There was a play in the SF/AZ game that confused me. SF's QB was sacked just as he threw the ball. The ball traveled 11 yards backwards and went out of bounds. The ref ruled that it was an incomplete forward pass. AZ challenged the call. Seems there were two grounds for it. 1) if his arm was still going backward, it was a fumble, not a forward pass; 2) if his arm was going forward, it was a lateral, not a forward pass.
The ref reviewed it and upheld it, saying it was a forward pass. Perrera went on the broadcast and said that the intention of the play was a forward pass, it doesn't matter that the ball actually traveled backwards.
It thus appears that the refs made the "correct" call. But it makes no rational sense. The QB tried to throw the ball. The ball went backwards. Why isn't it a lateral instead of a forward pass? Isn't that a lot simpler than determining the intention of the QB?