What the pool report said about Stefon Diggs’s OPI penalty

New England Patriots

“On that play, we ruled blocking downfield by number eight, early during the play.”

The offensive pass interference penalty assessed to Stefon Diggs in the second quarter of the Patriots’ 25-19 win over the Saints on Sunday wiped out a 61-yard touchdown catch from DeMario Douglas.

After the game, an official was asked what was seen on the play. He answered as follows, according to the pool report from ESPN’s Mike Reiss.

“On that play, we ruled blocking downfield by number eight, early during the play,” the report reads. “So, if there is a situation where a player blocks downfield, it’s not a foul until a pass is thrown, so you kind of put that in the bank. And then the pass was thrown downfield later, that created the pass interference.”

With the pass triggering the penalty, it appears as if the call came in somewhat late. Both teams had their special teams units on the field, setting up for an extra-point attempt. The official was asked to explain the timing of the matter.

“The official was processing the play and then he came to me over the O2O (official-to-official communications system),” the official said. “Because it was a long developing play, he had to rewind back to what happened at the beginning of the play and process that.”

Douglas said it took him a while to become aware that the penalty had erased the touchdown.

“I didn’t even know at first,” Douglas said. “I went to the sideline and then they were like ‘flag’. I was like, ‘Man.’ But, you know, it’s that next play mentality. We’ve got to go get another touchdown then. Kayshon (Boutte) ended up scoring so it stayed in our room and I love that.”

Diggs told reporters that he hopes the league will analysis the plays, but added that he wouldn’t let it spoil the win.

“I don’t really be tripping to be honest,” Diggs said, per MassLive. “I try my best to make plays and catch the ball when they come to me. When I get (back) hopefully we can submit them to the league to see if it was supposed to be called or not, but I don’t cry over spilled milk.”

Diggs, however, made it clear that he disagreed with the call.

“I’m never going to say it’s OPI,” Diggs said. “Sounds like them. Everybody’s got a job to do. Pretty sure we don’t get them all right.”

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said at the podium, before the report came out, that he didn’t have a good explanation for why the penalty was called.

“I don’t really have much explanation. They see something and we’ll continue to play aggressive. We’ll have to clean some of those penalties up, but those live-ball fouls that we talked about, in that situation we want to be really aggressive. We’re taking a shot, long yardage … We’ll remain aggressive, I want our players to be competitive and certainly that was what they felt like they saw.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.