Fangio on Coaches Getting a PI Challenge Overturned: 'It's Going to Have to be a Five-Car Pile-Up'

As a direct consequence of the now infamous missed pass interference call in last year’s NFC title game, the high profile introduction of the coaches’ challenge on the foul has so far failed to solve the problem.

Since Week 3, analytics point to there being a remote chance of seeing a PI penalty be overturned after throwing the red challenge flag. To be precise, it’s standing at a 4.9% ratio because head coach challenges are batting a miserable 2-for-41 since.

Throughout the league, the systems in place to review the plays have come under heavy and growing criticism. The Denver Broncos found themselves on the losing end of the new, flawed PI interpretations are in Sunday's loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Head coach Vic Fangio weighed into the conversation on Monday, revealing that from the time the rule was adopted this past spring during the league meetings up until now, "it's changed.”

Fangio went further in-depth, explaining that this lack of clarity in PI interpretation is a league-wide concern. One head coach Fangio has spoken with had called the league offices to get some answers on PI challenges and got an unexpectedly candid reply, as Fangio relayed in the following anecdote.

“They said that they’ve been told not to overturn those," Fangio said. "It’s going to have to be a five-car pileup, I guess, for them to overturn something.”

Due to the developing situation, it’s having a knock-on effect on how games are being coached as a direct result. For Fangio, on Sunday the arbitrary interpretation of PI had a direct impact on yardage, downs and clock management, which after his failed challenge of a PI call, left the Broncos short of a vital timeout. Fangio offered up the reasons behind him throwing the flag.

“I challenged one late in the game just because that was going to be our last drive, [it was a] critical situation and I thought it was worth the chance," Fangio said. "If it had been much earlier in the game, I wouldn’t have.”

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This, of course, serves to sketch out the real deep-rooted issue in how a possibly game-changing rule is being adjudicated by NFL officials. How can head coaches know when to throw challenge flags if they can't be certain what PI is anymore? What's a coach to do when it’s his last throw of the dice to keep a game alive?

For the Broncos, the worst was yet to come in Minnesota, as they were further let down by the on-field officials not throwing flags late in the game, and the review system in New York failed to take control to point out what the crew had simply missed through their egregious omission.

In the high stakes world of pro football where literally billions of dollars are on the line, it’s become self-evident that the new rules are flawed and were rushed into active service this season in response to a public groundswell of criticism aimed at the NFL. What was clear to Coach Fangio is that the rush to implement the challenge system stemmed from the NFC Championship game.

“It was a knee-jerk reaction to a play that caused a lot of public uproar, so it’s what happened,” Fangio said.

With so many calls now being subject to failed challenges, it will come to the point that analytics will make it common sense to simply never throw the flag from now on. But try telling that to a coach with a game, and his neck, on the line.

Follow Keith on Twitter @KeithC_NFL and @MileHighHuddle.