ARLINGTON, Texas — Was it pass interference or not?
That is the question that dominated the discourse at AT&T Stadium through much of Saturday, after the South Oak Cliff Golden Bears fell to Port Neches-Groves in the 5A-Division II State Championship Game.
A late pass interference penalty against SOC helped lead to the decisive PNG touchdown, en route to a 20-17 victory, blocking the Golden Bears path to a threepeat.
Being entirely candid, at first I thought it was a horrible call. The replay angles we saw initially showed two players competing to make a play on a pass, with neither restraining the other. It was just a straight football play, with no penalty. That’s what most of us saw, and that’s what led to such a visceral reaction from many, calling foul on a flag that felt unjustified.
Especially when placed within the context of SOC’s stifling defense, that stone-walled PNG time and again on goal-to-go plays, leading to field goal attempt after field goal attempt earlier in the game, the penalty that gave PNG 1st & Goal at the 2 seemed like a gift.
But as more angles continued to come out, the evaluation of the play had to change at least somewhat. The infraction that was called happened at the top of the route, not at the moment the ball arrived. You can see it on the video, and you can see it much more clearly in the picture. The defensive back grabs a hold of the receiver. The jersey is pulled so clearly you can see shoulder pad exposed.
Now, could there be a discussion had about whether there was hand-fighting going on between both the receiver and the defensive back? Of course. And reasonable arguments can be made on either side of that. But the video and the picture very clearly show that there is something there, and throwing a flag on this play is absolutely a rational decision for the official to make.
The one other key piece of this to evaluate – timing. The way the rule is written, if the jersey pull happens before the pass is thrown, it is defensive holding. If the jersey pull happens while the ball is in the air, it is pass interference. The officials deemed that the infraction happened while the ball was in flight, leading to the pass interference penalty being enforced, and PNG getting the ball at the 2-yard line.
This piece of it is extremely close. Pairing together the video and the picture, it would seem the jersey pull happened almost simultaneously with the quarterback’s release of the football. It’s a straight judgement call, and it’s not the type of thing that can be sent to replay to evaluate. The officials have one shot to judge it the best they can, and stick with the call. They determined the ball was out, and that it was pass interference. I can’t in good conscience critique that piece of it. It’s way too close to say they were wrong, especially when you consider they don’t have the ability to slow it down and look at it 57 times like I have over the course of today.
Do I love the call? No. I think it’s a borderline call, that easily could’ve been left as a no-call, as two guys jockeyed for position and battled in the endzone on a crucial play.
But it was a borderline call. Which makes throwing the flag there a perfectly rational outcome. And writing that last sentence is a dramatic departure from where I was in the immediate aftermath of the play. I confess, as I did on social media today, that my evaluation of the play evolved significantly over the course of the day. And I’m not alone – I talked with some other people within the Texas high school football world who know officiating very well, who at first blush thought it was a terrible call too. And then as more angles and the picture came to light, the evaluation changed. It had to. It has to. It’s not fair to the official who threw the flag, to turn a blind eye to that evidence.
Do I think he should have thrown the flag? Ultimately, I still lean toward no. But I absolutely can see why he did.
