CBS NFL rules analyst Gene Steratore refused to call out NFL referees and Scott Novak for what commentator Charles Davis believed was the wrong call, and Davis let him hear it.
“I don’t know how that stands. I’m sorry, I will disagree vehemently with that one,” Davis said after Novak announced that, upon further review, a call on the field would stand that a pass was not a backward lateral.
Had the ruling been overturned, the pass from Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett to running bank Jaylen Warren would have been ruled a fumble, and possession would have changed hands to the Packers.
“You know, sometimes these are really difficult in that “stands world” because of that angle and when you’re looking at it,” Steratore responded. “To me, it was just not enough to overturn one way or the other, guys. I know you may disagree with me, Charles, but I just felt like it was a tough one.”
“I disagree, Gene,” Davis responded. “Gene, I think if the official on the side moves himself in position and goes back and side straddles, he sees clearly that, that’s a lateral, and that should have been Green Bay’s football.”
The play had a significant effect on the game, as the Packers would have taken possession on the Steelers’ side of the field down four points in the second quarter.
Pittsburgh would go on to win the game 23-19, while Packers-faithful let Steratore know they were displeased with his support of the referee crew under Novak.
“We can put cameras in little pile-ons for cool touchdown angles, put chips in players’ uniforms so we can make them look like a Pixar movie as they play. But we can’t put a chip or some type of tracker on the ball to make these calls certain? Preposterous,” one X user @gmeinholz said.
This comes just one week after NBC NFL commentator Cris Collinsworth got into a spirited debate with NBC rules analyst Terry McCauley over a bad intentional grounding call.
McCauley, similar to Steratore, refused to call out a fellow referee for a poor decision.
“Nobody was trying to intentionally ground anything,” Collinsworth said as Bills quarterback Josh Allen had a miscommunication with wide receiver Gabe Davis.
“But Cris, let me just say the route doesn’t matter,” McAulay replied. “It’s where the ball lands. Is it in the vicinity of or the direction of the receiver? It is just not there. That’s the way it’s been officiated for a very long time.”
But Collinsworth continued the spirited debate with McCauley, saying “My point is that’s something that the referees on the field understand and they know as football fans.”