Super Bowl ruling challenge

[Deleted]

Early in the game Seattle challenged the spot of the ball on a 3rd down play. The review moved the ball about one additional yard in Seattle's favor, leaving it inches shy of the yard marker. The challenge was rejected and Seattle lost a timeout. Does anyone understand that ruling? In my eyes the challenge was valid as the spot was changed, albeit not enough to give them the desired first down. They had planned a field goal prior to dropping the red flag. Since the first down wasn't made, they went ahead and kicked the field goal. Is that the basis - no change resulted in the play you would be running next? What if Seattle on the now 4th and inches spot decided to go for the first down? Strange and the announcers didn't say a word. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[gorvy]

The challenge in that instance is that the first down marker was gained. In other words, you can't challenge that the spot was off by a few inches. Thus, when the officials ruled that that the ball had not moved past the first down marker, the challenge was lost, even though the ball was placed more forward than the original ruling.

However, Seattle, having gained the additional yard on the result, could have then elected to go for it. Instead, they elected to kick the field goal. I thought they would have gone for it too, but it turned out to be an excellent decision. :-)