Ellis Hobbs' Pass Interference: Bad Call?

With 4:12 left in the third quarter of the AFC Championship, New England led Indianapolis 21-13. Peyton Manning threw an incomplete pass to Reggie Wayne in the end zone, and Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs was called for pass interference on the play. That gave the Colts first-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

The Colts scored and made the two-point conversion, tying a game they would ultimately win. It's impossible to say whether they would have won without that pass interference call, but it certainly helped. And some are saying that was a blown call.

Vic Ketchman writes a great column on the Jacksonville Jaguars' official site, and he says he talked to a league official who told him it was a bad call:

Ellis Hobbs should not have been flagged for pass-interference. He didn't make contact with the receiver and in no way did Hobbs impede Reggie Wayne's ability to catch the pass.

Phil Simms said on the CBS broadcast that Hobbs was called for face-guarding, but former NFL referee Jerry Markbreit says in his own great column on the Chicago Tribune's web site that face-guarding isn't illegal:

A defensive player who makes no contact with an intended receiver, even though he is not looking at the ball, commits no foul ... the interference must have been caused by the defender bumping into the intended receiver, without looking at the football.

Let's put two and two together: Ketchman says Hobbs "didn't make contact" and Markbreit says "A defensive player who makes no contact...commits no foul." It sure sounds like the Patriots got screwed here.

Except that the only person who says the official threw the flag for face guarding is Phil Simms. The referee never said that. And Ketcham is wrong when he says Hobbs "didn't make contact." I just re-watched the tape myself. Hobbs' right hand clearly touched Wayne's left arm.

But the real problem is this: No one has any idea what constitutes pass interference anymore. When I say Hobbs touched Wayne's arm, I mean he just barely brushed it. Is that enough to be pass interference? I don't know, you don't know, and the officials don't know. Different officials call pass interference differently, and until that changes, we're going to have controversies like this.

One final note: As Pro Football Talk points out, the allegedly "classless" Patriots have been, to the best of my knowledge, totally silent about this questionable penalty.