The Carolina Panthers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 30-20 on Sunday, and while the deciding line was 10 points, an early Panthers defensive touchdown that wasn’t reviewed could have swung the outcome of the game.
Early in the first quarter, a Carson Palmer fumble was returned for a touchdown by linebacker Thomas Davis. On television, it looked as though it was an incomplete pass. Yet the game wasn’t stopped for an official review.
On Monday, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians explained to reporters his take on the play and how a technology blunder resulted in seven points for Carolina.
“Yeah, well, we’ll get this one out of the way. There was a network feed problem to the coaches’ booth. They did not have the proper feed for instant replay, so they shut it down — this is my explanation. They shut it down to fix it, and that’s when the play occurred. There was no instant replay feed. It was confirmed a forward pass — an obvious forward pass. But no one had an instant replay feed to look at it.
“And so the replay official upstairs went with his naked eye, so he went with the call on the field because there was no video to watch at that point in time, including in New York.”
Arians said that at halftime, officials told him it was indeed a forward pass and not a fumble.
An NFL spokesperson confirmed Arians’ comments to USA Today’s For The Win, stating that the game wasn’t stopped for an instant replay review because of a technological issue. The proper video feed wasn’t being sent to the replay booth at Bank of America Stadium as well as the replay center in New York. If replay had been available, the call on the field would have been overturned.
NFL source confirms Arians’ description of replay snafu. Replay not available at game, nor in NY. Otherwise, it would have been overturned.
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) November 1, 2016
Like the instance from this past weekend, technology hiccups have become a constant sore with the NFL in 2016, as New England Patriots coach vowed two weeks ago that he was finished using the league-issued Microsoft Surface tablets while a technology glitch slowed concussion protocol for Panthers quarterback Cam Newton in Week 1. Here’s to hoping the league rights the ship when it comes to its off-the-field technology issues.