One of the more bizarre officiating errors in a night marked with several of them came when the folks in black and white wiped out a Drew Brees fumble, recovered by the Cowboys.
Referee Walt Anderson announced that Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory had lined up in the neutral zone. But one small problem existed with this conclusion: Gregory wasn’t lined up in the neutral zone.
The neutral zone is, per the official rulebook, the “space between the forward and backward points of the ball (planes) and extends to the sidelines.” Look at the photo of the pre-snap alignment. Gregory’s hand simply doesn’t line up with or beyond the forward point of the ball.
“This is too technical for a foul to be called,” former NFL referee and current Sunday Night Football rules analyst Terry McAulay told PFT via text message. “Moreover, the [left tackle] appears to be lined up in the backfield, so it would be better to have simply warned both players in this situation.”
Even a warning arguably would have been excessive. Gregory simply wasn’t in the neutral zone, and the official that concluded otherwise flat out blew it.
