This weekend’s prime time college football game featured #5 Notre Dame visiting #2 Florida State. With seconds to play, Notre Dame appeared to score the game winning TD on 4th and Goal, only to be called back for Offensive Pass Interference. But what made it Offensive Pass Interference?

The play is a common goal line pass play for many college and NFL coaches: a Slant route and a Shoot or Flat route with the hopes of a natural “pick” to make it difficult to cover in Man to Man coverage. Notre Dame ran the play from a “Bunch” formation, which is 3 Wide Receivers aligned in a triangle close together. The Apex, point man, (Middle WR) runs to the goal line and attempts to make himself a big target and box out any defender. The outside Wide Receiver runs a Slant route, and the inside most Receiver runs a Flat route. Florida State matches this with straight Cover 0: FSU is in all Man to Man with no Safety help anywhere, with everybody else blitzing. Notice the backside Tight End and Running Back do not go out for pass patterns, and the pre-snap assignments are shown below:

After the snap, the Apex (Middle) Receiver attempts to make himself a target, but gets jammed badly. However, the rest of the play works to perfection: FSU is in Man-to-Man, they don’t communicate, there is crossing and the inside most WR for Notre Dame is able to get free for an easy score. You can see this after the play: The FSU defenders don’t complain to the referee, they are talking amongst themselves about the blown coverage. The problem is that the two outside Notre Dame WR’s don’t continue routes or even make it appear they are running routes after contact with defenders. Instead, they extend their arms and box defenders out, probably knowing the natural pick has occurred and a TD is imminent. This is likely what raised suspicion to the official; the Notre Dame WR’s made contact, sealed off the Florida State defenders, and then made no more football moves. Natural traffic is perfectly legal, while blocking while the ball is in the air or impeding a defender by sealing them off from another route is not. Here is the freeze frame before the ball is thrown:

The penalty is eventually called on the outside most WR for Notre Dame, but as the videos below show, the offensive pass interference penalty could have been called on either of the WR’s because it arguably looks like they are blocking instead of running routes: (first in slow motion, then standard speed)

It is somewhat difficult to see exactly who initiates contact and what happens after the snap from the broadcast TV angle. A side field angle gives a better view:

The penalty call is certainly open to interpretation. It looks like #7 and #20 (ND WR’s) initiate contact, but the FSU defenders also tried to jam them. The Notre Dame WR’s could have accomplished their goal simply by making it look like they were running a route (still having the intention to get in the way to free up the flat route). Take an NFL example from Week 7, with the Packers running a 2 Wide Receiver Slant/Flat combo on the goal line against Man-to-Man:

No penalty is called on the Packers Touchdown with nearly an identical situation. Why? Because Jordy Nelson, the outside WR running the Slant avoids any contact with the defender while still sealing him off from the Flat route Defender. Additionally, Jordy Nelson continues to run his route and even turns and turns and continues a route instead of looking directly at the route he just picked for. Here is the video of Jordy Nelson setting a legal pick on a Slant/Shoot combo for a Randall Cobb TD from multiple angles:

The key isn’t what the Wide Receiver intends to do or if a pick occurs, it’s how Wide Receivers selI what is occurring to a Referee watching the play at full speed and without the benefit of replay. Jordy Nelson, a true professional, does exactly the same thing the Notre Dame WR’s wanted to do without extending his arms or making it appear like he is blocking early or not actually running a route. In fact Jordy Nelson never even makes contact with the Panthers defender.  Had the Notre Dame Receivers done a better job selling the Slant/Flat pick play, they would likely be ranked #1 in the country this week.