Former NFL referee on Steelers' complaints about controversial replay review: 'It's a valid point'

If Sunday night’s Steelers-Seahawks game had been on CBS, former NFL referee and current rules analyst Gene Steratore could’ve stated any opinion he wanted about what happened on that wild sequence at the end of regulation.

But since the game was broadcast on a different network (NBC), the Washington, Pa. product has to choose his words judiciously.

That doesn’t mean he’s unable to get his point across.

In case you missed it, the Steelers were leading Seattle 20-17 with 18 seconds left in the game. Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith completed a pass to DK Metcalf near the Seattle sideline.

For some reason, Metcalf didn’t run out of bounds at the Steelers’ 27-yard line. As he moved up the sideline, Steelers cornerback James Pierre punched the ball loose and it stayed inbounds. Seattle’s Freddie Swain covered it up and was touched down by Steelers defensive back Tre Norwood.

Swain then kept the ball and scurried back to the line of scrimmage to get a snap off so Smith could spike the ball to stop the clock.

But as the ball was being spiked — with maybe a second left on the clock — the officials stopped the action for a replay. The stated reason for the review was to see if the play was a legal catch, which never appeared to be in question.

Even if they were reviewing to see if Metcalf stepped out of bounds after the catch, either result in that case provides Seattle with a free stoppage and frozen restart of the clock before the spike. Thus, stopping the clock without the need for an immediate spike, as three seconds (for some reason) went back on the clock.

Madness on this play.@Seahawks get into field goal range with seconds left.

????: #SEAvsPIT on NBC
????: NFL app pic.twitter.com/xKD5WbIfKH

— NFL (@NFL) October 18, 2021

In the stadium, it looked like the clock expired before the spike got off to some fans. Upon replay, though, it looks like the spike to set up the field goal beat the clock. That’s something that could’ve been worth reviewing. But the needless review of the previous play made that a moot point with the free stoppage of the clock.

So, Seattle’s Jason Myers kicked the field goal to tie the game at 20-20 and force overtime.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin called the sequence of events an “embarrassment.” Steratore didn’t go that far. But he stopped well short of rubber stamping what took place at the end of the game at Heinz Field.

Steratore didn’t refute the legality of the spike from Smith. He seems to agree it was thrown in time. And he doesn’t seem to doubt the mechanics of how the on-field officials stopped the game or how they called the live play from Metcalf initially.

I haven’t heard many that do.

“They initiated the stop game correctly,” Steratore said of the on-field crew and even the mechanics of the replay officials.

As Steratore points out, on-field and booth review judges are instructed to wait until the last possible moment on the cusp of a snap before stopping the action during a no-timeout, running clock situation — as we saw with Seattle’s offense.

The reason being, waiting until the snap is imminent lowers the potential of awarding the offense extra seconds of stopped time in error if it’s deemed that no replay was necessary and the call on the field should stand.

Also, for those Steelers fans upset that Seattle’s Swain picked up the ball and ran with it toward the line of scrimmage, Steratore says that isn’t uncommon or illegal. But an official (the umpire) has to touch the ball at some point before the snap to deem it ready for play. It’s unclear if that happens from that replay, but it appears he does.

Where Steratore sees gray area is in the amount of evidence compiled before the replay judge decided to stop the game and the alleged reasons for doing so.

In other words, exactly what Tomlin seemed to be upset about after the game Sunday night.

“I cannot believe that game was stopped to confirm catch-no catch in that moment,” Tomlin said.

Steratore understands Tomlin’s confusion over the reason for a review in the first place.

“The initiation of the review itself seemed confusing because of the clarity of the catch itself,” Steratore said.

He’s right. It’s an irrefutable reception.

Watch it again. Metcalf catches the pass at the Steelers’ 27-yard line. Pivots. Takes four steps and travels four yards before fumbling at roughly the Pittsburgh 23. But the announced reason for review from referee Shawn Smith — and in the official gamebook — was to see if the ball was caught.

“You have to have smoke,” Steratore continued.

Yeah, well, I didn’t see even a wisp. Let alone any fire.

Now, if the replay booth had told Smith that the play was being reviewed to see if Metcalf stepped out of bounds before he fumbled, that would’ve been more understandable.

Overkill. But understandable.

But the problem with that is — even if that rationale to request a review is more valid — the officials were still artificially stopping a running clock upon further review to see if Metcalf could catch a break (after a poor decision to stay inbounds) to retroactively stop the clock by accidentally stepping out of bounds before fumbling.

Either way, Seattle was going to benefit from a stopped clock.

“It’s a valid point,” Steratore conceded.

Maybe we’ll see how valid based on whether or not the NFL takes issue with Tomlin calling out the officials.

Not that the call influenced the game’s result. The spike beat the clock, and the Steelers won anyway. But, from my point of view, it’s the replay officials that have some explaining to do. Not Tomlin.