Yesterday, Kansas City Chiefs WR Dwayne Bowe displayed what a few folks are calling "alligator arms".
In the second quarter of Sunday's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Bowe ran a route over the middle of the field and Cassel tried to find him in stride about 30 yards from the line of scrimmage.
The ball floated over Bowe's head - probably not catchable - and into the hands of a Bengals defender just ahead of him.. Bowe might have had a shot at batting the ball down so it couldn't be intercepted but we'll never know because he got those "alligator arms" right before he crossed paths with the defender and didn't even try to knock it down.
Peter King of Sports Illustrated said of the play, "Are you kidding me, Dwayne Bowe? What a shameful, unprofessional display of alligator arms, resulting in a Matt Cassel interception that never should have been."
"We coach our receivers pretty thoroughly on the fact that when the ball's in the air, if we don't catch it, we need to make sure they don't catch it," Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said today when asked about the play.
There was another interception late in the game that was thrown in the direction of Chris Chambers. Haley said of the plays, "Both receivers have to do a better job of breaking up the ball and they understand that."
"Our rule is if you don't catch it and you are in the vicinity of the ball, we can't allow them to have a chance at catching the football."
Bowe may not have had a chance to knock it down but the point is he didn't even try when in reality the ball was probably a lot closer than he may have realized.