Contact vs. uncatchable, what is the cutoff

[StudyingFutureZebra]

I can't find a video of it, but during Saturday's Notre Dame/Stanford game, the ND receiver was in front of the Stanford defender. There was contact from behind by the defender, and the pass was underthrown and hit the Stanford defender in the butt. Defender flagged for pass interference. I'm just wondering what the criteria for an uncatchable pass is, and how much contact does it negate?

[runninbj]

The CCA manual is clear: "An uncatchable pass must be blatantly uncatchable in order to disregard a foul for pass interference."

The problem with watching on TV is that you don't get to see the whole route. Maybe if the defender hadn't been pushing the receiver forward, the receiver would have been able to stop and catch the ball. That's interference.

On TV it might look like it landed 10 yards away and there's no way the receiver would have been able to get to it. But what if he hadn't been interfered with? Maybe he would have been 2 yards away instead.

The situation you describe, where the ball hits the defender (that apparently isn't even looking for the ball, since it hits him on his behind) as the defender is contacting the receiver sounds 100% catchable. Can't tell without video though.

[NVFOA_Ump]

Defender flagged for pass interference. I'm just wondering what the criteria for an uncatchable pass is, and how much contact does it negate?

Don't think you want to try to come up with some order of magnitude trade-off between how uncatchable vs. how much contact.  As runninbj notes, when a receiver is "run off the ball" as he was here, the ball is actually 100% catchable, but the receiver was unable to play it since he was run off the play by the defender by physical contact, so he could not stop and play the ball.  This one is a DPI foul 100% of the time.

[clearwall]

I remember that play. Defender prevented A10 from coming back to the ball. Good call for a restriction

[Magician]

Unless the underthrown ball is intercepted by another defender.

[NVFOA_Ump]

Unless the underthrown ball is intercepted by another defender.

If in the judgment of the covering official, the defender's contact resulted in the receiver being unable to stop and/or get back to the ball, it's still DPI.  Even where a 2nd defender intercepts the "underthrown" ball in front of receiver.

[Magician]

If in the judgment of the covering official, the defender's contact resulted in the receiver being unable to stop and/or get back to the ball, it's still DPI.  Even where a 2nd defender intercepts the "underthrown" ball in front of receiver.

Not based on the philosophies I'm hearing most conferences use.

[NVFOA_Ump]

Not based on the philosophies I'm hearing most conferences use.

So we would ignore the blatant illegal contact downfield on a play where a forward pass crossed the LOS?

[Magician]

So we would ignore the blatant illegal contact downfield on a play where a forward pass crossed the LOS?

Yes, if the pass is underthrown and intercepted or defended by a different player. It's a fairly known philosophy, but it doesn't happen that often.