It seems that every week, there’s at least roughing the passer penalty called against a defender wherein the call makes no practical sense. It’s early in Week 14, but at this point, we have to give this week’s “You have GOT to be kidding me” roughing the passer call to Alex Kemp and his crew, who are calling the Washington-Dallas game.
With 3:42 left in the first quarter, Dak Prescott completed a seven-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper, and that indignity to Washington’s defense was further compounded by a roughing the passer call on defensive lineman Matthew Ioannidis. Kemp’s crew came into this game tied for second in roughing the passer calls with nine (tied with Ron Torbert’s and Shawn Hochuli’s crews, behind only Clete Blakeman’s and Land Clark’s), so I guess he got the quota filled here.
This was a roughing the passer penalty. pic.twitter.com/icFl2Jl3X3
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) December 12, 2021
It was clear that Ioannidis contacted Prescott after he had thrown the ball, but when you look at the NFL Operations Manual for all the definitions of roughing the passer… this one is pretty filmy. For one thing, Ioannidis was twisting around guard Zack Martin, which means that he didn’t see Prescott until after the throw. This is a minor push, so Ioannidis didn’t drive Prescott to the ground with his weight on the quarterback, he didn’t go low on Prescott when Prescott was in the pocket, and he didn’t commit (as the rule book puts it) any sort of “intimidating and punishing act.”
Here’s the first rule of roughing the passer, per the NFL:
- Roughing will be called if, in the Referee’s judgment, a pass rusher clearly should have known that the ball had already left the passer’s hand before contact was made; pass rushers are responsible for being aware of the position of the ball in passing situations; the Referee will use the release of the ball from the passer’s hand as his guideline that the passer is now fully protected; once a pass has been released by a passer, a rushing defender may make direct contact with the passer only up through the rusher’s first step after such release (prior to second step hitting the ground); thereafter the rusher must be making an attempt to avoid contact and must not continue to “drive through” or otherwise forcibly contact the passer; incidental or inadvertent contact by a player who is easing up or being blocked into the passer will not be considered significant.
If you watch the play, Ioannidis took a step to get to Prescott, but he only took one step when Prescott was in his sight. Most likely, he pushed Prescott as a reflex action because he wasn’t yet aware of what had happened. Ioannidis did nothing else to initiate contact. He didn’t drive through the passer. and outside of the small push, Ioannidis did nothing to initiate contact.
More and more, it appears that NFL officials are more interested in what a penalty looks like than what it actually is. That’s been true of roughing the passer calls all season, and Matthew Ioannidis is just the latest defensive player to get caught in the crosshairs of that particular reality.
