NFL Vice President of Officiating, Dean Blandino, has now weighed in on the controversial field goal block that took place Sunday in the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, and made sure to clarify that the possession of the football on the play was not reviewable action.
Blandino starts off by saying that because the ball never crossed the line of scrimmage, the Packers could have recovered and advanced it.
“The ball never crosses the line of scrimmage, it stays behind the line of scrimmage,” said Blandino. “It’s never touched behind the line by Pittsburgh, so that’s important to remember. Green Bay can actually legally recover this ball and advance it for a touchdown if they recover it behind the line of scrimmage.”
Blandino went on to talk about the potential recovery of the football by Steelers safety Ryan Clark on the play.
“It’s important to remember that this is not reviewable,” said Blandino. “The ruling on the field of whether Clark possessed it or not is not a reviewable aspect and that’s something that the competition committee has looked at in the past and I’m sure that they’ll continue to look at.”
Blandino admits while watching the replay that it looks as if Clark recovers the football and throws a backwards pass to cornerback William Gay.
“Had this been reviewable, I think we could’ve overturned this, but again, not reviewable,” started Blandino. “The officials are looking at that action at full speed, live, very difficult to tell at full speed. I think if we had the ability to go to review, we would’ve been able to overturn it. Pittsburgh would’ve kept the football and we would’ve enforced the foul from the spot the bat and they would’ve kept the ball.”
Blandino isn’t really telling Steelers fans anything that they don’t already know, unfortunately. Being as Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is on the competition committee, however, you can bet this will be up for discussion again at the league meetings during the offseason.
