Pass interference misses have become the biggest officiating issue

The NFL has an ongoing officiating crisis, one that it will never publicly admit. The problem becomes most conspicuous as to the issue of pass interference.

In both Week 16 and Week 17, key late drives in prime-time games were marred by the failure of the officials to call defensive pass interference. It happened late in the Sunday night game between the Patriots and Ravens, when Baltimore cornerback Marlon Humphrey dragged New England receiver Kayshon Boutte to the ground before the ball arrived. (The Patriots overcame the clear error and won.)

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Last night, a long throw from Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford to receiver Tutu Atwell didn't connect, because Falcons cornerback Dee Alford hooked Atwell’s arm, preventing him from getting a second hand on the ball. Again, no flag. The miss was critical, and multiple folks on the broadcast weren’t afraid to criticize it.

If Atwell had caught the ball, he would have landed in bounds at the Atlanta 10. The play started on the Rams' 35. The offense would have had to sprint 45 yards and kill the clock, in 10 seconds. The game likely would have ended. If the officials had thrown the flag, the Rams would have had the ball inside the Atlanta 15, with enough time to take a shot at the end zone before trying a field goal that would have forced overtime.

Of course, Saints fans will have no sympathy for the Rams. It was an uncalled DPI foul against L.A. in January 2019 that propelled the Rams to Super Bowl LIII over the Saints. The reaction nudged the NFL to include pass interference calls and non-calls within the orbit of replay review.

And then the NFL, during the one-year experiment of 2019, completely screwed it up. It was so bad that it almost seemed as if they were trying to make it a complete mess, in the hopes of keeping it to a one-year-only project.

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Now, there's no way to fix it, without bringing back a more effective way to review such plays. Given that defensive pass interference is a spot foul, the consequences of a miss are massive. Last night, the Rams lost 45 yards of field position based on the failure of the officials to do what they should have done.

The NFL should find a way to fix it. Prediction? They'll continue to ignore the situation until it decides a Super Bowl. And then they'll scramble to find a solution, acting as if they weren't aware of the potential problem.

Until then, it remains the biggest way for one or more officials to directly impact the outcome of a game. That's too much influence, especially in the age of bet! bet! bet!

There's one possible way to neutralize the consequences of a defensive pass interference foul, and in turn the power of a single official. If it's only a 15-yard (or 10-yard) penalty and an automatic first down, the officials have less influence over a situation that does, or doesn't, deliver a gigantic chunk of field position and, in turn, potentially determine the outcome of a game.