The NFL rules read: "When a runner is contacted by a defensive player and he touches the ground with any part of his body except his hands or his feet, the ball shall be declared dead immediately."
This sounds entirely reasonable, until you go to NFL.com and run the Eagles-Cowboys highlights, this time watching the critical play for McNabb's elbows. His left elbow is nowhere near the ground, as he slides to the right and forward, across the backs of Cowboys defenders. His right elbow, initially up in the air, finally comes to rest on the ground, at the end of his slide forward, well beyond the point needed for a first down - at the Eagle beak painted on the field, as TV analyst Cris Collinsworth helpfully points out. Somehow, the ball does not get placed there, even after Reid's challenge, which is the most puzzling part.
As McNabb noted, if you look at the measurement from LeSean McCoy's third-and-1 attempt (probably also a first down, by the way, if you freeze the video marking his forward progress), you'll see that Coleman's crew actually determined that McNabb lost a few inches on his sneak. That is just not what the video shows, from any angle.
If anybody out there understands this, if there's something we've overlooked, please drop us an e-mail. We'd love to be able to provide a better rationale.
It's true that bad calls happen, and that replay often doesn't seem to show the referee what it seems to be showing the layman. It's true that the Eagles got a break near the end of the first half, when Asante Samuel obviously held Roy Williams' left arm in the end zone, with the ball on the way. But this was much later in the game, and the effect on momentum was much greater than it would have been if Dallas had gotten a TD instead of a field goal at the end of the first half.
