My understanding of the rule is that if a receiver (or a defender who attempts an interception) is in the process of being tackled before he legally completes the catch, then he must maintain possession all the way to the ground IF (but only if) the tackle is ultimately made by the player who started the tackle.
This is a new official example given in the rule book, I believe, after the Troy Palamalu play last year. This is impossible to confirm, though, since it's very difficult to actually find the NFL rules on line (as opposed to the nfl's lame "digest," which does not give the approved situational rulings).
In other words, as usual, Theisman has no idea what he is talking about, although it appears Bill Belichick knew the rule and educated the official about it.
So, in a nutshell, if you catch the ball and get two feet down with possession before a defender starts to tackle you, the ref must apply the infamous "football move" rule. If, however, before you get both feet down with possession, a defender STARTS to make a tackle, that the defender then completes, you must maintain possession throughout the tackle, all the way to the ground. It does not matter whether you have taken two steps or ten steps or made two football moves or ten football moves.
The only issues in calling that play correctly are (1) Was the tackle in progress BEFORE the receiver got two feet down and had possesion and (2) did he maintain possession through the tacke. On 1, clearly yes. On 2 clearly no -- in fact, Wiggins lost the ball before his knee hit the ground. No catch. Easy call. Easy to uphold on replay, which is why they did. This is one of those situations where the officials know the rules better than the announcers or Joe Public, and they call it correctly. You may not like the rule -- like the tuck rule -- but it's the rule.
I actually think it's a good rule. It's a possession protection, and offense protection, rule. The rule is primarily designed to avoid calling a fumble in that situation, which is what it would have been there but for the rule (albeit a fumble out of bounds). The idea is that the NFL wants it clear -- either it's a catch or not, and a ball that pops out in the course of a tackle of a receiver is not a fumble.
In short, that rule is designed to protect possession for the offensive team -- it was supposed to be there to help the vikings, but it didn't work out that way since the fumble went out of bounds, but if a patriot had picked up that ball, the rule would have meant not turnover -- just an incomplete pass.
