In Saturday’s AFC division-round game in Denver, the overtime period took a sudden turn when a throw by Bills quarterback Josh Allen to receiver Brandin Cooks turned into an interception by Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian.
After the game, referee Carl Cheffers explained the play to pool reporter Jeff Legwold.
“The receiver has to complete the process of a catch,” Cheffers said. “He was going to the ground as part of the process of the catch and he lost possession of the ball when he hit the ground. The defender gained possession of it at that point. The defender is the one that completed the process of the catch, so the defender was awarded the ball.”
And while Cheffers said the ruling was confirmed by the replay process, the NFL’s official game book does not mention that a full review was initiated. Presumably, then, the ruling was confirmed via expedited review.
In isolation, the ruling seems to be accurate. There was no “clear and obvious” evidence to overturn the on-field decision that Cooks failed to maintain possession after hitting the ground. However, the outcome can’t be reconciled with the replay ruling from the Week 14 Steelers-Ravens game, in which the replay process overturned the ruling of an interception when Pittsburgh quarterback Aaron Rodgers apparently failed to “survive the ground.”
“The offensive player had control of the ball and as he was going to the ground, there was a hand in there, but he never lost control of the ball and then his knees hit the ground in control,” NFL V.P. of instant replay Mark Butterworth said at the time. “So therefore, by rule, he is down by contact with control of the ball.”
If that’s the reasoning that applied to the Rodgers catch, the same reasoning should have applied to Cooks. The key is consistency. Either the NFL got it wrong with Rodgers, or the NFL got it wrong with Cooks. In both cases, however, the league defended two very different outcomes.
And, obviously, the outcome on Saturday contributed directly to the Broncos and not the Bills advancing to the AFC Championship.
