Mile High Report
Breaking down the officiating breakdown from the week 8 matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers.
In the Denver Broncos 28-14 win over the Carolina Panthers there were a modest 12 accepted penalties and only one challenge. Despite this dearth of action, the officials played too big of a role in the outcome of the game.
Sean Payton challenged a ruling on the field that Panthers WR Jalen Coker was down by contact before fumbling in the 4th quarter. This challenge was unsuccessful. However, it had more merit than the announcers indicated. In the context of the play, announcers said that the ground could not cause the fumble, however this rule is not as simple as they expressed. The ball did not touch the ground, so the question was only if Coker was down before losing control of the ball. By rule the hand, including the wrist, is ignored for purposes of being down, but the arm touching the ground causes the runner to be down. On this play Coker started with his hand on the ground and rolled onto his arm - at some point during this motion the ball came out. I believe that this call was incorrect - split frames seems to indicate that Coker did not have arm above the wrist in contact with the ground when the ball came out, but that is absolutely splitting hairs, in addition to making a judgment about where the wrist ends and the arm begins. I do not begrudge the field official for making the call, or the replay reviewers for upholding it, but this was a very easy call to see going the other way. Thus, Payton probably made a very smart decision to challenge it.
With just under five minutes left in the game, Denver was called for an Illegal Formation. This was a baffling penalty for several reasons. First the announcement of the penalty was “Illegal Formation: Offense #45 covered up the tight end” This does not make sense. Illegal formations exist for only two reasons during a scrimmage down: if the offense has fewer than seven players on the line of scrimmage, or if either end is ineligible by number (an offensive lineman). Covering up a tight end makes the tight end ineligible, which could lead to illegal man downfield if there is a pass play, but on a run play (as Denver ran), its allowed to cover up legal persons on the line of scrimmage. Further, the announcement had the number incorrect. Offense #45 (Nate Adkins) lined up in the backfield, signaled he was off the line (which he clearly was). He was near Courtland Sutton who signaled he was on the line (which he clearly was). All of the offensive linemen were clearly on the line. Adkins then went in motion, obviously in the backfield (and thus not covering anyone up), and was still in motion at the snap. Receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey was...
