On the Jim Schwartz Challenge Penalty

Yesterday I was sitting in there watching in disbelief as Justin Forsette ran 81 yards to the end zone when he clearly had a knee and elbow hit the ground, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal because all scoring plays are reviewed. There is no way that the run touchdown would stand on review. While I can't believe an official didn't blow a whistle, I was OK with that because I would rather them let it play out that way instead of blowing the whistle when a runner isn't down so the play cannot be reviewed.

Because there were so many people in the room with me I could not hear the commentators but was blown away when the referee said the play was not review-able. Why??!? I shouted.

By now you know that the play was not reviewed because Jim Schwartz threw his challenge on a play that was going to be automatically reviewed. By NFL rule, that means the play is not reviewed and a penalty is called. That is a stupid rule.

It would make a whole lot more sense for the rule to be that the coach loses a challenge if he throws the flag on a play that is automatically reviewed. Hopefully that is something that they will change before next season.

Of course all of this is so much worse because it happened against the Texans. Who knows how the rest of that drive would have played out, but Houston might have won this game just because of this stupid rule.