NFL rules analyst Gene Steratore breaks down officiating issues from AFC, NFC title games

During his weekly “Zebra Talk” segment, former NFL referee turned CBS officiating analyst Gene Steratore joined WDVE Tuesday morning to discuss numerous officiating controversies from this weekend’s AFC and NFC Championship games.

• Joe Burrow’s intentional grounding: On Cincinnati’s final possession of the AFC contest, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was flagged for intentional grounding on a second-and-7. Lots of fans thought this was a poor call because it could be argued that running back Samaje Perine was a legal receiver in the vicinity.

Steratore, a 15-year NFL official and Uniontown native, didn’t have a problem with that penalty.

“This player is leaving. He is vertical. He is 3 or 4 yards down the field. Now (Burrow) throws the ball down the field. (Perine) turns around. It dumps 4 yards in front of him. Judgment play. That didn’t jump out at me. That’s not an easy play to decipher. Right or wrong, not an easy play,” Steratore said.

Here is how Fox’s Dean Blandino interpreted the debate.

Was the intentional grounding penalty on Joe Burrow the proper call? ????

Our #NFL rules expert @DeanBlandino breaks it down pic.twitter.com/z0VtHZNu4h

— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) January 30, 2023

Burrow ended up completing a pass on third down anyway, so the drive stayed alive for the time being. But valuable time came off the clock.

• Skyy Moore’s punt return: At the end of that possession, with 35 seconds left in the game, Shady Side Academy alum Skyy Moore had a crucial 29-yard punt return for the Kansas City Chiefs. It helped set up the eventual game-winning field goal to beat the Bengals 23-20, deciding the AFC’s berth in the Super Bowl.

Skyy Moore out to the 50-yard line!

????: #CINvsKC on CBS
????: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/fM5ertlhHi pic.twitter.com/uPBKWvFNws

— NFL (@NFL) January 30, 2023

Many felt that there was a block in the back during that return by Kansas City’s Joshua Williams (No. 23) on Cincy’s Stanley Morgan (No. 17). Steratore said a flag could have been warranted, but it wasn’t a clear-cut missed call as many fans are suggesting.

“I caught it after the third replay. The guy (Williams) is in chase mode. When he starts to make a lot of contact, he’s trying to pull back up,” Steratore said. “So was there force right there in that split-second decision? That wasn’t a ‘lay-up’ play. It looks a lot easier on replay. I get that … It’s not a ‘lay-up’ play. But looking at it? Hmmm, yeah, OK.”

Hmmm? Well, I thought it was a penalty too. But, yes. I needed replay to see it first.

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• A hold on Patrick Mahomes’ scramble: On the ensuing drive, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled to get a first down on third-and-4 during the game’s waning seconds. There was a personal foul for a late hit on the play, so 15 yards were tacked on at the end of the run. That got the Chiefs within field-goal range.

The game-winning kick was made on the next snap by Harrison Butker with only three seconds left.

Steratore didn’t get into the late-hit debate. It seemed pretty clear Cincinnati’s Joseph Ossai bumped Mahomes out of bounds. However, it appears there was at least one hold by a Kansas City offensive lineman (Orlando Brown Jr.) on a Cincinnati pass rusher (Trey Hendrickson).

Holding on that Mahomes scramble….. pic.twitter.com/L0O7aXcPMC

— BOBO (@bobo_j13) January 30, 2023

That appeared to make it easier for Mahomes to escape.

Mahomes gives it his all for the first down!

????: #CINvsKC on CBS
????: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/fM5ertlhHi pic.twitter.com/z78Phcfkyp

— NFL (@NFL) January 30, 2023

Steratore agreed with that gripe from Cincy fans.

“Restriction? Yeah. Defensive player in position to pursue (Mahomes)? Close enough that the restriction stops the ability to affect the play? Yeah. Hold. In my opinion. It rose to the level of a hold that materially affected the outcome of play,” Steratore said.

• The “do-over”: Prior to the possession when Burrow received the grounding call, a bizarre sequence occurred when the Chiefs got a “do-over” on a third-down incompletion. The reason why is that an official tried to stop the play before the snap and no one saw him or heard a whistle.

“On the previous play, there was an incomplete pass,” referee Ron Torbert told Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “We spotted the ball, but the line judge came in and re-spotted the ball because the spot was off. We reset the play clock and the game clock started running. It should not have started running because there was an incomplete pass on the previous play. The field judge noticed that the game clock was running. He was coming in to shut the play down so that we could get the clock fixed but nobody heard him, and the play was run. After the play was over, he came in and we discussed that he was trying to shut the play down before the ball had been snapped. So we reset the game clock back to where it was before that snap and replayed third down.”

So the ball was spotted incorrectly. The clock started incorrectly. And no one caught the one official who tried to stop the game once the clock started. On the replayed snap, the Bengals got a sack. But there was a defensive penalty, and the Chiefs drive continued. It resulted in a punt. However, time and field position were compromised by the screw up.

“That was something I’ve never experienced in my career. I’ve never experienced it at any level,” Steratore said of the do-over. “The game has been tainted because of an administrative and concentration breakdown.”

In the NFC game, the Philadelphia Eagles ended up blowing out the San Francisco 49ers by a final score 31-7. However, some Niners fans are still hot that “replay assist” or “expedited review” didn’t step in to take another look at Davonte Smith’s early one-handed catch before the San Francisco coaching staff had a chance to get a good look as to whether or not they should challenge it.

“Replay assist” from New York seems to be stepping in a lot these days, but it didn’t on that play. As Steratore pointed out, a pandora’s box has been opened in terms of how often command-center officials in New York should interfere on behalf of the on-field zebras.

Inevitably, that brings into question the intent of that interference.

“At what point does ‘replay assist’ now create all of these controversies and conspiracies that are going to follow that? ‘Well, they didn’t replay-assist on this play! But they sure replay-assisted on that play!’ All those tentacles are going to grow as a result of that,” Steratore said.

Precisely. Do a quick Twitter search: “NFL, fixed, rigged.” See how many thousands of results you get.

Via replay, the NFL is trying to protect the integrity of the game by correcting blown calls. Replay, instead, has since grown into something that negatively impacts the NFL’s integrity for reasons much more dubious — like potentially television ratings and gambling purposes.

Whether that’s fair, warranted or even remotely accurate, the speculation now exists because the league hasn’t figured out ways to improve and streamline the incredibly difficult task of officiating an incredibly difficult game.