Did the Vikings and Kyle Rudolph get away with offensive pass interference?

The Vikings pulled out another dramtic win over the Saints, winning Sunday at the Superdome 26-20 in an overtime thriller.  

A terrific deep throw from Kirk Cousins to Adam Thielen set up the Vikings on the 2-yard line.  After two unsuccessful running plays, Cousins tossed the game-winner to tight end Kyle Rudolph in the back corner.  

Right away, the Saints players and coaches were screaming for the officials to review the play for offensive pass interference, saying Rudolph clearly shoved the defensive back, P.J. Williams.  

Did Rudolph push off?  Was there contact from the defense too?  Yes and yes, if you look at the replay.  So, should pass interference have been called on Rudolph?  That becomes a more complicated answer.  Let's look through what others are saying first.

We'll start with the NFL, and their head of officiating, Al Riveron.  He was asked after the game if it was reviewed.  All scoring plays are, so that's a yes no matter what.  While they don't necessarily review pass interference, they can make the determination IF it should be reviewed. 

The NFL said, "there is contact by both players but none of that contact rises to the level of a foul."  The league view is that there was hand fighting and they should let it go.  

The Saints head coach, Sean Payton, avoided a direct answer on if it was interference.  When asked about it after the game, all Payton said was Minnesota played well and made "more plays".  

And this is the part that seems to be the most frustrating part for fans (especially Saints fans).  

In the offseason, the NFL decided to make pass interference reviewable following the glaring missed call at the end of last season's NFC Championship game between the L.A. Rams and these same Saints.  Late in the fourth quarter, Rams corner Nickell Robey-Coleman blasted Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis before quarterback Drew Brees' pass arrived. No flag was thrown and the Rams went on to win in OT.  

Fans, reasonably, assumed that blatent calls would be reversed.  Early in 2019, that was true including a massive change in the Viking game against the Packers. 

The Vikings seemingly scored a touchdown on a pass to Stefon Diggs to make the score 21-14 Packers.  The Vikings were trying to come back from a big, early deficit and this was a huge momentum play near the end of the first half.  As the Vikings celebrated the touchdown, replay official Terri Velenti started to review the play from the press box.  Players and even the officials seemed confused.  The referee, John Hussey, was caught saying "Tell me why we're stopping the game, please."

The officials ended up overturning the touchdown and ruled that there was offensive pass interference.  Minnesota ultimately settled for a field goal and lost the game.  Afterwards, nobody seemed to know why it was called.  It appeared that Dalvin Cook made contact with Packer safety Darnell Savage, but it seemed incidental and not a purposeful block or interference.  Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer said following the loss, "You tell me what happened.  I honestly don't know.”

Since week 3, when there had been a few pass interference calls overturned, replay officials have been almost unanimously ignoring those penalties (or non-penalties).  There were 101 reviews interference-related replay reviews in the regular season according to the Washington Post.  Only 24 resulted in the call being reversed, and most of those were in weeks 1-3.  And no coach, all season, won a challenge where defensive pass interference was called on the field.  

What the Rudolph play shows is that the replay officials and the league do not want to get involved when there seems to be back-and-forth contact.  It was clear that Rudoph extended his arm to create some seperation, but it's also clear he was grabbed, if not held, prior to the push.  Watch P.J. Williams grabbing at Rudolph all through the play, from the goaline to 7 yards deep in the end zone.  With both players pushing, grabbing, etc., the officials aren't going to get involved.

While the Saints have had some bad luck the last three years, let's remember that they've won a Super Bowl under Payton/Brees at the expense of the Vikings and officiating (see 2009 NFC Championship game) so we're not going to feel too bad for them.  Unlike this completely misfounded tweet.