Coughlin on short end of challenge again

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If the Giants had lost to the Packers in yesterday's NFC divisional playoff game, Bill Leavy would be the most reviled man in New York.

That's because the Giants were on the short end of another controversial call by the controversial referee in the first quarter of their 37-20 victory.

With the Giants leading 10-3 late in the quarter, Greg Jennings caught a 6-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers. But Giants safety Deon Grant appeared to make a precision move, jamming his right hand under Jennings' forearm to knock the ball loose.

It appeared to nearly everyone on the field that the Giants had recovered Jennings' fumble. Everyone, except Leavy.

The play initially was called a fumble on the field, but Leavy overruled his crew, saying Jennings was down by contact. An incredulous Tom Coughlin challenged the call. After a long review period, Leavy declared that the ruling on the field stood.

Five plays later, the Packers scored on an 8-yard pass from Rodgers to John Kuhn, and the Packers had tied the score.

If the Giants had lost, fingers would have pointed to this call for years to come. In the broadcast booth, Fox's Joe Buck and Troy Aikman thought it should have been overturned. So did Mike Pereira, the NFL's former vice president of officiating.

"To me, the ball is being ripped out," Pereira said on the telecast. "There was indecision on the field when they made the call initially, so there was some question there. It is a judgment call, but if I were under the hood, I would have reversed this to a fumble with a clear recovery by the Giants."

It was far from the first time that Leavy made a questionable call. You may remember that he admitted making two of them in the fourth quarter of the Steelers' win over the Seahawks in the 2006 Super Bowl.

Those bad calls included offensive holding against Seattle tackle Sean Locklear, negating an edge-of-the-goal-line first-down spot, and a chop-block penalty against QB Matt Hasselbeck that most people thought never happened.

It couldn't have felt too good for Coughlin, who doesn't seem to be an officials' favorite when it comes to challenging calls this season. It was the eighth straight time he has lost a challenge. "We must be 0-for-100 by now," he said.

It also wasn't the first time this season that the Giants thought they got the short end of the stick in a game against the Packers. They were angered by a series of calls in a 38-35 loss to Green Bay Dec. 4.

The officials in that game ruled, seemingly incorrectly, that Giants tight end Jake Ballard did not get his knee down in the end zone on a potential touchdown catch, and they then upheld the ruling after a review. The Giants had to settle for a field goal.

The officials also ruled a TD instead of an incompletion on Jennings' juggling catch in the back of the end zone. That also was upheld after review.

There also was an illegal-contact penalty on Giants linebacker Jacquian Williams on a play that negated a sack of Rodgers.