That FG Decision by McDermott

[fergie's ire]

1 hour ago, mannc said:

This is not quite correct, but I'll admit, the rule is a bit unclear.  As I understand it, you can challenge a spot if the challenge relates to whether you got a first down, or if it involves the goal line.  Sometimes a challenge may be unsuccessful--when review shows that the ball was short of the first down marker--which causes the challenging team to lose a timeout, but the ball is nonetheless re-spotted because the original spot was wrong. 

 

Here I suppose McDermott could have challenged on the basis that Allen scored a TD on the run...the challenge would not have "succeeded" because he clearly didn't cross the goal line, but the replay would have potentially resulted in a correct spot.  At that point, we had plenty of timeouts so "losing" the challenge would not have mattered.     

That's what I was trying to get at.  To take an extreme example, suppose the ball had started 2nd and goal at the 7 and it looked like Josh ran to the 4 but they mark it back at the 6.  Can McDermott challenge that it should've been a touchdown even if he (and everyone in the stadium) knows it wasn't but make that challenge just to get the 2 yards?  It seems odd, but I don't see how he could be stopped from making the challenge.