BALTIMORE — Because replay officials determined that Isaiah Likely didn’t hold onto the ball, the Pittsburgh Steelers held on for a 27-22 victory Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens that gave them sole possession of first place in the AFC North.
Trailing by five points with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left in the game, the Ravens thought they had taken their first lead since early in the first quarter when Likely gathered in a 13-yard pass from Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in the end zone.
The play was ruled a touchdown, and the Ravens celebrated thinking they had taken a 28-27 lead. Since the play was ruled a score, it automatically was reviewed by replay officials at NFL headquarters in New York. They decided that Likely didn’t maintain possession long enough to complete the catch. The touchdown was overturned into an incomplete pass.
The Ravens turned the ball over on downs, and a last-minute drive ended after reaching the Steelers 30.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin did not think the initial ruling on the field was correct.
“But I know sometimes in an effort to get it right, they’ll signal it a touchdown and give it the benefit of the review,” Tomlin said. “No, I didn’t think it was a touchdown.”
Cornerback Joey Porter was in coverage, and he jarred the ball loose from Likely as the tight end tried to maintain possession.
“I was just trying to get the ball out,” Porter said. “It was up to the ref to decide whether it was a touchdown or not.”
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, not surprisingly, thought the catch was legit.
“He was in the end zone taking steps,” Jackson said. “(Porter) kept punching at the ball. That’s all I can see. … If you were on the field with us, I believe you would’ve thought it was a touchdown too, but I can’t do the ref’s job.”
Likely also thought he had scored a go-ahead.
“But at the end of the day, they made a call, and we have to go with it,” he said. “We have to put points on the board after that.”
The Ravens were unable to get into the end zone. On fourth down, Jackson overthrew tight end Mark Andrews with former Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen providing coverage.
NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth gave the following account of the overturned touchdown to a pool reporter:
“We quickly looked at the play,” he said. “The receiver controlled the ball in the air, had his right foot down, then his left foot down. 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.”
Asked whether he believed the Ravens were robbed of a score, coach John Harbaugh said, “I believe a lot of things.”
Harbaugh had a bigger issue with the Ravens losing an apparent interception at the Steelers 32 to a replay reversal earlier in the fourth quarter. Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw a pass that was batted at the line of scrimmage. Rodgers and linebacker Teddye Buchanan went for the ball. Buchanan came up with it, but replay officials determined that Rodgers’ knees were on the ground while he also had a grasp on the ball, making it a completion for minus-9 yards.
“When you’re making a catch, you have to survive the ground. He didn’t survive the ground,” Harbaugh said, referring to Rodgers. “He’s not down by contact, he was catching the ball on the way down with another person, so you have to make a catch there and survive the ground. I don’t know why it was ruled that way on that one.”
On their final possession, the Ravens moved to the Steelers territory before the game ended with Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith sacking Jackson for an 8-yard loss.
Had a call or two gone the other way, the Ravens may have grabbed first place in the AFC North. Instead, they have lost two in a row and are a game behind the Steelers with four remaining.
“We don’t make any excuses. We don’t point any fingers,” Harbaugh said. “That’s not what we do here. We never have. We walk out of here with our chest out and our chin up, and we look to the next game. We are fighting, still, for everything that we want to accomplish. So, it’s tough. It’s been a tough, challenging road for sure, but that’s where we’re at, and we will keep fighting. We believe we can get it done.”