NFL rules analyst Gene Steratore on flags for QB hits: 'Refs are screwing up'

After what appeared to be two horrible roughing the passer penalties this week in the NFL, a former league referee is putting the onus squarely on the shoulders of the on-field officials and not the rule book.

At issue are the NFL’s incredibly stringent rules to protect quarterbacks and whether or not the in-game officials are going too far to apply them.

Appearing for his weekly “Zebra Talk” segment on WDVE radio, Washington, Pa.’s Gene Steratore said, “I would like to say it is the rule completely, but it’s not. The refs are screwing up right now,” Steratore said Tuesday morning.

Two plays highlighted this week were the hit on Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Tom Brady by Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett and the apparent strip sack of Las Vegas Raiders QB Derek Carr by Kansas City’s Chris Jones Monday night.

In neither case was the quarterback hit late or in the head. In neither case was the passer injured on the play. In both cases, the tackles appeared to be clean, legal, unavoidable hits on a player with the ball.

Regarding the play Monday night, Jones hit Carr cleanly from behind and the ball came out. In the process, Jones recovered the loose ball while falling on Carr. In a pool report after the game, referee Carl Cheffers tried to defend the flag.

“The quarterback is in the pocket and he’s in a passing posture,” Cheffers said. “He gets full protection of all the aspects of what we give the quarterback in a passing posture. So, when he was tackled, my ruling was the defender landed on him with full body weight. The quarterback is protected from being tackled with full body weight. My ruling was roughing the passer for that reason.”

Cheffers said the fact that Carr fumbled and Jones was in the act of recovering the ball as it was falling out of his hand wasn’t part of the ruling.

“No, because he still gets passing protection until he can defend himself,” Cheffers said. “So, with him being in a passing posture and actually attempting to make a pass, he’s going to get full protection until the time when he actually can protect himself. The fact that the ball came out and was subsequently recovered by the defense is not relevant as far as the protection the quarterback gets.”

Well, that seems entirely wrong to me on two levels. First of all, how was Jones supposed to pull up and land on Carr any differently than he did given that he was falling on Carr while recovering the ball? Secondly, how long can Carr be deemed in a passing posture—and, unable to defend himself—if he is the body between the loose ball and the ground?

Steratore, now a rules analyst on CBS, had a similar reaction to Cheffers’ explanation.

“He’s no longer the quarterback,” Steratore said. “I have trouble with that because … if it is a forward pass, the offense still has the ball. They are the offense. He’s still the quarterback by definition of that play. So he receives quarterback protection. What I saw last night was a defensive player recover a fumble in the air, basically. Now that quarterback became a defensive player.”

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Steratore claimed that “rules have moved around a little in their definition as situations take place,” so perhaps “there may be some clarification over the next 48 hours” and “maybe we’ll just add another line to a 187-page rule book.”

Or — and this is just me thinking out loud — how about some of the excessive language meant to protect quarterbacks gets trimmed? That could help.

Meanwhile, as Brady and Carr drew flags for not being offered a pillow before they were tackled, Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett got plastered in the third quarter Sunday by Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin during the 38-3 loss to the Bills. And Buffalo’s Shaq Lawson went low on Pickett’s knees in the fourth quarter. No flags were thrown on either play.

In the case of the Hamlin hit, during the CBS broadcast, Steratore said he would have supported a call against Hamlin in that situation. He didn’t offer an opinion on the Lawson hit. But the explanation advanced by Tony Romo and Jim Nantz during the game call was that the play was legal because Pickett was out of the pocket.

Although how that dangerous play is legal when Pickett is in a throwing posture, versus the explanation advanced for Carr to be protected in the pocket while maintaining a throwing posture, is beyond my brain’s ability to grasp.

Let’s be honest, the NFL is doing this to itself because it is bothering to listen to faux outrage on Twitter and television any time somebody gets a concussion. The NFL is so far in the heads of the officials, the game is irrationally confusing and the officials are now blowing calls thinking that they are doing the right thing.

They aren’t. If those two hits are truly illegal now, the game is broken and can’t continue to be tackle football.

One other note, Steratore defended the call on the field of an incompletion when Steelers receiver George Pickens lunged for a catch near the sideline during the game in Buffalo. Nantz and Romo openly questioned the Steelers for not challenging the call because Pickens got one foot and a hand inbounds.

Steratore said, in his opinion, a result like that should be written as a catch. But it isn’t, so the call was right. I suppose, by extension then, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was right to avoid challenging the call.

“(A hand) doesn’t count as a foot, or a body part,” Steratore said. “I think it has to be good. It’s a ‘Twister’ move. … I think you have to give them a catch there. But by rule, hands don’t count. They just don’t count hands.”

But Steratore said an effort like Pickens’ might make the league consider changing that interpretation.

Oh, good. More confusing “yeah, but language” to add. What could go wrong?