Owners add pass interference to replay review

AdamSchefter@AdamSchefter
It doesn’t change the NFC Championshp game, but changes have been made: All offensive and defensive pass interference calls, as well as non-calls, now be challenged, per league source.

Andrew Siciliano@AndrewSiciliano
Pass interference replay change received 31 votes. Bengals were the lone detractor.

Adam Schein@AdamSchein
Reviewing PI is awful. This is a horrible overreaction. Just terrible. Pass interference is subjective. Games are now going to take forever. Replay has so many flaws and now throw more at us? Refs need to get it right. This is a bad day.

Jim Trotter@JimTrotter_NFL
Roger Goodell on expanding replay to include OPI and DPI: “Don’t let perfect get in the way of better. This was a natural evolution.”

Under the new PI review rules, Super Bowl LIII could have been very different

Doug Farrar

Under the new PI review rules, Super Bowl LIII could have been very different

It’s not surprising that after one of the worst non-calls in playoff annals, the NFL voted 31-1 to expand replay to include pass interference, whether it’s called or not called on the field. (The Bengals were the lone “No” vote).

It’s quite possible that the Saints, and not the Rams, would have played the Patriots in last season’s Super Bowl had Bill Vinovich’s crew called one of the most obvious and missed double penalties in NFL history. Not only did cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman commit pass interference on receiver Tommylee Lewis, he also committed a helmet-to-helmet hit, for which he was later fined over $26,000.

As it turned out, the Rams wound up with a bit of weird officiating karma in the Super Bowl. As Michael Giardi of the NFL Network pointed out, this play in which Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore held the arm of receiver Brandin Cooks should have also been pass interference, but it also wasn’t called.

The competition committee said this play should have been interference and the #Rams would have gotten the ball on the 1-yard line. I pointed this out that night (some of you were irritated). It was subtle but by the letter of the law… pic.twitter.com/TdJi2YBnzw

— Michael Giardi (@MikeGiardi) March 27, 2019

If Rams head coach Sean McVay would have been able to challenge the non-call, and it was proclaimed pass interference, the Rams would have had the ball at the New England one-yard line with a chance to tie the game at 10-10, Just as we will never know what might have happened in the NFC CHampionshup game had the officiating been correct, we’ll never know how that would have changed the outcome of the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever.

The Patriots won, 13-3, but this was the penultimate play of a drive in which McVay’s team had finally started to get things going on offense. Quarterback Jared Goff threw a pass that Cooks should have had the full opportunity to catch, but that didn’t happen. And on the next play, Gilmore intercepted another Goff pass to Cooks, effectively ending the game with 4:24 left in regulation.

The point of this new rule, of course, is not to re-legislate a championship game or a Super Bowl. It is to ensure, as much as possible, that officiating is correct, leading to an honest result to any football game.

It’s too late for the 2018 Saints and Rams, but hopefully, at least one 2019 team will benefit from a rule change that is long, long overdue.

Owners make pass interference, non-calls reviewable

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001024371/article/owners-make-pass-interference-noncalls-reviewable

The NFL owners voted on Tuesday evening to approve a rule proposal that allows for offensive and defensive pass interference, including non-calls, to be subject to review.

Coaches can challenge those calls in the first 28 minutes of each half. In the final two minutes of each half, those calls will be subject to a booth review.

This rule change is only for the 2019 season.

Owners passed the provision, 31-1, at the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix on Tuesday night. The Cincinnati Bengals were the lone team to vote against pass interference replay reviews, sources told NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

Coaches will still have only two challenge flags.

This decision comes a day after New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton said that the competition committee agreed to an amended rule-change proposal (6B), in which coaches would be allowed to challenge offensive and defensive pass interference even if there was no flag on the play. The rule change that passed on Tuesday night is considered 6C.

The reviewability of pass interference calls and non-calls came to the forefront after the NFC Championship Game in January, when Los Angeles Ramscornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman hit Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis early on a third-down play late in the fourth quarter. No penalty was called on the play. The Rams went on to win the game and make the Super Bowl.

The aftermath prompted outrage from Saints fans, coaches and brass, including owner Gayle Benson, who went as far to release a statement on the non-call.

On Tuesday night, Benson celebrated the rule change.

“This is what I wanted to happen. That’s why I made my statement,” Benson told reporters, per NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport “[The non-call in the NFC title game] will never happen again.”

“We think it was a good change,” Payton told reporters. “We’re trying to address the two fouls that most impact games. … The last three years coaches are being a little bit more judicious with their challenges. I think that will continue especially the minor fact that you now have a more meaningful play you can challenge.

“South of two minutes it’s in replay’s hands, but north of two minutes it’s in your hands. I think it won’t take back the way we watch a game. I just think it’s just two more calls.”

The one-year rule change wasn’t just about pleasing the aggrieved Saints. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters that it was important that teams came to a consensus on expanding replay review.

“I personally believe it was the fact that every club wanted to get, and the league wanted to get these plays right,” Goodell said at a press conference immediately following the vote. “Replay is to get it right. And ultimately people compromised, I think, on long-held views because they want to get the system right. They want to get the play right.”

The mandate delivered by ownership to approve this expansion of replay review comes as a surprise. As early as the start of the Annual League Meeting, approving review of pass interference calls was considered a “non-starter” on the competition committee, Rapoport reported.

Coaches were reportedly the driving force behind a deeper consideration of the rule proposal, namely Payton, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Chiefs coach Andy Reid. The latter two reportedly advocated for extending a meeting between coaches and the competition committee on Monday evening to consider and then amend the original proposal.

“Replay has an important tool for us. It wasn’t able to correct something we wanted to have corrected in the past. That to me was the driving force at the end of the day,” Goodell said. “Our job is to get these right and we should use every available means to get them right. Replay is a great means to be able to do that.

“Will this solve every problem? Will this get us to perfect? It’s the old saying, right? Don’t let perfect get in the way of better. This is a very natural evolution and obviously a very positive thing.”