Florida State Seminoles News

The ending to the Notre Dame at Florida State game was controversial, with a potential game-winning touchdown by the Fighting Irish getting waved off due to offensive pass interference. 

Replays show that the call was correct, according to the textbook definition of the call. The question is, how often is that call made in ACC games. 

We looked at pass interference penalties in every ACC and Notre Dame game this season to see just how often contact results in a flag for OPI, and if some teams have benefitted from the call more than others. 

Some notes on the data: These are all flags thrown for interference, regardless of whether a team accepted or declined the penalty. Defensive holding, which is similar to interference, is not included in the numbers. We ran our numbers by the ACC office, who said, “These are consistent with the overall incidence of OPI/DPI in recent years and nationally.”  

The average game involving an ACC team or Notre Dame features 1.4 flags for pass interference. Some teams see many more flags in their games. 

Obviously, the number of flags thrown is highly connected to the type of offense being run. A team running a triple-option ground attack, like the Yellow Jackets, isn’t going to get a lot of flags for pass interference when they’re on the field, especially compared to a pass-heavy deep ball offense like Jacoby Brissett runs at NC State. 

Also, the raw flag numbers above don’t say anything about which team benefits when a penalty is called. 

Overall, when an ACC (or Notre Dame) offense has the ball, 11.4% of interference flags are on the offense. That’s nine out of 80 interference flags thrown this season. Here are the team-by-team numbers, with the obvious caveat about small sample sizes: 

Again, deep-ball offenses give players more time to battle for position, so it’s not a sign of foul play that teams like NC State and Notre Dame are near the top of the list of most-penalized receivers. In fact, a deep ball is more likely to result in an OPI given the way the pass interference rule is written. 

ACC coordinator of officials Doug Rhoads elaborates on the different standards that offensive and defensive players are held to in the interference rule in an email to ACCSports.com:

“ The rule says the offensive player is restricted “from the snap” from initiating contact….where the defense is restricted only after “the ball is in the air” on a pass.

·     This means that contact can be initiated by the defender before the ball is thrown—as long as the offensive player is a potential blocker and he can be “warded off” to prevent himself from being blocked.  But, once the ball is in the air….or the receiver gets equal to or past the defender….he then cannot be contacted.

·      Blocking downfield by offensive receivers is legal, as long as the pass is first touched on or behind the line of scrimmage.

My point of all of this is there are many more plays that occur further downfield….and the judgment issue for officials is which player creates the “obvious intent to impede”……” 

Here’s the OPI/DPI data from a defensive point of view, which is sure to spur outrage in South Bend:

 Florida State has seen six interference flags while playing defense and half of them have been OPIs on the opposing offense. Two of those OPI flags were in the Notre Dame game (the Noles declined an OPI penalty on the Irish earlier in the fourth quarter).