DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Pass Interference Now Reviewable, Other Changes

Even Non-calls for PI are reviewable. Wow. I am shocked they approved this.

Pass interference now reviewable by NFL officials
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/26367953/pass-interference-now-reviewable-nfl-officials

PHOENIX -- NFL owners have approved a massive philosophical expansion of its replay review system, bowing to pressure from coaches and fans who were outraged by a missed pass interference call in the NFC Championship Game.

For at least the 2019 season, pass interference -- both offensive and defensive -- will be reviewable, the first penalties and judgment calls ever to be added to the list of approved reviews. Moreover, coaches will be able to challenge non-calls for pass interference. The replay booth, in conjunction with the league's officiating office in New York, will initiate those challenges in the final two minutes of each half.

The vote for the replay review changes among owners was 31-1, according to competition committee chairman Rich McKay.

Earlier Tuesday, owners made two expected votes.

They made permanent the 2018 changes to the kickoff rule, which had been made on a one-year trial basis, citing studies that showed the new rule improved player safety. They also voted to eliminate all blindside blocks, not just those to the head or neck area, to increase safety on punts and other plays. It is now a 15-yard penalty if a player initiates a block in which he is moving.

Owners also approved a proposal that gives teams a choice in the timing of enforcement on a personal foul or unsportsmanlike conduct after a scoring play. The yardage can now be marked off either on the extra point or on the kickoff.

In other voting on rules, the NFL tabled a proposal, originally put forth by the Kansas City Chiefs, to guarantee each team a possession in overtime. Owners will next take up the overtime topic at their May meeting.

The league also defeated a proposal from the Denver Broncos to give teams a one-time option in the fourth quarter to have a fourth-and-15 from their 35-yard line as an alternative to an onside kick.

Good move... I've always felt PI needed to be reviewable...

I think this is a bad move. Not that the play is reviewable, but why is this the only call that is reviewable? Why limit it to just PI?

If its not all, then just leave it be.

I am OK with this but for years I have said there should be two different degrees of PI, much like the roughing/running into the kicker penalties.

An intentional/obvious PI should be spot of foul, an "incidental" PI could be like a personal foul or defensive holding 5 or 15 yards, possible automatic first down.

Only thing I don't like about my idea, is still subjective call by human refs. Think PI non call against the Saints last year in title game.

I defer my opinion of this until I see how they use it.

I dont like bs calls that go for big yards.

On the other hand....

Now that we have a high powered offense maybe things will swing in our favor.

I could get behind that...

PI penalties can play a huge role in the outcome.
I read about this earlier today. I think the sky ref is a great idea.

So, they learned nothing from New Orleans.

It's a move in the right direction. Bottom line - you're feeding your fans a product that is slowed down to 100 frames per second on any given play, impact plays should be judged through the same lens.

I’m surprised at this. If it was New England that got screwed on a no call (like that happens) then I can see the NFL doing something like this. Them doing it over NO is a surprise.

???

Who has the NFL gone after more than the Patriots?

Shocking. Cincy is the only team to vote against this.

On another note. CBA talks to start in April.

GOOD news there.

I don't understand the blindside rule.

It's a 15 yard penalty if a player initiates a block in which he is moving.

I don't get it? How do you block if you aren't moving?

I don't understand that either...what does that "moving" part mean? How do they know exactly where the "blindside" is? We already have a block from behind penalty. If someone turns their head away from the blocker, is that then a blindside hit?

Sort of. I think back to the hit Sapp put on that GreenBay player. That is what is to be eliminated.

Maybe the wording is poor. Maybe it means is a player way out of the play is simply watching from 30 yards away, you can't just clobber him. I don't know. ???

They'd better tighten up the definition of what PI is, or the results are going to be all over the place and no one is going to be happy.

Bad Move.

What is PI? Once ref says a simple hand check on the chest is, another says it needs to be blatant. Too much leeway and interpretation on each set of crews of what PI is. This is going to lead to coaches to just chucking out flags when they get a crew they know are more inclined to call it.

Also, there is PI on every Hail Mary. Just line your guys out wide, let them run a streak, and chuck the ball up. No flag? Challenge, you will win.

The NFL wonders why people are losing interest, its because they keep messing with the dang game EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Just let it be. You don't need to change it for the sake of changing it!

Everything should be reviewable. You can't tell me a non-call helmet to helmet on the QB, a hit on a defenseless player, or any other type of non-called personal foul is less egregious than a non-called pass interference. And don't forget all the times an erroneous whistle, phantom penalty, or blatant holding call effected the outcome of a game. These issues need to be taken out of the refs' hands. They are getting it wrong so often they effect not only games but entire seasons. If they were to get it right, there would be no reg flag, so incentive is there to work harder to make the right calls. As far as slowing the game down, I'm sure there would still be a limited number of challenges so the chances of throwing frivolous challenge flags would be reduced. Coaches would have to pick their battles like they do now.

j/c:

I hate when obvious pass interference calls are missed, whether it be on the defense or offense. However, I think the game has been slowed down by too many penalties and the two new rules will only make the game slower.

Games w/a lot of penalties are not fun to watch. Hell, there might be a penalty on every special teams play now w/that blindside block.

And the PI rules are going to be time-consuming and controversial. We watch the games for the action and not to watch older men in striped shirts dominate the air waves.

Over officiating is not a good thing.

In the words of the great Marv Levy:



Had to settle for the image, as I could not find the video. Too bad, because that was a classic.

Agreed, but bad officiating that affects seasons is worse. It's even possible we could see a reduction in ticky-tack penalty flags if the trend moves to a "let them play and see if the coaches challenge non calls" style of officiating. That might actually be a good thing. Let the coaches decide if it's worth a challenge or not.

Games are too close, final drives are too important. This is long overdue.

Agree with Eve Ill want to see how it s used.... seems to be a slippery slope here, what next ?

Holding call?
Off sides?
Mic every player to confirm what he said to warrant 15 yards?

j/c:

I've never been one to expect perfection from the officials. It's a job done by humans and errors occur.

The players aren't perfect. They drop passes, throw inaccurate passes, fumble the ball, stumble over their own feet, forget the snap count, etc. Human error is part of the game. I just hate a game that is filled w/a lot of penalties. It disrupts the flow of the game.

That would be nice, but I doubt it. I see coaches throwing flags just to take a shot at getting a call. I also see refs getting more cautious about having X amount of calls overturned, and then throwing more flags so they don't get challenged for the non call.

this is a good thing

It's a good thing, but they need a time limit on every review. If they can't see enough to reverse the call in 60 seconds, call stands on the field...play on.

Thank goodness these replays are limited to the last two minutes of halftime and end of game. I still think it will affect play-calling so that more deep balls will be thrown in order to get PI calls.

We'll see. Coaches will still have a limited number of flags to throw so I don't think they'll be frivolous with their challenges. Refs might see advantages to letting coaches challenged the non calls as opposed to having close calls challenged and overturned. The more things they make challengeable the more possible this becomes, I think. But yeah, we'll see.

The one that angers me, is KC is asking to change the OT rules. Look, I get that the Saints would be backing the PI review change, but KC needs to shut up about losing in OT. The Pats stuffed the ball down your throat by scoring a TD, you DON'T DESERVE your own possession. A TD should end OT.

The owners shot down the Broncos terrible change to the onside ( LINK). Instead of an onside, the team gets a 4th and 15 from their 35. Seriously? Why not just create a rule that TDs in the last minute are worth 14 points or you get a 5th down if there's less than 10 seconds remaining. Come on! Is this the AAAAAAF league?

Personally, I think onside kicks are dumb. There shouldn't be a way to get the ball back after you score. It's like a loophole to make every game exciting to the last second. It just feels like robbery when a team pulls it off. They played the game the right way for 59 minutes and one odd bounce of the ball and they lose. It's like if the NBA made a 10-pt shot from halfcourt.

I see this opening up a can of worms on what we already often see. Inconsistency that exists from one officiating crew to another. We see it all the time. One crew enforces certain penalties much stricter than another. One crew let's players hand check and some bumping go on in coverage and let's them play it out more. A different crew will call it very tight and not permit this nearly as much. Unless there is a much stricter and clearer definition of the PI call from the league, this will only magnify the vast differences in officiating crews.

I think teams already understand it and as such adjust how they play depending on the crew doing the officiating. But I don't think most fans understand the magnitude of it. This will put it on full display and may make the issue worse instead of better.

I'd rather have a retired official in the booth watching for blatant missed calls like the one that went against the Saints.

This, while good in principle, is gonna be a time wasting mess. I imagine lots of 5 minute reviews only to hear "the play stands as called," preceded and followed with additional commercial breaks.

Here's what I would do with OT:

The ball is placed at the 50. No FGs. You must score a TD. No XP, you must go for 2. If the 1st team to have possession scores 8 points, the game is over. If they don't, and score only 6, the other team gets a shot.Each team gets one drive. If they score and the other team doesn't, they win. If they don't score and the other team does, they lose. If one team scores only 6, and the other scores 8, the team with 8 wins. Whether the 1st team scores or not in OT, the 2nd team to have possession also gets the ball at the 50.

2 TO for OT. 1 challenge.

Yes this might create more ties, but that's OK. It's better than giving a team a "cheaper" win, and it would make some teams gaining possession with only limited time left in the 4th think about moving the ball into FG position, rather than having to go the more difficult OT route.

It's too similar to college, which I don't like at all. May as well have a skills competition (Kick, Punt & Pass).

In my opinion, I think it's perfect the way it is. A TD ends it. You don't want to lose? Don't give up a TD. You had 60-mins of possessions until the end of regulation, there were lots of opportunities to score more, you didn't. OT doesn't have to be 100% fair, although I'd bet the defending team has the advantage (meaning, what percentage of drives end in a TD? I'd bet combing punt+turnover+madeFG+missedFG+lossofdowns+safety is more than 50%). Heck, in the NFCCG the Saints threw a pick on their first drive, LA won by playing defense. Go figure. If the Browns lost like the Chiefs, I would be angry with the defense, not the OT rules.

The only thing I'd tweak for regular season OT is each team is only allowed one punt. From there, you have to go for it. That would eliminate ties a bit more.

THis is a great rule, it makes thing smore interesting - and makes you make a play. The onside kick is about 99% recovered by the receiving team. Lets make the game more interesting. You want to stop someone from getting the ball back - stop their offense. Don't stop a 3rd string backup TE from laying on the ball.

I agree. And I point to the CATCH rule as exhibit A. We still don't know what a dang catch is from Ref to Ref. We aint gonna know what a PI is from Ref to Ref either.

I suggested this a few months ago. Rather than do the moronic challenge flag/head-ref trots over to a 10-inch screen under a tarp to squint and make call/trot back out 3 minutes later to make the wrong call ... They should just have a "booth" official that can buzz down and virtually "throw" a flag after a quick review of the play. Most of these controversial calls/no-calls are things that can be seen within 10 seconds of watching a replay. There's no need for the circus of having the head-ref see it for himself. Just have a guy in the booth and give him the same power as an "on-field" ref.

I like pass interference being reviewable.

How long until game approach 4.5 - 5 hrs?

Zero time.

Coaches will rarely throw the flag unless it's blatantly obvious.

Might be just me, but I'll watch Brown's football for 4 hours EVERY DAY!!!!