SaintsBro

Well roughing the passer is one of those things where fans of different teams will NEVER see eye to eye. If it was "your guy" you'd be howling if it wasn't called. I think that was a great call by the officials and Drew deserved to have that turnover nullified.

Now the offensive pass interference on Gates, welllll it's a lot like holding -- it's a judgement call by the official. That's why they actually have names like Back Judge, Side Judge and Field Judge! The conventional wisdom is that holding happens on every NFL play, but normally holding doesn't get called or "shouldn't" get called, unless it affects the outcome of the play. For example a 30 yard run that should have been a 5 yard run without the crucial hold that sprung the guy -- that holding definitely affected the play and will usually result in the play getting called back. So typically, holding on a suspiciously long gain, will get called quite often.

Also on kick returns for example. It's always a really great kick or punt return that gets brought back by offensive holding or block in the back, isn't it? They almost NEVER call a block in the back or hold when the return guy just runs smack into a wall of bodies and falls down at the 20 or whatever. Even though jersey-grabbing and blocking in the back happens on almost every kick and punt return, as those guys run down the field.

And there WAS a bit of contact there on the Gates pass, which did in turn influence the outcome of the play, so I don't know how you can justifiably say it was suspicious or bogus. If the ball had been incomplete, or uncatchable, if it had been wildly overthrown, and the offensive pass interference penalty was still called on San Diego, THAT would have been suspicious.