Victor Cruz Fumble: Did the Refs Get It Right? You Make the Call

With under three minutes left and a three point deficit, New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz caught a pass from quarterback Eli Manning, broke a tackle, slipped and fell to the ground, and got up untouched, leaving the ball on the field.

While the referees called the play dead after the fact, saying that Cruz effectively "gave himself up" to the approaching Arizona Cardinal defenders, it looked more clearly like he gave the ball up and fumbled, and that's the truth I am gleaning from the officials' fictional call.

Even former head of NFL officiating Mike Pereira believes the referees' assertions are wrong, and though so many of us disagree with his new-found openness as armchair official in his semi-retirement, he's usually right.

According to Pereira, a player giving himself up requires that he takes a knee with possession of the ball. It is clear, upon viewing the play, that Cruz did not take a knee; rather, he tripped with the ball in his hands, and for whatever reason (perhaps thinking that he had been touched down by a member of the Cardinals defense), gave up the ball, leaving a live, fumbled, able-to-be-recovered football on the field.

The Cardinals reacted appropriately, and should have been credited for a fumble recovery. Instead, the Giants were given a second chance to drive down the field, and won the game 31-27. If that call had been the correct one, it's quite possible that the Cardinals would have won the game.

Instead, we sit here with a controversial call, a Giants win, and yet again more questions about the consistency of the NFL's officiating crew. For a league that struggles to maintain standards among its officials, this call and this win will be remembered long after for yet another example of poor calls dictating the outcome of a game.