LAC@JAX: Adding insult to indignity

AFC Wild Card 1: Chargers fans will groan at this memory. Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence threw four first-half interceptions and Los Angeles led 27-0 late in the second quarter. Lawrence then threw four touchdown passes in the second half, the fourth with 5:25 left in the fourth quarter, cutting LA’s lead to 30-26. 

On that fourth TD pass, LA OLB Joey Bosa thinks officials missed a false start. Angered, he slams his helmet and draws an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That puts the ball on the 1, the Jags elect to go for two, and pick up an airspace two-pointer. Lawrence, though, never contacts the end zone — just like the cheapie touchdown he was granted in a Week 16 win over the Jets. Awful.

Chargers ILB Drue Tanquill (49) popped Lawrence and prevented him from touching paydirt. Tanquill gives refs the no-good wave but naturally gets ignored. By illogical rule, Lawrence’s peek-a-boo reach is good for a gift two-pointer. That makes it 30-28, and when the Jags get a chance to kick a field goal in the game’s final seconds, it’s for the win, not a tie. Ouch. Hard to accept. Hocus Bogus rating: 5

DAL@TB: Airspace exit for Tom Brady

NFC Wild Card 3: Imagine: On the final career touchdown pass thrown by the great Tom Brady, neither the ball nor the receiver made contact with the end zone. So as football fans waved good-bye to one of the game’s great quarterbacks, his final touchdown pass was a not-so-glorious ball-wave by TE Cameron Brate, nicking a wee wedge of end zone airspace in the final minutes of a lopsided loss. 

Yes, by existing rule this is a legitimate touchdown. What a thrill. So, does tucking it inside the pylon, as announcer Joe Buck described it, look very convincing? In our view, no. Instead, this strikes us as yet another touchdown by technicality.

Dallas DB Donovan Wilson (6) looked likewise underwhelmed by the result, particularly after he did his job and delivered a hit that kept Brate from touching the end zone, as confirmed by the screenshots below. Sorry, DW. Rating: 4

SF@PHI: Is close enough good enough?

NFC Championship: People who are unbothered by the existing break-the-plane rule look at a play such as this and argue that the ball carrier, in this case Philadelphia’s Boston Scott, accomplished the spirit of a touchdown run — he passed through the vertical airspace of the end zone. Isn’t that good enough?

It depends on your point of view. If football is a contact sport, shouldn’t a ball carrier be obligated to make contact with the designated scoring area, which is a relatively vast 53.3 yards wide and 10 yards deep? To us, that’s not asking too much. We think some part of a runner’s body, however small, and not just his spirit, his vapor trail, should contact the field of play.

In this case, as the screenshots below show, Scott did not. That makes life easier on ball carriers, tougher on defenders. Good enough? To us, not really. Rating: 3.5

Boston Scott plants his right foot in front of the goal line.  Fox Sports

NYG@MIN: Not the worst, but not a TD

NFC Wild Card 2: Saquon Barkley’s body winds up in the end zone, but on closer inspection, his knees hit the ground just an inch or two short of the goal line before he plops into the end zone.

Calling this an airspace touchdown seems a little picky, we realize, but if our proposed rule was enacted, you can bet teams on defense would take a close look at such plays in hopes of getting a called touchdown overruled, especially in a game such as this — a playoff game midway tied through the fourth quarter.

It seems like a challenge could happen here, though how one individual sees a replay could be seen differently than another. This is close, but as best as we can tell, Barkley lands short of the line. We’d rule second down and inches. Rating: 2