The Rams proposed multiple rule changes after a wacky two-point play in Week 16 against Seattle. When meeting with reporters on Tuesday, coach Sean McVay was asked what the Rams hope to accomplish.
“This is a very rare game,” McVay said in a transcript distributed by the team. “I’ve never been involved in a play like this, but it got accurately called. Basically, what our recommendations were trying to do was get a slanted ball — when it was a backwards pass that was actually slanted by the defense, past the line of scrimmage, at the end of the half, at the end of the game not To the two-minute mark, a fumble falls under the same parameters… on a fourth down or a PAT attempt or a two-point attempt. It’s basically trying to write it in a way that allows it to fall within the same parameters, which is not being able to advance the fumble as smoothly as the Holy Roller game. [Raiders] It happened a few years ago.
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“That’s basically the gist of it, because I think everybody would agree. It’s not a big deal. It doesn’t happen often, but it did impact us in that game. Now, did it impact us in winning or losing? I’m never going to make excuses like that, but I think it’s a play that most people will agree that when you screen a pass on the outside and it goes forward over the line of scrimmage, it’s not necessarily rewarded for the team that falls on it.
“I’m not going to lose any sleep over it if it doesn’t work out. It’s just because it’s an impactful play of the season. I guess my feeling is, even though I’m on the other side, I think we can probably agree that these things should fall into the same category. You have to write it in a way that makes it more complicated. Long story short, we were trying to make this game fall within the same parameters, and even in this situation the fumble couldn’t be advanced. It wasn’t considered a fumble because it was a backwards pass.”
The Rams presented a 40 seconds limit The launch of the booth review comes given the lengthy delay before the two-point conversion that was declared a failure by the Seahawks was revisited. The Rams also made two suggestions regarding the substance of the play.
In the first case, reversing the ruling of an incomplete pass on the field to a backward pass that touches down and is recovered outside of the backward pass position by the team that throws the backward pass will result in the ball being placed in the position of the backward pass.
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In the second instance, when play occurs on fourth down, after the two-minute warning, or during a transition attempt, a back pass will be considered a fumble when it is deflected by either side and touches the ground.
Either proposal would eliminate running back Zach Charbonnet’s nonchalant recovery of a pass thrown backwards by Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, who was tipped and then bounced into the end zone.
Any proposal would require 24 votes from the NFL’s 32 teams to pass. Our guess? While it makes sense, getting 75% of the team on board is very difficult.
