I’ve been trying to stay off the shithole known as social media during Eagles games, but logged in immediately after the Birds had a touchdown nullified in the second half due to a controversial penalty call:

This would have made it a 14-7 ballgame, but instead the flag pushed the Eagles back to the 20 yard line for first and goal. Ultimately, Jalen Hurts did bulldoze his way into the end zone, so they got seven on the board, but this particular play generated a lot of discussion.

The call on the field was offensive pass interference because the officials ruled that Goedert “engaged” the defensive back before the ball was thrown. It’s hard to discern the exact timing because we don’t have a wider angle, but I found this clip that gives us a better look at the play action sequence preceding the actual throw:

Right, so it appears that Goedert is locked up with Rayshawn Jenkins early. It’s really damn close, but these are timing plays and the officials talked it over and decided to throw the flag.

I found this blurb from an old article that explains the rule better than I can:

“Offensive players may not initiate a block one yard beyond the line of scrimmage and then have a pass thrown that crosses the line of scrimmage. If an offensive player blocks downfield before the ball is thrown and the pass crosses the line of scrimmage, it is offensive pass interference. The rationale is this: A defensive player who sees an ineligible receiver downfield or any eligible receiver blocking downfield can now play run defense knowing that a pass can’t be made, so the defensive player can leave the receiver and attack the run.”

I saw some people suggest this was not a forward pass. If you look at where A.J. Brown catches the ball based on where the players are lined up, just barely off the 10 yard line, it’s SUPER tight. Get the protractor out and we’ll do the measurements. If Brown held up just a little bit more he could have been standing on the 11 instead of the 10, but again, it’s really close.

The reason this was brought up is because you can actually engage downfield on bubble screens, tunnel screens, and other slower-developing plays where the receiver is catching it deeper, behind the line of scrimmage. I pulled this Niners/Patriots still image to give you an example of that:

You can see in that image that two receivers are engaged downfield before the ball is released (also a lineman that I didn’t circle) and the pass is completed well behind the line of scrimmage. That makes it a legal play.

Anyway, hopefully that explains it.