The New England Patriots were on the wrong side of one of the wildest endings in their 30-24 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. But prior to that, they were on the wrong end of a controversial call.
Up 24-17 with 37 seconds left, the Patriots let the Raiders drive the ball down to their 30-yard line when Derek Carr connected with receiver Keelan Cole Sr. for a touchdown grab that tied the game. The play was called a touchdown initially, but it appeared on the replay that Cole's left foot landed out of bounds, which would've meant the pass was incomplete.
However, after a several-minute-long review, the ruling on the field was upheld. PFWA Pool Reporter and ESPN's Mike Reiss interviewed NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson after the Patriots-Raiders game and asked how they came to the ruling that the play was a catch.
“The ruling on the field was a touchdown,” Anderson told Reiss.
Reiss asked in a follow-up if it was visible in the review that Cole's left foot landed out of bounds like it showed on the replays during the broadcast.
“We looked at every available angle and it was not clear and obvious that the foot was on the white,” Anderson said. “It was very tight, very close. There was no shot that we could see – we even enhanced and blew up the views that we had. There was nothing that was clear and obvious that his foot was touching the white.”
Reiss also asked Anderson if they had any better camera angles available to them that weren't available on the broadcast.
“No, we did not,” Anderson said. “Probably the best view was what we term a ‘high end zone’ view. TV gave us the most enhanced view that they had as well. We blew it up and I believe TV blew it up and there was nothing that was clear and obvious either way. Had the ruling on the field been incomplete, we would not have been able to change that either.”
Oddly enough, the Patriots-Raiders game getting flexed out from NBC's “Sunday Night Football” to the Sunday afternoon window might have hurt the Patriots on that play. Football Zebras, a Twitter account that analyzes football referees, wrote that a better camera angle likely would've overturned the call on the field.
“If this game is not flexed to Sunday afternoon, this is overturned with a shot from the NBC pylon camera,” Football Zebras wrote on Twitter. “I really think the evidence is clear and obvious, but we have seen calls like this stand before.”
Marcus Jones told MassLive's Chris Mason that he was “surprised” by the ruling though said, “you’ve gotta live with the call.”
“I thought that he didn’t get the other foot down in the situation, but the referees made the call and that’s the call,” Jones told MassLive.