Officiating Expert Dean Blandino Rules on Packers-Steelers Controversy
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur believes the controversial pass in Sunday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers should have been ruled a fumble. Fox Sports officiating expert Dean Blandino agrees.
“I know a lot of people were surprised; I was surprised that the ruling on the field stood,” Blandino said in a video breakdown for The 33rd Team.
Late in the first half, Kenny Pickett threw a screen to running back Jaylen Warren. Warren tried to reach back for the ball but couldn’t make the grab. Warren was drilled by Carrington Valentine, the whistle blew and Rashan Gary recovered around the 4.
Was the pass forward and incomplete or backward and a fumble? And, because the whistle blew before the recovery, should the ball have belonged to the Packers?
First, Blandino – one of the organizers of the NFL’s replay system and the league’s former vice president of officiating – explained what referee Scott Novak was looking for during the review.
“You look at where Pickett is, you look at where he releases the pass, you look at where the ball ends up,” Blandino said. “If that point where it was touched by Warren is behind or even parallel to where it was released, that is a backward pass.”
To Blandino – and LaFleur – the pass was backward.
“Pickett releases it at the 9, the ball to me was touched behind the 9,” Blandino said. “If I’m making this decision, I’m reversing.”
As for the whistle: Even though it was blown before the recovery, the ball would have belonged to the Packers around the 3 or 4 but it would not have been a touchdown.
“The rule is it’s got to be clear and immediate,” LaFleur said. “And it was clear and immediate.”
Blandino went on to offer an interesting perspective on NFL officiating. Before replay, officials would have been correct to quickly blow the play dead. In the case of those incredibly close rulings between forward and backward pass, officials erred on the side of caution so as to not award the defense a cheap touchdown.
With replay, officials are supposed to err the other direction. Let the play continue – with Gary scoring a touchdown, in this case – and change it to incomplete if necessary.
On Sunday, the officials not only prematurely blew the play dead but they botched the replay.
“It goes back to the old philosophy of replay,” Blandino said. “Can you convince 50 people in a bar that that pass was backward? I think with the one low [camera] angle on the 9-yard line, I can convince – I’d have to maybe kick some Steelers fans out of the bar – but I can convince 50 people in that bar that that was clearly a backward pass.”
There arguably was no bigger play in determining Sunday’s outcome. Had the Packers gained the requisite 4 yards to score a touchdown, they would have led 20-17 at halftime with the ball to start the second half. Instead, they trailed 17-13 and lost 23-19.
“We knew going into this game that the ball was going to be paramount,” LaFleur said. “The two times that they had lost the turnover battle, they were 0-2; when they won the turnover battle, they were 5-1. We knew it was going to be huge and they won it again, so now they’re sitting at 6-1 when they win the turnover battle.
“I don’t think we’ve won the turnover battle since Week 2. That’s been a problem. We’re not getting enough takeaways, although I do think that there was one opportunity out there that didn’t go our way, for whatever reason.”
Click here to watch the breakdown by Blandino.
