Last night, we explained why the NFL had blown the unnecessary roughness penalty that was called against Ravens defensive lineman Travis Jones for hitting Steelers long snapper Christian Kuntz.
On Monday, the NFL admitted to Ravens coach Johh Harbaugh that a mistake had been made.
“They told me — and they told me I hard permission to state this — that it was a wrong call, and should not have been called,” Harbaugh told reporters.
That’s not what referee Alex Moore said after the game. In a pool report, Moore defended the call and, in so doing, demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the rule regarding contact with “defenseless players.”
Defenseless players can be hit. They can be hit forcibly. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels was hit forcibly on Sunday while “defenseless” (i.e., after a change of possession). Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was hit forcibly last night while “defenseless” (i.e., while trying to catch a pass).
On one hand, it’s good that the NFL admitted the blunder. On the other hand, what choice did the NFL have? It was a bad call, made worse by Moore’s botched post-game explanation of the rule. Moore caused confusion by creating the impression that long snappers are off limits and, more broadly, that defenseless players generally can’t be hit hard.
They can be. But they can’t be hit forcibly in the head or neck area. They can’t be hit forcibly with an opponent’s helmet. And they can’t be on the wrong side of an illegal launch.
Hopefully, the league will do more than authorize Harbaugh to acknowledge that the mistake was made. How about a social-media video, blasted on the NFL’s 35.6 million follower Twitter feed?
At a minimum, Walt Anderson needs to address that play — and the other controversial calls from Steelers-Ravens — on Sunday’s NFL GameDay Morning.
People need to understand what the rules are, and what they aren’t, when it comes to defenseless players. And there’s no defense for the mess the NFL created on Sunday, even with Monday’s limited effort to clean it up.
And nothing can change the fact that the Ravens were on the wrong side of a four-point swing in a game that ended with a five-point margin of defeat. With the race for playoffs tighter than ever, that one mistake could be the difference between the Ravens qualifying for the postseason or going home after Week 18.
