re: Reid Interception...looked like a completed pass

quote:

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If Reid was not in the play and Williams catches the ball, he hits the ground and the ball is jarred loose. Incomplete pass right?

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Only once the ball hits the ground. Until then, it's like a tipped pass, and the ball is live.

After the ball has clearly been controlled in a passing play with a run after the catch, then the pass is considered to be complete upon gaining that control. The idea is that the receiver's motion in making the pass involved running and the ball is controlled through that motion. Failure to maintain control after that point is considered a fumble because the pass has completed and the play has shifted into a run phase. Ground contact causing the ball to pop out in that situation renders the play dead, as the ground cannot cause a fumble.

However, in a passing play where there is no clear completion before ground contact (i.e. a diving or falling catch), the completion does not take place at the moment the receiver controls the ball because the to finish the motion undertaken to attempt the catch, the ground must be hit. In this situation, posession must be maintained through the ground contact. Therefore, it doesn't really matter if the receiver had control of the ball before he hit the ground because the it is clear that possession was not maintained through contact and therefore the pass was never completed.

However, a pass not completed is not the same as an incomplete pass. A pass that isn't complete is still a live ball play and it does not become a dead ball incomplete pass until the ball then touches the ground in bounds or goes out of bounds. It follows the exact same rules as a tipped ball and anyone can grab it and take posession.

That's what happened here, and Eric Reid gets a great interception.