Through five weeks of regular-season action, it had become apparent that replay review would be used to overturn a non-call of pass interference only in the event of another Rams-Saints debacle. The first game of Week Six made this reality crystal clear.
Last in Thursday night’s game between the Giants and the Patriots, the officials on the field failed to spot a clear and obvious instance of pass interference committed against Giants receiver Golden Tate, as the road team tried to carve into a 21-point deficit at New England. New York coach Pat Shurmur, despite the ridiculously high bar that now applies to these situations, threw his challenge flag.
The league office quickly upheld the ruling on the field — so quickly that it underscored the message to all coaches: Don’t bother.
In March, the league reacted to the Rams-Saints debacle by making pass interference calls and non-calls subject to replay review. By September, the bar had been pushed so high that nothing short of a defensive player wiping out a receiver before the ball arrives will be deemed to be pass interference if the officials on the field fail to drop the flag.
That definitely wasn’t the manner in which NFL senior V.P. of officiating Al Riveron had planned to apply replay to these situations. In his preseason explanations to entities like NFL Media, Riveron made it clear that he intended to reoficiate these plays, looking for clear and obvious visual evidence of significant hindrance even if the officials had failed to spot it. At some point between late August and Week One, someone (presumably, Commissioner Roger Goodell) had instructed Riveron that replay review simply will not be used that way.
Thursday night’s abrupt affirmation of the on-the-field non-call underscores the reality that Riveron has been told that the new procedure will be used only as a break-glass-in-event-of-emergency device for preventing a complete and total miscarriage of NFL justice — notwithstanding situations like the Tate play, where contact impeding the receiver from catching the ball was indeed clear and obvious.
The blatant nature of the early contact that kept Tate from catching the ball raises the question of whether the new protocol won’t be applied at all until the postseason, or at least until the outcome of a regular-season game rides on the final decision. With the Patriots up 21 and without nearly enough time for the Giants to close the gap, Riveron let it go. If New England had been leading by only seven points, would Riveron have given the Giants a flag for defensive pass interference?
For now, the smart approach for all coaches will be to assume that anything other than a receiver being blown up by a defensive back before the ball arrives won’t trigger a ruling of inteference via replay review, if the officials miss it in real time. Perhaps, in a close game, the outcome will be different.
Perhaps it won’t matter at all until the single-elimination round arrives.
Regardless, replay review of pass interference calls and non-calls clearly has been gutted to the point where it’s meaningless. With each passing regular-season game, it will be harder to break from the precedent that Riveron is creating, one decision at a time.
Come January, that could change. Come March, the league will have to figure out another way to correct blatant and obvious mistakes made by officials in key moments of games, because it’s clear that the change made by owners in March is being ignored by Riveron, at the behest of his superiors, perhaps until a blunder committed by the officials happens with a game on the line.