In the Denver Broncos' win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, there was a potentially game-altering intentional grounding penalty called on Bo Nix that was overturned, to the benefit of the Broncos.
Instead of facing a 3rd and 24 if the play stood as originally called, the Broncos instead were rewarded with a 3rd and 6, which they converted, and then proceeded to extend their lead from 18-17 to 21-17 later in the drive while also burning 2:17 of additional clock as well as all three of the Eagles' timeouts.
Here we'll unpack what happened.
First, the play occurred in the fourth quarter with 3:34 left to regulation and the Broncos holding onto an 18-17 lead. Nix dropped back to pass, and he was corralled by Eagles edge defender Jalyx Hunt. Nix then heaved the ball to avoid being sacked.
Intentional grounding is a complicated penalty, relatively speaking.
First, was there an eligible receiver in the area? If there was, then it's not grounding. If there was no receiver in the vicinity, then you look at whether the quarterback (a) was in the pocket when he threw, and (b) whether or not the throw landed past the line of scrimmage. If there was no receiver in the area and the quarterback was in the pocket, then it's grounding. If the quarterback was out of the pocket, and he did not throw the ball past the line of scrimmage, it's grounding.
Oftentimes, one official alone can't see all of those components. It's an oddball penalty in that the officials will usually talk it through before throwing a flag for grounding.
Anyway, that was very clearly grounding. There isn't a receiver in the area, and the ball did not get back to the line of scrimmage. During the telecast, there was debate over whether Adam Trautman (82) was in the area, but he's not within 15 yards of the ball when it hits the turf:
100625Grounding4
If a player more than 15 yards away from a throw is deemed "in the vicinity," then why even make it a penalty at all? Just make it legal.
After conferring for 22 seconds (I timed it from when the ball fell incomplete to when the crowd cheered the flag), the officials decided to drop the flag for grounding.
Referee Adrian Hill then announced the penalty to the audience, and the officials spotted the ball from where Nix threw it. The scoreboard showed "3rd and 24."
But then, a full 55 SECONDS (LOL!) after the officials dropped the flag for grounding, Jim Nantz said that the Broncos were celebrating because the flagged had been picked up and the ball re-spotted at the Denver 47, setting up a 3rd and 6. Nantz assumed that the play had been overturned on video review.
However, grounding is only reviewable for two components:
Was the quarterback in the pocket?
Did the ball cross the line of scrimmage?
It is NOT reviewable for whether or not a receiver was in the area.
After the game, pool reporter Zach Berman of The Athletic interviewed Hill about the intentional grounding play.
“So what happened there, we have an O2O – that’s our official-to-official communication system," Hill explained. "My O2O was not working. Grounding is a teamwork foul. I had intentional grounding. The line judge had that there was a receiver in the area – 28 – but I didn’t hear the information over O2O so I threw the flag. The line judge came in and let me know that 28 indeed was in the area, and that’s why we picked up the flag.”
He meant 82, but whatever.
Initially, I had wondered if Hill was making up the "O2O" stuff to cover for a much more egregious mistake of reviewing an unreviewable play, but after Zapruder'ing the video, it does appear that the line judge (Julian Mapp, No. 10), had Trautman as "in the vicinity."
Here's the entire almost two-minute long debacle.
• Note at the 0:10 second mark in the above video, Mapp signals incomplete, and then points, likely as if to say a receiver is in the area.
• Also note that at the 0:44 second mark, Nix is complaining to Mapp that Trautman was in the area, and it looks as if Mapp is like, "Dude, please, I got it, would you let me go talk to the referee."
In summary, there didn't appear to be anything nefarious going on with the review process. It was merely an officiating crew making one of many bad calls on the day, and taking almost two minutes to do it.
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