Except that’s not what happened. No one would be arguing if the ball popped loose. It didn’t pop loose. It was stripped away after the receiver is on the ground.
Watch this and assume no defender is there. In this hypothetical, the ball pops loose at the same moment it’s taken by the defender here.
Would it be ruled incomplete or a catch and fumble?
It would pretty clearly be incomplete.
If you agree with that assumption, you necessarily must agree it was an interception. You cannot logically hold the belief it would be incomplete if it came loose on its own AND hold that this was a catch.
The responses “but the defender was there” or “his knee was down” or “he was touched while down and holding the ball” are all irrelevant.
The only way you can hold the belief this was a catch is if you also believe that the ball popping out with no defender would be ruled a catch and fumble.
Spencer Brown continued: “I think those passes were not really thrown to be caught. I think they were thrown to go out there and make us make a mistake and get a little help from the zebras. I thought they called a good game for the whole time. Those things are going to happen."
Spencer Brown: “you’re letting the guys play all game long. I was holding the piss out of some people today and they didn’t call it… They were letting the boys play...”
You will notice that neither @GeneSteratore or @tjmcaulay will address the Xavier Worthy catch/INT in last years AFCCG… they know that it completely undermines the INT argument. Those two are working overtime to defend NY today.