The Arizona Cardinals made league history Sunday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On the first play after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, rookie safety Jalen Thompson was called for defensive pass interference in the end zone on a booth review.
“I think we were actually the first one that’s been booth-initiated and the flag has actually been thrown like that,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury told reporters on Monday.
He is right — the league had never previously thrown a flag on such a play. The league is in its first year of revamped rules that allow for pass interference calls and non-calls to be changed upon review.
The NFL provided these numbers on pass interference reviews before Week 10, according to the Associated Press.
“Defensive pass interference not called on the field: 23 coaches challenges with four reversals, and three official-initiated reviews with no reversals.”
In 10 weeks, the play in the end zone was only the fourth all season that the booth initiated. It is no wonder why they didn’t review the final play of the game. The booth had only initiated three previous reviews on a ruling of an incomplete pass to check for interference all year entering the game. It would have taken a lot to have two such reviews in the same game.
“Unfortunately for us, we were the first ones to be thrown and affected by it,” Kingsbury said.
It was one of many small things that led to the Cardinals’ loss.
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