RiverDog wrote:How can you see that he was 4 yards away? It's a close up angle and you can't even see the sidelines. 4 yards is a lot of space in a close up angle like that pic.
The picture is cut off when displayed in the forum. You can see more of the sideline in the original pic:
https://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/2018/ ... -catch.jpg. It makes a difference when you see the full thing (I don't know how to make it small enough to appear in full). Crawley is between the 35 and 40 (
http://cdn1.thecomeback.com/wp-content/ ... 32x447.jpg) and Diggs catches it at the 35. That means in the first picture I linked, the 35 is the line just ahead of Crawley. There is probably 1.5 yards between Crawley's right hip and the start of the hash mark at the 35, then there however long it is from the left of the hash mark to the sideline.
RiverDog wrote:I think we can settle the debate by noting that not only would Williams have had to hit him while he was in the air, he would have had to make the tackle in such a manner that Digg's feet would not have hit the ground, meaning that he would have had to have gone below the waist and taken his legs out from underneath him. If he hesitates and tries to wrap him up rather than hurling himself at his legs, Diggs hits the ground and makes it a few steps to to the sideline.
The other thing is that Williams might have been preoccupied about drawing a PI, and hesitated enough to throw his timing off.
This play is libel to get scrutinized as much as Russell's pick in SB 49.
I think if Williams had timed it so he could wrap around the waist in the air he could have twisted him down far in bounds, even if he let Diggs' feet hit. I'm sure you've seen that Hawk Tackle video Pete released. Imagine that Williams wrapped around the waist from behind in the air, let Diggs' feet hit, started twisting by putting himself between Diggs and the sideline. That's not a really tricky tackle, either, especially because Williams had his head on that side of Diggs anyway. That would have put Williams behind Diggs' knees with Diggs' back to the sideline. I don't think Diggs would have been strong enough to drag a defender 5 or 6 steps to the sideline, especially given that his angle to the catch wasn't perpendicular to the sideline.
I think you're probably right about Williams being preoccupied and that throwing things off.
I'll put my idea this way: if Earl or Kam had been in that position, I would have been shocked if they let Diggs get out of bounds.
In the end, though, I don't really care about it that much. Certainly not enough to argue as much as I have.