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Ravens Guard Blatantly Tries To Fool Replacement Refs, Captures Players’ Lack Of Respect For Them Nicely

Here we have a relatively innocuous and common play in the NFL from last night’s New England-Baltimore game: Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, noted weight loss guru, jumps into the neutral zone prematurely, then quickly jumps back into an onside position. Per NFL rules, this is a complete legal maneuver, so long as the center does not snap the ball while the defensive lineman is in the neutral zone or an offensive lineman is not induced to commit a false start penalty as well.

Ravens guard Marshal Yanda, seeing Wilfork’s pre-snap jump, rose from his stance and began to block. Except, as you (and the refs, and Cris Collinsworth) will probably notice, Yanda moves well after Wilfork.

Which, of course, leads us to believe that Yanda’s movement was merely to induce an encroachment penalty. A “savvy” move, some might say, if it wasn’t so blatantly conspicuous. NBC captures its essence on slow-mo replay. It would seem that this is more than veteran cunning, but a certain belief that replacement refs can be bullied. We’ve seen it throughout this season plenty, and we can reasonably surmise that such a delay between Wilfork’s jump and Yanda’s movement can be attributed to Yanda thinking “I can totally get away with this.”

The scabs, to their credit, caught Yanda, despite his hands-in-the-air protest. But if there were ever a microcosm for players bending the will of replacement refs, this was it.

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