Challenging NFL pass interference calls has been... challenging. Is more change ahead?
The NFL entered unchartered waters this season with a new rule that many around the league appeared to embrace after the NFC Championship Game.
A blatant no-call pass interference play late in the New Orleans Saints’ fourth-quarter comeback contributed to the Los Angeles Rams’ win that day.
Saints head coach Sean Payton, a member of the league’s competition committee, made an offseason proposal to make pass interference calls both reviewable and open to coaches’ challenges, and the NFL approved that change for the 2019 season following a vote at the annual owners’ meetings in March.
But as teams like the Kansas City Chiefs enter Week 11, reaction to having the ability to challenge offensive and defensive pass interference calls or no-calls has been lukewarm at best.
“I definitely think it is a learning experience for everybody involved with the league,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said. “I have seen the statistics that show the very few times that the coaches are being successful on their challenges. Particularly once we got past the first two games of the season, it doesn’t seem like too many of the challenges are successful.”
Hunt’s last point is an understatement.
With the change in these rules, coaches have the opportunity to challenge called or uncalled defensive and offensive pass interference.
Reviews after the two-minute warning of each half and in overtime are initiated by the replay official under the guidance of “clear and obvious visual evidence,” with an assist from the Art McNally GameDay Central (AMGC) center, home of the officiating command post at NFL headquarters in New York.
Through 10 games, there have been a total of 65 reviewed pass interference plays around the league. Coaches have initiated challenges on 54 pass interference calls through Week 10, resulting in just five overturned calls in their favor.
“It is kind of surprising,” Chiefs rookie wide receiver Mecole Hardman said when told of the numbers.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid is 0-2 on pass interference challenges, but not winning a review and potentially losing a timeout hasn’t changed his decision-making process about when to throw the red flag.
“We talk about it when things happen,” Reid said. “We’ve talked to the league office on where things are and they send out things to us about trends and those type of things that they do. So, I think we handle that well.
“(Chiefs statistical analysis coordinator) Mike Frazier does a good job with all that, and we evaluate the situation. They’re all different. We need to challenge, we challenge. If not, we don’t, right? Then, you go with it.”
A deeper dive into the numbers provided by the NFL reflects just how unsuccessful such challenges on pass interference have been.
There have been eight coach challenges to 11 offensive pass interference infractions called on the field, resulting in no reversals. Three official reviews after the two-minute warning of each half have resulted in two reversals.
Of the 15 uncalled offensive pass interference infractions, coaches challenged 12 calls with one reversal, while the remaining three official-initiated reviews provided two reversals.
Defensively, there were 12 called infractions on the field. Coaches challenged 11 and a booth-initiated review accounted for the last one. No reviewed plays resulted in a reversal.
Of the 27 uncalled infractions, coaches challenged 23 while officials accounted for the final four. Twenty-two of the infractions stood, while coaches won four reversals. The AMGC accounted for the final reversal.
So which coaches have bucked the trend with a successful pass interference challenge this season? Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians has won two challenges, while Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores have each won one.
The three head coaches on the league’s competition committee — Payton, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin and Carolina’s Ron Rivera — are a combined 0-4. Payton has yet to challenge a pass interference play during the regular season.
“I know the reason behind it is we’re trying to get the egregious missed calls in those two areas that impact the game the most,” Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn said Thursday during a teleconference. “If it’s not an egregious foul, they’re probably not going to pick it up.
“And, so, just learn from watching other people throw the flag and sitting in those competition committees understanding what we’re trying to get done. I’m very reluctant to throw one. I did throw one this year, kind of (out of) desperation, and I thought it was pass interference. But it didn’t get overturned and I knew it wouldn’t.”
Meanwhile, there’s a growing perception about the disparity in how the rule is ultimately interpreted. Even some calls that arguably look obvious to television audiences haven’t been overturned.
Hunt said the past 10 weeks’ worth of games have served as a kind of education process. And more changes to the process could be looming.
“I am sure that is something that will be discussed at the end of the season,” Hunt said. “The competition committee will spend some time on it and probably make some changes for next year.”
Some Chiefs players wouldn’t mind seeing the ability to challenge pass interference calls or no-calls disappear again entirely.
“That’s something they’re probably going to get rid of, I hope,” linebacker Damien Wilson said. “It seems pretty pointless to me.
“I just like it when you play it how it goes. Whatever call on the field gets called, just go with that because it slows down the game when you have to review it with the challenge.”
Wilson’s stance has a supporter in teammate and cornerback Charvarius Ward.
Well, sort of.
“I agree with him,” Ward said. “But at the same time, what’s the game without challenges?”
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Challenging NFL pass interference calls has been... challenging. Is more change ahead?."
