Peyton Manning threw a backward pass that only the Patriots knew was live

The Patriots won a critical challenge ruling to turn this apparent incomplete pass into a turnover.

Referees ruled the pass forward on the field, but the pass went a yard backward and was recovered by Patriots linebacker Jonathan Freeny. After replay review, the refs ruled the pass backward and gave the ball to New England. They scored their first touchdown of the game a few plays later.

Here’s the point where Manning released the ball. You can see the ball is at around the 23-yard line.

And here’s the point where the ball is first touched. It’s around the 22-yard line, a yard behind where the pass was thrown.

So calling this a backward pass was definitely the right call. And while an incomplete forward pass is a dead ball, an incomplete backward pass is live for either team to pick up and advance.

But because the play was incorrectly ruled on the field, this play was more confusing than it should’ve been. If nobody blows a whistle, Freeny is home free and can run into the end zone. But the whistle was blown, so the play was dead.

You could argue the Patriots shouldn’t have been given the ball as a result of this play, since everybody slows down, assuming the play was backward. Yes, everybody slows down, but Freeny has the ball in his hands before any whistles are blown. The exact wording in the rulebook is that the “recovery must occur in the continuing action following the loss of possession” for the referees to reward possession on a play ruled dead on the field. The referees apparently felt that since Freeny recovered the ball before any whistles were blown, it counted as “the continuing action.”