers declaring as ineligible had to line up inside the tackles. So Vereen chilling out there, pretending to be eligible when he wasn't, wouldn't fly anymore. The Ravens got very, very excited about the passing of that rule.
In the play they ran Sunday, the Ravens didn't send out funky personnel. They sent out five linemen and five eligible receivers. Nobody had to declare they were eligible or ineligible, so this didn't break the NFL's new rule. They just had to line up right and hope the Raiders didn't notice.
I think Harbaugh was giddy when he figured that little loophole out and just couldn't wait to show BB/TB how smart he was with the rule book.