Giants, Jets pleased after pass interference review

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The NFL's newest rule stemming from a key missed call in the NFC Championship game came into play during Thursday night's preseason game when the New York Jets challenged a non-call on an apparent pass interference in their 31-22 loss to the New York Giants. A penalty was called after the review. It was the first of its kind.

The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass on the field when the Jets had the ball on a third-and-8 from their own 22-yard line. It appeared in real time as if Giants cornerback Corey Ballentine had made a clean play to knock the ball down.

But Jets coach Adam Gase called for a review after the replay showed Ballentine grabbing the wrist of wide receiver Tim White. A flag was thrown after a review that took several minutes.

In the end, both sides believe they got the call right.

"Naked eye, at game speed, I thought it was a terrific play," Giants coach Pat Shurmur said. "When you slow it down, you see him grab his wrist. That is a great example of how a play is going to get changed. I'm sort of glad that Adam challenged and it was good on his part."

The rules now allow for coaches to call for a challenge when they feel a pass interference call is missed. Gase was happy with the process and result of the new rule implemented this offseason.

"When it works like that, sure," he said.

In this case, there wasn't any disparity in opinion. The Giants would have challenged had the roles been reversed.

"As soon as it was challenged my guys upstairs said we were going to lose," Shurmur said.

Teams and coaches are using the preseason as an opportunity to test out the new rule, how it's implemented and called. The hope is it's for the better if done correctly.

Gase had it work in his favor on Thursday night. He's still not sure about how it will ultimately play out.

"That's interesting. We're going to just keep working through it," Gase said. "I'm sure there will be mistakes made along the way where it's kind of like, should we have challenged that? Should we not have [challenged]? You're trying to go off of the way it has been explained over the years, the whole DPI, OPI [defensive and offensive pass interference].

"That seemed like the right time and we all felt good about it. And we got the result we wanted."