Not many blown calls this season will be more impactful than the pass-interference penalty levied Sunday night on Los Angeles Rams cornerback Josh Wallace.
Wallace intercepted a Bo Nix pass deep in Rams territory, a play that would have all but sealed a Los Angeles victory. Instead, thanks to an impressive sell job by Denver Broncos receiver Pat Bryant - who flailed his arms at the softest of contact from Wallace before the ball arrived - the penalty flag kept the ball with the Broncos. They went on to score and win the game.
Rams coach Sean McVay said the NFL has since told him the penalty should not have been called. That's little consolation for a team that figures to spend most of the season in a three-way race for the NFC West.
When a controversial non-call went against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game in 2019, the NFL experimented with making PI calls reviewable, but it didn't last. The blown call on Wallace coupled with another egregious PI flag in Sunday's Cowboys-Ravens game has renewed calls for such penalties to be subject to replay review.
It's an idea worth considering, if only because pass-interference calls can be game-changers. A 40- or 50-yard penalty is, obviously, much more significant than the 15-yarder that is assessed if a defender blasts an opponent helmet to helmet (the kind of play that is supposed to be the most serious offense in the sport).
But do we really want coaches to be able to throw red flags on penalty calls? This is where implementation gets tricky. The biggest downside of the NFL's current replay system is that coaches' challenges take too long. It takes a moment for the coach to get word from an assistant that he should challenge, and then the official has to march over to the monitor to take a look. Then they stare at replays for a while. In the case of a pass-interference call, the official would then form their own subjective opinion on the subjective opinion of the official who threw the flag in the first place. You can see where this would get messy. The head official doesn't really want to overrule the person who made the call unless the evidence is convincing. Does the head official overrule the penalty on a 60/40 call? Does that constitute clear evidence of a mistake?
In the CFL, pass-interference calls have been reviewable for years now, and the process has survived some early controversies. Once it was generally accepted that it was unreasonable to expect a defender to completely avoid contact before the ball touched a receiver's hands, replay challenges were able to weed out some of the blown calls.
But an even simpler solution might be available to the NFL.
Replay assist has in some ways been a bizarre addition to the in-game experience. Sometimes the mysterious and all-knowing Eye from New York gets involved and overrules a mistaken call, but sometimes it doesn't, forcing one of the coaches to run around on the sideline and wonder if they need to throw a challenge flag or if help from above is coming.
It's a chaotic way to do things, especially when for so long, the NFL left all challenge decisions up to the coaches except in the closing minutes of each half.
When deployed correctly, however, replay assist is great. We usually see that scenario multiple times in a game. A receiver, for example, appears to have made a tough catch while going to the ground, and the official behind him signals for a catch. But a first look at the replay clearly shows the ball hitting the ground. The Secret Replay Orb buzzes into a headset, the call is reversed, and the game continues. The coach doesn't have to waste a challenge, and the mistake is fixed quickly.
It's easy to imagine this working for PI calls. Replay assist could quickly jump in exclusively on the calls that immediately appear incorrect - when both receiver and defender are clearly hand-fighting, or the contact is obviously incidental, or a pass is sailed into the sixth row. These things are hard to catch in real time, but one look at a replay can be all it takes to determine the flag was improper (or should have been a non-call).
Letting replay assist handle pass-interference calls would also eliminate the awkwardness of one on-field official having to assess a colleague's competence in real time. When the mysterious eye in the sky makes the decision, the postgame chat in the officials' locker room can remain civil.
For good or for ill, football fans now expect replay review to correct obvious mistakes like the one that swung the result of Rams-Broncos on Sunday night.
We have the technology. Might as well use it.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.
