Towards the end of the first quarter today in the Colts-Ravens game, Peyton Manning throws to Reggie Wayne, Wayne falls over, flag is thrown, pass is incomplete. The officials confer for a while, and then start to announce this: “The flag was for illegal contact. However, the ball was in the air.”
Now, at this point, I think to myself, “Oh, then it’s pass interference.” Right? Wrong.
The ref continues, “It was not enough for defensive pass interference. Therefore, there’s no flag on the play.”
What? I understand that unlike illegal contact, pass interference requires that the ball be catchable, but I didn’t realize there’s a difference in the “amount-of-contact” standard. Can someone clarify this rule for me?
Oh - and as a bonus question, anyone know what happened at the end of the first half of that NFC game? It seemed the Saints player had possibly - likely even - actually caught a touchdown on that Hail Mary, but AFAIK no review was conducted. Anyone have the story there?
I didn’t see the Colts game, but as to your second question: I think Colston got a hand on the ball, but one of the three defenders around him knocked it away before he could bring it in for the TD.
In answer to the first part of the OP: Not all contact between a receiver and a defender qualifies for pass interference. So the determination was that the contact in question was not interference.
Unanswered in the explanation was whether or not the contact in question, had it occurred before the ball was in the air, would have justified an illegal contact penalty. It might not have.
I guess you and I understood the ref’s explanation differently. I was pretty sure he was saying that it would have been illegal contact without the ball in the air (since the flag had been thrown for that and all.) Of course some contact is allowed - I just didn’t know you were allowed more contact once the ball is thrown than before. I guess I still don’t depending on whether or not illegal contact would have been awarded.
So, you can get in the way of the reciever if you’re going for the ball, as long as you don’t go through him, or push off.
Conversely, prior to the throw you can only impede the reciever’s progress for the first five yards and then you have to let him run his route unhindered.
As you note, some contact is allowed prior to the pass, but the “defense has as much right to the ball” clause accounts for the additional contact allowed afterward.