All WR's push off and most times get away with it......I thought Stingley got hosed on both calls, but honestly that's gonna continue to happen as the league places more & more emphasis on points & scoring. But Sutton pushed off pretty hard at the top of his break on the slant for the 1st PI call & as I said in an earlier post, The 2nd long pass PI call, that really should've been a no call...both guys were hand fighting with their inside arm. On the telecast they said Stingley pulled Sutton's arm down preventing him from making the catch..& he did but that was as the ball arrived which is supposed to be ok. In watching it closely tho, Sutton is actually the one who grabbed Stingley's arm to pull it down to prevent
him from getting his hands on the ball right before the ball arrived.....as the screenshot below shows....
View attachment 10694 View attachment 10696
So although he was called for PI, it was more of a reputation call (vet vs. rook). Sting's technique was excellent on this play tho. He subtly and successfully got on top of the route & squeezed that sideline cushioning once he knew it was going deep. They teach you as cb to do that for a number of reasons. 1, for location of the WR & ball in space..the key here is you gotta look back for the ball & you have to be subtle about getting on top of them & cutting them off..which Sting is from the 1st screenshot. 2, you as the cb want to squeeze that 5 yard protective cushion on the sidelines the WR is protecting for the QB to "error" on his throw. WR's tend to want to run around any resistance you're offering and veer outside towards the sideline when you get on top of them..which decreases that cushioning for error..which in turn makes it just a little harder throw for the qb to drop in there without erroring on their placement. Finally, when you get in their hip pocket like Sting was on this route, it inadvertently takes away that inside arm of the WR & makes it difficult for them to reach out and catch the ball with both hands if your body is blocking them from raising that arm up..Sutton literally had to pull Sting's arm down to get his inside arm free b/c was so closely in his hip pocket there.
Clinic **** right there.