In one of the defining moments of the Pittsburgh Steelers' Week 10 victory over the Green Bay Packers, the officiating crew may have made a terrible error.
In the second quarter, Kenny Pickett threw a pass to running back Jaylen Warren that was a little behind him. Warren couldn't bring in the pass, lost track of the football, and Packers defender Rashan Gary ended up recovering the ball at the Steelers' 4-yard line.
Was Pickett's pass a forward one, which would make the play incomplete, or a backward one, which would have been ruled a fumble recovered by Green Bay?
The crew on the field called it incomplete, but former NFL referee Dean Blandino disagreed.
Blandino said of the controversial call, "You look at where Pickett is, you look at where he releases the pass, you look at where the ball ends up. If that point where it was touched by Warren is behind or even parallel to where it was released, that is a backward pass."
Ex-NFL referee Dean Blandino sides in favor of Packers on controversial Week 10 call
Blandino doesn't have a shred of doubt about the game-changing call. Pickett's incompletion should have been reversed, and the Packers ultimately got screwed by the officiating. Blandino said, "I think with the one low [camera] angle on the 9-yard line, I can convince -- I'd have to maybe kick some Steelers fans out of the bar -- but I can convince 50 people in that bar that that was clearly a backward pass."
In the video replay, it seems clear enough that Warren touched the ball behind where Pickett released it, which was around the 9-yard line. If it were up to Blandino, he would reverse the incomplete call on the field and rule it a fumble recovered by the Packers.
Green Bay getting essentially a free end zone shot late in the first half no doubt would have changed the momentum of the game. The Packers were trailing by four points at the time.
From Blandino's perspective, the officiating crew also committed another major gaffe: blowing the whistle too early. Packers' Rashan Gary recovered the ball near the Steelers' goal line and could have run it in for a scoop-and-score had the play not been whistled dead.
Oh, well.