Yes, It Was Intentional Grounding

The head official for the Green Bay Packers-Philadelphia Eagles game on Friday was Ron Torbert, who led the league in calls per game in 2023 with 12.82. The median (Adrian Hill) was 11.35, and Scott Novak called the fewest with 9.75. And so, Ron Torbert’s performance, in which he called 17 total penalties against Green Bay and Philadelphia, for a combined 128 yards, as well as five additional penalties which were declined, isn’t that surprising.

What IS surprising is the one big call he did not make. On 3^rd and 2, with 7:32 remaining in the third quarter, Isaiah McDuffie of all people, made a nice read on a fake RPO handoff and correctly diagnosed that Jalen Hurts still had the ball. McDuffie closed quickly, and Hurts understandably panicked, pumped once towards AJ Brown at the top of the formation, and then quickly reconsidered as Xavier McKinney was sitting right there waiting. And that fact is one of three major reasons that Torbert, who LOVES to call EVERYTHING, was wrong to not throw a flag here, but we’ll come back to that in a second.

In Torbert’s explanation, he cited the following NFL rule:

Item 2. Physical Contact. Intentional grounding should not be called if:

1. the passer initiates his passing motion toward an eligible receiver and then is significantly affected by physical contact from a defensive player that causes the pass to land in an area that is not in the direction and vicinity of an eligible receiver; or
2. the passer is out of the pocket, and his passing motion is significantly affected by physical contact from a defensive player that causes the ball to land short of the line of scrimmage.

Hurts is definitely still in the pocket on this play, but I think it’s fair to say he does have an eligible receiver in AJ Brown. The important part of the rule for the first part of our analysis is:

the passer initiates his passing motion toward an eligible receiver and then is significantly affected by physical contact from a defensive player.

Emphasis mine. I will not go so far as to say that Torbert absolutely got this call wrong, but I think he probably did. This is a question of fact, and it’s a close call, but to me, it looks like Hurts doesn’t start his throwing motion until AFTER McDuffie has made contact. I know you shouldn’t use still frames to prove things in the NFL (see GIF above for context!), but take a look.

Now, has he started his throwing motion yet? I think no, but reasonable minds can differ, and it’s close enough that I won’t give anyone a hard time if they disagree. But as stated above, we have two additional pieces of evidence as well.

We’ll need to focus on a different part of the rule for the next two factors:

significantly affected by physical contact from a defensive player that causes the pass to land in an area that is not in the direction and vicinity of an eligible receiver

Emphasis once again mine. The physical contact must be the cause of the pass not landing in the proper area, and while McDuffie surely does make physical contact, there is a lot of evidence that the physical contact was not the cause of the short pass here.

First, let’s return to the pump fake. Remember that Hurts already thought about throwing to Brown, and decided against it not because of contact, but because Xavier McKinney totally would have housed that ball. And so we know that at least one major cause was Xavier McKinney.

There’s another reason to doubt contact as the primary cause of the short pass. You can discover that reason by searching “Jalen Hurts squats 600 pounds” on Twitter. McDuffie doesn’t exactly light Hurts up. He actually makes a very nice form tackle, pulling Hurts to the ground, but Hurts still has solid footing, and some leverage, and a pretty good arm available to him on this pass. You’re telling me Captain Tush Push could only get the ball like two yards on that tackle? He definitely, 100% could have gotten the ball to Brown or to the line of scrimmage. He chose not to because he knew the ball would be picked.

And so, the contact really wasn’t the factor, and while Torbert may have some argument to keep the flag in his pocket, that case breaks down pretty quickly.

I don’t think this play mattered that much in the grand scheme of things as the Eagles still punted the ball away and Jordan Love threw an interception three plays into the next drive, but it surely matters a bit. More than anything, Hurts clearly violated the spirit and intent of the intentional grounding rule, and if you’re not going to throw the flag here, you may as well get rid of the rule entirely.