Eagles DT Cullen Jenkins is Onto Something: M.D. Jennings Should Have Batted Down Touchdown Ball

We all saw the controversial final call by now on Monday Night Football as the Seattle Seahawks got a gift win against the Green Bay Packers.  Every angle you look at the play, Packers safety M.D. Jennings appears to have caught the ball in the end zone on the "Hail Mary" play that was the Seahawks' last ditch effort for a victory.   As wrong as the call may have been.   Eagles DT Cullen Jenkins has a very valid point:

Fundamental ball in all sports is something that tends to get lost.   A safety wants to have an interception to his credit, and whenever I would play safety I loved intercepting the ball.  But I learned early in life in the school yard playing two-hand touch football with a nerf ball that there are times when batting the ball down is the proper play for a safety.

Jennings should have thought ahead before the final play of the game.  Knowing that the clock was running out and that this would likely be the final play of the game, he should have known what to do.  "If I get an opportunity to break this play, I should do whatever I can to interrupt the pass."  He should have batted it down.

So while the refs really did botch this play, a good amount of the responsibility rests with Jennings' failure to think ahead.  With time expired, breaking up the play was all that they needed.  If he batted the ball down there would never have been any need for the refs to mess anything up.  The Packers would have been victorious the moment that batted ball hit the ground.