One of the biggest calls of this NFL season came in the Week 14 Ravens-Steelers game, when Baltimore's Isaiah Likely scored what appeared to be a go-ahead touchdown with 2:47 remaining in the fourth quarter, only to have the on-field officials' ruling overturned by replay. Now NFL Executive VP of Football Operations Troy Vincent is suggesting the on-field officials were right, and the replay reversal was wrong.
Vincent told Mark Maske that the Likely play was among a handful of replay rulings that the league office has had second thoughts about.
"There was two plays in particular," Vincent said. "There was the Likely play . . . Ravens-Steelers in the end zone. And then you had the one—there was a Jets play. But it was the Likely play that you go, that was interesting because of the third step and they were talking about the ball extended out. So it was: What constitutes that third act?"
It doesn't engender a lot of confidence in the league's officiating when league executives are still not clear on what constitutes a third act necessary to completing a catch. And Vincent's statement doesn't conclusively say that the replay overturn was wrong. But it sounds like the league now thinks the ruling on the field of a Ravens touchdown should have stood.
If the touchdown had counted, the Ravens probably would have won that game. Change the result of that game, and the Ravens win the AFC North, as they would have finished tied with the Steelers in the standings and would have won the tiebreaker based on a better division record. If the Ravens had won the AFC North, John Harbaugh might still be their coach. Someone else would be coaching the Giants. A whole lot would be different.
Vincent acknowledged that there were some replay reviews he is second-guessing, and he said most of those came in the early Sunday afternoon window when there are several games going on at once and the league's replay office is slammed.
"When you watch, there was about five plays," Vincent said. "Of the 171 plays that we called on replay or replay assist that came back to the booth, there were five that we said if we had to do it again, on just the replay assist, in general. Of that 171 that occurred during [the] regular season, there were five after we kind of took a step back and breathed-four of them [were] in the 1 o'clock window. Just volume and you go, 'Ah, if we had to do that one again, just looking at it.' "
The idea that NFL officiating is going to be worse in the 1 o'clock window because the league officiating office has too many games to follow at once should not be acceptable to anyone. The league needs to make sure its officiating office is fully staffed at all times, with competent officials who can make the right call. Every time.
UPDATE 8:39 a.m. ET: An NFL spokesman clarified with PFT that while the Likely play was discussed in detail, it was not one of the handful that Vincent was referring to that the league would like to have back.