In loss to Saints, Ron Rivera, Panthers get rarest of wins on pass-interference challenge
The odds were slim, 1-in-20 at best, based on the NFL’s recent history, but Sam Mills told Ron Rivera to throw the flag. Jarius Wright told him to throw the flag. Rivera’s own intuition that he had both circumstances and karma on his side told him to throw the flag.
On an afternoon that left the Carolina Panthers wrestling with questions, they got one answer right. Rivera’s successful late appeal for pass interference in the shadow of the end zone looked like it was the turning point that would deliver the Panthers a victory over the New Orleans Saints.
This rarest of NFL unicorns was lost in the kerfuffle over Joey Slye’s missed field goal and the Saints’ game-winning drive in what ended up a 34-31 New Orleans win Sunday. But in a season full of unsuccessful pass-interference challenges across the NFL, the Panthers were successful at a critical moment in a game against the team that pushed the new rule through in the first place.
With the score tied at 31 and the Panthers trying to punch in a go-ahead touchdown, Kyle Allen threw what looked to be like an overthrown incomplete pass in the left side of the end zone. But there was contact between New Orleans defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Panthers receiver Jarius Wright as Wright ran across the field from right to left at the 3-yard line.
Enough contact? Rivera, at that point, had very little to lose.
“They said the biggest question was, is the ball in the air. Which they said yes,” Rivera said. “Jarius said to me, ‘Coach, if he doesn’t grab me, I’m going to run through that and catch the ball.’ That’s why I challenged. And listening to what (defensive line coach) Sam Mills was telling me upstairs as well: ‘Hey, I saw it, the ball was gone.’ ”
NFL senior vice president of Al Riveron told a pool reporter that the “defender significantly hinders the receiver while the ball is in the air, therefore, it’s defensive pass interference.”
And a no-call became a call, just like the, uh, Saints wanted.
Pass interference, called or uncalled, became eligible for a coach’s challenge in the offseason after the Saints were denied a spot in the Super Bowl in part because Tommylee Lewis was all but tackled by the Los Angeles Rams’ Nickell Roby-Coleman late in the NFC Championship Game and the officials let it go, curiously enough at the same end of this field.
Sean Payton and the Saints led the charge to add the provision making pass interference and the lack thereof a reviewable play, but there have only been a handful of successful challenges during this one-year trial run. Over the past 10 weeks going into Sunday, per ESPN, less than 5 percent of pass-interference challenges have been successful. Payton unsuccessfully challenged an offensive pass interference call in Sunday’s first quarter to extend the trend.
“It was kind of my impression, based on what I’ve seen this year, is they’re not going to overturn anything unless it’s like what happened in the NFC Championship, where it’s a total timing thing and prevents the tragedy,” Saints quarterback Drew Brees said. “Now one got overturned today. That’s one out of I don’t know how many that haven’t. That was interesting. Why that one versus some others. Again, at some point, there is someone that’s making a judgment call, a human decision that’s being made. It’s impossible for that to always be consistent.”
It had long ago become obvious that the NFL was loathe to overturn all but the most egregious calls and non-calls, and was perhaps even inclined to let some of those go rather than overrule its own officials on what is almost entirely a judgment call, as opposed to, say, a player stepping out of bounds.
But Rivera had a sense that his fourth-quarter challenge had a better chance than most. If the NFL was ever going to intervene, this was it: a pivotal play with the game hanging in the balance, never mind a chance to extend a laurel and hearty handshake to the franchise that forced this rule change upon the league in the first place.
“That one, I felt it had to be one they really had to take a nice, long look at,” Rivera said. “Mostly because it was an end-of-the game situation, an EOG. That’s what I think they were looking for, that egregious situation at the end of a game. And I think that fit the criteria because, again, where it happened going into the end zone, and it really was one of those things that was very disruptive. I think that’s what they’re looking for as far as the league is concerned, and I really appreciate they took their time and made that decision”
Rivera didn’t rise to the offered bait, but could have, that it was almost like the NFL was thrilled to use the rule the Saints led the charge to impose ... against the Saints.
Saints, hoist, petard, etc. It was only by the grace of a Panthers offense that went 7 yards backward over the next three plays and Slye’s push-prone right foot that the Saints weren’t beaten Sunday by their own petulant legislative endeavors.
