After referees botched an important call during a Monday Night Football matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals, NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino admitted the mistake on Friday.
NFL admits refs made wrong call on Ravens OL screen pass
For the third time this month, league officials made a major mistake during a “Monday Night Football” contest.
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In the weekly officiating video distributed to the league, Blandino said that referee Ronald Torbert is to blame for an illegal formation penalty that cost the Ravens a penalty on a pass to offensive lineman John Urschel.
“Confluence of events here where the referee is correcting a number from a foul on the previous play,” Blandino explained via Pro Football Talk. “He’s looking up and he’s making that announcement, and he doesn’t recognize [Urschel reporting as an eligible receiver]. This is on us. We have to recognize this. We have to recognize this, and we want the player to get some acknowledgement from the referee. But again, the player’s doing what he’s supposed to do. We have to recognize it. We’ll make the adjustment and it won’t happen again.”
During the play in question, Urschel attempted to report in as an eligible pass catcher. The Ravens then ran a designed screen pass to him in hopes of catching the Cardinals off guard. It worked, as Urschel gained 5 yards on the play.
However, the officiating crew flagged the play for illegal formation, despite Urschel blatantly indicating his eligibility as a pass catcher to Torbert.
The backup lineman made the universally accepted reporting-as-eligible signal for players wearing a non-pass-catcher number. Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh makes the same signal while contesting the penalty afterward:
The penalty pushed the Ravens back and contributed to the drive stalling out. Baltimore ultimately settled for a 44-yard field goal attempt.
That wasn’t the only questionable call from the game, either. The Ravens also expressed displeasure with the officials’ call to uphold a second quarter fumble by returner Jeremy Ross, as well as their decision not to blow Chris Johnson’s 62-yard touchdown run dead when his progress had been stopped after 5 yards.
The Ravens lost to the Cardinals, 26-18.
This is the third time in October that officials have screwed up a major call in a Monday Night Football game. In Week 4, they failed to flag Seattle Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright for intentionally batting the ball out of the end zone against the Detroit Lions. The following week, a referee was suspended after he did not correct a clock error during the matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Diego Chargers.
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