Could Kelce’s wildcat TD be restored by a coach’s challenge?

At the end of the first quarter, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce takes the direct snap and runs for a 4-yard touchdown. It was called back by a face mask penalty, which an initial look at two replays brings the call into question.

It was implied on the broadcast by CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore that the play could be reviewed to pick that flag up. Additionally, could Andy Reid have issued a coach’s challenge to get the touchdown restored?

First, Reid cannot challenge the play, because it is a scoring play, even though there is a flag down. Only the replay official can review the play. However, a face mask penalty is not subject to the standard replay review, only through a replay assist. This may seem to be a inconsequential distinction, but it is important.

If replay applies an assist, it cannot be a call subject to analysis. It must be something where a single pass of the video or a still frame will provide the clear and obvious evidence to overturn. Certain fouls were placed in the replay assist section of the rules, but not subject to a full review. This is intentional, because the Competition Committee only wanted replay to intervene in very obvious fouls, and at that to only pick up and flag.

For a face mask assist, replay can only pick up the flag if there is no contact to the face mask. In this case, offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor raked his hand across the face mask of his opponent, but did not pull, grasp, or control. Replay cannot make the judgment on the type of contact being a face mask foul, only the objective evidence that the face mask was not touched. Therefore, the penalty must stand.

Replay is not permitted to make subjective calls, except that catch and fumble recoveries tend to have some degree of subjectivity to them, but it is encompassed under the reviewable element of possession. (However, there are strict procedures in those cases to minimize the subjectivity.) This was intentionally added into the rulebook in this manner, which would reverse a call in a situations like when a player is pulled by the shoulder and his head jerks in a manner that looks like a face mask pull.

So, this isn’t a pure face mask call, but we can’t exactly rule out the possibility of a pull by the helmet opening (in this case, the underside of the helmet) or the earhole. It doesn’t seem likely that such a pull happened, but based on the angles presented, there is a small margin of doubt.