The Ravens have had a year best described as “a struggle”. They’ve been hanging on by a thread since star QB Lamar Jackson first went down with a hamstring injury prior to week 9. Since then, they’ve lost many winnable games, had many further injuries, and have had coaching problems in all aspects of the job. Now, Ravens fans, once expected to be watching a playoff ready team in December, watch their team struggle to even contend for the playoffs.
Despite all this losing over the year, Ravens fans entered week 14 with hope. Their QB had returned, they’d won many a game, and they’d returned themselves towards the top of their division. Now, they had to face off against the divisional rival Steelers, however veteran QB Aaron Rodgers and star DK Metcalf entered the game with something to prove. Much to Ravens fans’ dismay, the Rodgers-Metcalf tandem looked like something the Steelers were yet to see, and the Ravens were not ready.
The game reached half with the Steelers leading 17-9, but the Ravens were far from done. They led a comeback into the 4th quarter of the game, where they had the ball and in opportunity to take control of the game with a lead. This is the moment when tragedy clipped the Ravens wings.
QB Lamar Jackson threw a pass to TE Isaiah Likely into the endzone, in which he caught, which would’ve given the Ravens the lead late into the game. The initial call on the field was that of a touchdown, but upon further review this call was reversed. The question here though, is why?
According to the official NFL Rulebook, the requirements for a player to have possession of the ball are as follows:
- A player must have control of the ball in his hands or arms, meaning it’s not jostling or moving around in hands
- A player must have both feet or any other part of his body aside from his hands completely on the ground in bounds (inside the boundary lines)
- After steps 1 and 2 are complete, the player must make a “football move” meaning that he either takes an additional step, tucks the ball away and moves forward, wards off a defender Infront of him, or extends the ball out in front of him.
On this play, Likely catches the ball in his hands, touches the ground with both feet, and then extends the ball out in front of him. Which leads back to the original question; why was this not a catch?
NFL VP of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth was asked to explain the reversal of the touchdown on the play. Butterworth said, “The control is the first aspect of the catch. The second aspect is two feet or a body part in bounds, which he did have. Then the third step is an act common to the game and before he could get the third foot down, the ball was ripped out. Therefore, it was an incomplete pass.”
The problem with this explanation is that of the third step. As covered earlier, the third step has a plethora of ways to fulfill its criteria, thus taking that third step up the field is not the only way. Likely clearly extends the ball following his catching of the ball, which should have been counted as a fulfillment of the third step.
The Ravens now have a record of 6 – 7 and are now on the outside of the playoffs. They head to Cincinnati in Week 15 with little room for error with only four games remaining, all against good teams. These teams include the Patriots in week 16, and the Packers in week 17 who own 2 of the best records in the NFL. They will then head to Pittsburgh in the regular-season finale in Week 18, where depending on their success up to that point, they could be playing for first place in the division.