NFL rules analyst Gene Steratore weighs in on disputed Diontae Johnson call in end zone
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Coming out of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first game post-Matt Canada, we’ve had to frequently remind ourselves that the offense still only scored 16 points in Cincinnati on Sunday.
Although we should also probably keep in mind that it should have been 23 points en route to the win if Diontae Johnson’s catch in the end zone during the team’s second drive of the game had been properly ruled as a touchdown.
Or if head coach Mike Tomlin had decided to challenge the call.
During the CBS broadcast, rules analyst Gene Steratore (Uniontown/Washington, Pa.) made the comment that he thought Johnson had control of the ball through three steps, which should have been enough to indicate control.
He also explained that stance on a social media post during the game, suggesting that if the play had been challenged, it likely would have been overturned.
This play in #PITvsCIN is a perfect illustration of the "Catch" rule and how instant replay is applied.
In real speed, watch how fast Diontae Johnson possesses the ball and then loses control of it. From an official's POV, this play appears to be an incomplete pass because the… pic.twitter.com/uYXC6JBPSZ
— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) November 26, 2023
During his weekly appearance on WDVE Tuesday morning, Steratore reiterated that stance.
“There’s possession. The backfoot is still down. The second food is there, planted,” Steratore said. “And right before Diontae Johnson starts to fall — which would be a different way to do it — he’s still kind of standing up and the third foot hits. So now we’ve reached this other rule and procedure of possession: Three feet down, (you) don’t need to make a football move. You don’t need to have the time to make what we think of as a football move.
“It looks like he has three feet clearly up, and he’s clearly standing before he does start to fall and then the ball then does come out.”
However, Tomlin didn’t challenge the play, and Jaylen Warren lost a fumble on the next snap.
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Some wondered why an expedited review from the replay officials didn’t come into play regardless of whether or not Tomlin decided to challenge before the next snap.
Steratore suggested that the call didn’t rise to the level of being an obvious, egregious miss where such a measure would be triggered without the Steelers challenging.
“If it is what we would consider to be a blatant miss or something we see on the first replay, then the NFL can initiate from upstairs like we’re inside of two minutes at any time of the game,” Steratore explained. “An expedited review — meaning look, ‘This thing just bounced off the ground, and we just didn’t see it. But let’s get in. It’s incomplete.’ But now you go into this other level on a play like that where the first variable is a rule of ‘incomplete.’ So, it is not a scoring play, so it is not automatically reviewed from New York. It needs to be a team challenge because there is no change of possession or score.”
After the game, Tomlin explained his reasoning for keeping the challenge flag in his pocket.
“I lost vision of it. There were people between me and (Johnson). I couldn’t count the steps,” Tomlin said. “They didn’t give another look at it in (the) stadium, and we didn’t get a quick enough look at it up top. Sometimes, that happens when you’re on the road. Some games, it’s on the road, sometimes it’s at home — it evens out in the big scheme of things.”
Sure. But especially in the first half, where the potential loss of a timeout isn’t as damaging as it would be in the second half, maybe a challenge would still have been worth it anyway.