Tipped Mahomes pass was not reviewable and did not eliminate intentional grounding

In the middle of the third quarter, officials penalized Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for intentional grounding. Initially, the pass was ruled as simply an incomplete pass, but after a crew discussion — intentional grounding is a crew call — referee Carl Cheffers dropped his flag.

Mahomes initially argued that his arm was hit while he was throwing the ball, but it was not. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid threw his challenge flag and argued the ball was actually tipped, requesting replay to review the play. Cheffers denied Reid’s replay request because he indicated that there were no reviewable elements of the play. (Because there was some confusion over what was reviewable, Cheffers allowed Reid to pick up his flag without charging a timeout and a failed challenge.)

There is a lot to unpack with this play, and as Gene Steratore noted on the broadcast, it was a situation he had never seen before in his years of officiating or working as a rules analyst. First, broadcast replays showed that a defensive lineman did tip the pass as it was in flight. This is not in dispute. However, unlike defensive pass interference, where there can be no foul, by rule, on a tipped pass, intentional grounding has no such stipulation. Officials typically give the quarterback the benefit of the doubt with intentional grounding of tipped passes, but it is still a judgement call by the crew. Below, you can see a summary of the intentional grounding, under Rule 8-2-1, condensed to the relevant parts:

It is a foul for intentional grounding if a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage because of pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass that is not in the direction and vicinity of an originally eligible offensive receiver. … Intentional grounding should not be called if … 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.

While the rule mentions physical contact as a consideration, it does not specifically mention a tipped pass being a factor. This is why replay can review for a tipped pass on a defensive pass interference call but cannot review for a tipped pass on an intentional grounding call. Replay can only review three aspects of an intentional grounding call: (1) where the pass landed, (2) whether the quarterback was in the pocket, or (3) the spot the pass was released from to establish the spot of the foul. Because the effect of the ball being tipped is still a judgement call, replay can’t and shouldn’t get involved.

The ultimate question is, did the tip affect the pass enough that the ball would have otherwise landed in the area of a receiver? I’d argue it did not. The closest receiver to the pass was running a deep route and only stopped his route when the whistle blew after the pass hit the ground.

If the ball wasn’t tipped, it likely would not have landed near an eligible receiver because the bottom receiver would have continued his route. The point of the intentional grounding rule is to reward the defense and to keep quarterbacks from throwing the ball away when under duress to avoid a sack. It is clear that this is what Mahomes was doing, and in a league where most of the rules favor the offense, this seems like it was a just decision.