[The Ref of OZ!!!]

That's how I called it, and like ABoselli says, about half the officials I work with call it one way, and the others the other way.

I especially agree with Derock1986, it was a no call. The rule reads "interferes with an eligible opponent’s opportunity to move toward, catch or bat the pass..." To me, the word "interferes" implies an action which impeads the opponent's opportunity. Simply running down the field is not that action. If the defender does anything with his arms or hand to impead the reciever, then he's going to get a flag from me. But he has every right to run down the field, whether he knows where the ball is or not.

I can't find the term "Unfair advantage" anywhere in the rulebook, but it seems to be a good term to use in this example. All of us know, we could throw a flag on every play, and, like someone else said on this forum, we'd spend 2 hours just marching off the yardage. I try to judge a situation like I described at the beginning of this thread by the ideal of "Unfair advantage". The defender was not attempting to take an unfair advantage of the reciever. He didn't have a grasp on his jersey, or hold him so he couldn't get to the ball. If I'd thrown a flag, I'd have given an "Unfair advantage" to the offensive players. Like I said above, all the QB would have to do if he got in trouble, is throw the ball at the back of a defender, and the offense would get 15 yards, and that's an "Unfair Advantage"!