The ending to Sunday’s Steelers-Lions game included not one but two offensive pass interference calls that required further explanation from referee Carl Cheffers.
After Pittsburgh’s 29-24 win, Cheffers addressed both calls with pool reporter Nolan Bianchi.
As to the first, which happened with the Lions facing first and goal from the one with 25 seconds to play, receiver Isaac TeSlaa was flagged for OPI for a pick that freed up receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown for a touchdown.
“The reporting official on that play told me that the offending player picked one of the defenders, creating an opportunity for the offensive player to make the catch,” Cheffers said.
Asked if TeSlaa was more than one yard beyond the line of scrimmage, Cheffers said, “Well, it has to be beyond a yard or it would not be a foul. The ruling on the field was that the action occurred beyond a yard.”
Later, on the final play of the game, a catch by St. Brown followed by a lateral to quarterback Jared Goff (who caught it and scored) was eliminated by an OPI call on St. Brown.
“The official who called the foul said that the receiver created separation that gave him an advantage in catching the pass,” Cheffers said. “So, he called pass interference.”
Cheffers then was asked about the long discussion that occurred before the final call was announced.
“It is a pretty complex play,” Cheffers said. “We have the original player who had the ball, lose possession of the ball. So, we had to decide if that was a fumble or a backwards pass because of course we have restrictions on the recovery of a fumble inside of two minutes. We ruled that it was a backward pass, so the recovering player was able to advance it and that recovering player advanced it for a touchdown. We had to rule on that and then because of the offensive pass interference, it negates the touchdown. Because it is an offensive foul, we did not extend the half. Therefore, there is no score and there is no replay of the down. That’s the way the rule is written.”
In other words, but for the OPI foul, the last play would have counted — and the Lions would have won the game, 30-29.
