I work Sundays so I haven't seen a lot of NFL games except the Broncos on NFL Game Pass. I noticed in the Liberty Bowl that the officials resorted to replay to determine if targeting had been committed even though no flag was thrown.

Does the NFL have similar provisions? I think it's a great idea.

-- Fred Waiss

Not regarding targeting, and I hope that remains the case -- to a degree. While I think instant-replay review could offer clarity when it comes to assessing targeting penalties, I do not believe that these should result in ejections that potentially stretch over two games.

This is the case in college football, in which a second-half ejection for targeting -- even when it is made off of a replay review -- forces a player to miss the first half of the following game, as well. This penalty is too harsh, especially when it is fairly subjective, and has led to some controversial ejections, including two Iowa State players in the Cyclones' Alamo Bowl loss to Washington State on Dec. 29.

The NFL's current reluctance to use instant replay to review potential targeting penalties could change in the future. When the NFL announced the new targeting rules for 2018 at the Annual League Meeting in Orlando last March, Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay wanted to see exactly how it could be enforced.

"If you do put replay behind them [the officials], then I do think you have the opportunity for them to be able to feel more comfortable in ejecting them," McKay said at a press conference announcing the rules tweaks. "But in this rule, we just need to do a little work to understand exactly how the mechanism would work."