In Texans-colts, Pass Interference Was Called On Clearly Uncatchable Ball

The pool report from Sunday's Texans-Colts game addressed three controversial calls. It overlooked one of them.

With three minutes to play the third quarter, the Colts faced third and 19 from the Houston 44. Quarterback Daniel Jones threw deep to receiver Alec Pierce. The officials called pass interference on safety Calen Bullock. The Colts picked up 32 yards in field position, and a first down.

There was only one problem. And it was a big one. The pass was clearly uncatchable.

The ball landed well out of bounds, close to the dotted yellow line painted nine feet from the outer edge of the thick white stripe that borders the sideline. Pierce would have needed a ladder, or a pogo stick, to have a chance at catching the throw.

There was no discussion of catchability during the broadcast. None of the Texans defenders made the gesture (palm over top of head) that indicates uncatchability. The official who threw the flag didn't even look to see where the ball had landed.

It was a clear miss, one that resulted in a Colts touchdown on the very next play, tying the game (with the extra point) at 13.

Again, it wasn't addressed in the pool report. The league otherwise hasn't said anything about it. During Football Night in America, Simms decried the lack of common sense exhibited by the call. (As Simms quipped, the hot dog vendor had a better chance at catching the ball than Pierce.)

Unfortunately, common sense ain't. And that quality was on display in Indy. If the Colts had won the game, it presumably would have been a much bigger deal. Instead, because the Texans won, three calls that favored Houston became the subject of the post-game postmortem.