Sir Purr
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Winning a pass interference challenge
The three extra plays would never have even occurred if Rivera hadn’t successfully challenged a pass interference no-call on the previous play.
On third down wide receiver Jarius Wright broke across the middle of the field on a drag route. Quarterback Kyle Allen tried to connect with him, but Saints safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson grabbed Wright and slowed him down, preventing him from catching the pass.
The play was initially ruled an incompletion, but after Rivera threw the red flag, the penalty was tacked on. The reversal joined just a handful of other successful challenges, as just seven of 60 pass interference calls or non-calls had been overturned entering Week 12.
“Well, it’s interesting, because the whole thing came about because it’s really about being an egregious penalty,” Rivera said. “The thing that really kind of triggered my mind on it was when Jarius came to the sideline and said, ‘Coach, if he doesn’t grab me, I have a chance to catch a touchdown,’ and that’s what triggered it for me.”
According to Rivera, the reason he believes his challenge was successful as opposed to so many other failures around the league this season was because of how critical the situation was in the game. Early in the first quarter Saints head coach Sean Payton challenged a pass interference call of his own to no avail, but as Rivera mentioned, the rule was created to correct mistakes in game-deciding situations, not the first quarter.
“For 57 minutes and 30 seconds or whatever it was, in that portion of the game, that’s that,” Rivera explained. “But when you get close to the end of the game where something that big could really, truly impact that, I think that’s maybe the interpretation.
“It was in a critical situation, it was near the end of the game, just before the two-minute (warning). I felt that that’s really what it was designed for – to make sure that at the end of the game when something that egregious can happen.”