After the Week 16 Thursday night overtime thriller between the Rams and Seahawks, L.A. coach Sean McVay was apoplectic about the manner in which replay review changed an incomplete pass into a successful two-point conversion.
The Rams plan to try to do something about it.
Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports that the Rams plan to propose a rule change that would make the outcome of the play in question an unsuccessful two-point try.
No details have been provided as to what the change would be.
The play was fueled by the fluke deflection of a backward pass that caused it to go forward. And because it was a backward pass and not a fumble, it could be recovered beyond the spot of the backward pass by someone other than the person who threw it.
One possibility would entail applying the fumble rules to a backward pass that is touched by a member of the defense or, even more specifically, one that is touched by a member of the defense and ricochets forward.
Apart from the kooky outcome is the fact that it took 100 seconds to initiate a replay review. As PFT recently reported, a call from Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay to NFL rules analyst Walt Anderson sparked the process.
Given the outcome of that game and its impact on the NFC West crown and No. 1 seed in the conference, it was the call of the year. Whether it prompts a rule change remains to be seen.
The fact that it happens so infrequently could be the best argument against a change, with teams continuing to coach players to pick up any loose ball they see. Like Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet did in that key moment.
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