Sean McVay won’t be “losing any sleep” if backward-pass proposal fails

The Rams have proposed multiple rule changes in the aftermath of the wacky two-point play in the Week 16 game at Seattle. Meeting with reporters on Tuesday, coach Sean McVay was asked what the Rams hope to accomplish.

“It’s a very rare play,” McVay said, via a transcript circulated by the team. “I’ve never been a part of a play like that, but it was accurately officiated. Basically what our proposal is trying to be able to do was get a tipped ball — when it’s a backward pass that’s actually tipped by the defense that goes past the line of scrimmage to fall under the same parameters of a fumble at the end of the half, under two minutes at the end of the game . . . on fourth downs or on PAT attempts or two-point attempts. It was basically trying to write it in a way that allowed it to fall under the same parameters of not being able to advance a fumble favorably like the Holy Roller play that the [Raiders] had years ago.

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“That was basically the gist of it because I think everybody would agree. It’s not a huge deal. It doesn’t come up often, but it did affect us in that game. Now, did it affect us winning and losing? I’ll never make an excuse like that, but it was a play that I think most people would agree, when you tip a perimeter screen pass and it goes forward past the line of scrimmage, that shouldn’t be necessarily rewarded for a team falling on it.

“If it doesn’t go through, I’m not losing any sleep over it. It was just because it was an impactful play in the season. I think my feeling is even if I was on the other side, those are things that I think we would probably agree should fall under the same bucket as that. You have to write it in a way that makes it a little bit more complicated. Long story short, we were trying to get that play to be falling under the same parameters of not being able to advance a fumble in those types of situations even though it wasn’t considered a fumble because it was a backwards pass.”

The Rams have proposed a 40-second limit on the initiation of booth reviews, given the lengthy delay that preceded the announcement that the failed two-point conversion by the Seahawks was getting a second look. The Rams also have made a pair of proposals as to the substance of the play.

Under the first, the reversal of an on-field ruling of an incomplete pass to a backward pass that touched the ground with recovery beyond the spot of the backward pass by the team that threw the backward pass would result in the ball being placed at the spot of the backward pass.

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Under the second, a backward pass that is deflected by either team and touches the ground would be treated like a fumble, when the play happens on fourth down, after the two-minute warning, or during a conversion attempt.

Either proposal would have wiped out running back Zach Charbonnet’s nonchalant recovery of the backward pass from Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold that was tipped and then bounced into the end zone.

Any of the proposals will require 24 votes from the NFL’s 32 teams to pass. Our guess? Even though it makes plenty of sense, it will be very difficult to get 75 percent of all teams to support it.