Hockenson and Kevin O’Connell both felt the tight end had demonstrated possession of the football. According to the NFL rules, “overturning a ruling on the field requires clear and obvious video evidence.”
Hockenson noted that on-field officials believed it was a catch, but the call ultimately was reversed by an official at the Art McNally GameDay Central (AMGC), the hub of the league’s replay review process.
“I had control the whole time. My hands were underneath it,” Hockenson said. “I don’t quite understand how the refs on the field, even after New York overturns it, the refs on the field are saying it’s a catch, but they said New York overturns it, so they have nothing to say.
“The only two [officials] I talked to, I said, ‘What happened there?’ And they said, ‘No, we had you as [making the catch],’ ” Hockenson continued. “So I don’t understand where that’s coming from.”
In a pool report published after the game, NFL VP of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth said an angle of the replay showed the ball coming loose before being resecured.
“We used broadcast-enhanced shots to show that as he was going to the ground – he needs control of the ball throughout the process of the catch – he lost control of the ball,” Butterworth said. “The ball hit the ground. Then, he regained control of the ball. So therefore, we overturned it to an incomplete pass.”
O’Connell said he asked officials how the Hockenson play differed from a DeVonta Smith catch earlier in the game the Vikings unsuccessfully challenged.
“It seemed like a very similar premise of why they should maybe be similar, but I did not [receive an explanation],” O’Connell said. “I’m not part of the conversations with [referee] Bill [Vinovich] or New York, but the side judge I was standing with tried to update me as much as possible. But the main update I got was ‘incomplete pass.’ “