We’ve all seen the play and the ridiculous circus that took place after, which turned into a Carolina Panthers turnover in the end zone. To summarize, Tommy Tremble appeared to be interfered with, and the ball bounced up off his hand and into the hands of Denver Broncos’ DB Devon Key.
The Panthers then ran a whole play and got stuffed at the goal-line before referees appeared to retroactively grant a Sean Payton challenge. The tipped ball was correctly ruled an interception on the replay, so it was a touchback for the Broncos.
The Broncos went down and took a lead they wouldn’t relinquish after that play. On a pretty dismal day by the referees, that mistake loomed large. Surely, the explanation after the game will help us all make sense of the unprecedented turn of events?
Not so. Charlotte Observer reporter Alex Zietlow asked the referees about the replay gaffe, and their explanation doesn’t make any sense.
Head referee Alan Eck said, “Replay can get involved to make sure that the head coach throws his challenge flag prior to the next snap. We were actually able to use angles to show that the flag was out before the snap, and so we permitted the challenge.”
That doesn’t hold water, though. In the past, if the referees did not see the challenge flag come out and the play commenced, it’s dead in the water. It’s an unfortunate and rather silly aspect of the challenge process, but it’s been this way forever.
If you don’t get the ref to see what you want to do before the ball is snapped, then you’re just out of luck. Unless you’re Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos, it seems.
And it’s not as if the referees blew the play dead because of the challenge. The play was blown dead because it had ended. The play had entirely taken place, and the referees decided to retroactively grant the challenge.
We won’t pretend to have seen every challenge in NFL history, but that feels like something no one has seen before or will ever see again. And the nonsense explanation from Eck doesn’t help the matter.
That’s not the only mistake the refs made that hurt the Panthers, and it’s not the only reason the Panthers fell short on Sunday in Charlotte. But it was essentially a 13-point swing in a five-point loss, and the NFL’s attempt to justify one of the biggest mistakes this season just doesn’t hold up.
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