The Baltimore Ravens and NFL officials have not gotten along over the past few weeks. In Baltimore’s last two games, the Ravens have committed 21 penalties for 242 yards, and those are just the accepted penalties. Some of the flags that have gone against Baltimore have been completely understandable, but there have certainly been some phantom calls that set the Ravens back.
Against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8, Baltimore was once again under a sea of yellow hankies, drawing nine accepted penalties for 110 yards. One of the biggest plays where the Ravens got the short end of the stick wasn’t where a penalty was called, but instead, what could best be described as a clock error on the part of head official Brad Allen and his crew.
After a big completion to wide receiver Willie Snead to get the ball right outside of the Steelers’ 20-yard line with 18 seconds left, the Ravens were forced to rush to the line and spike the ball. However, there was an injured Steelers player (Cam Heyward) back by where the previous play happened. Instead of the officials stopping the clock when the player was recognized to be injured, they let the clock run all the way down to eight seconds, blowing things dead right when Baltimore was going to snap the ball. Ultimately, the error was never recognized or corrected and it cost the Ravens 10 valuable seconds during a potential game-winning drive in which they were moving the ball effectively.
There have been many varying opinions on how the situation should have been handled, but former official and current rules analyst for NBC Terry McAulay believes that there was a major gaffe committed by the officials. McAulay alleges the officials mismanaged the clock.
The play ended at :18. When he finally notice the injury, the Referee should have immediately recognized his mistake and adjusted the clock to somewhere between :16 and :18.
— Terry McAulay (@SNFRules) November 1, 2020
If the Ravens had ended up snapping the ball before Heyward was able to make it off of the field or get back to the line of scrimmage, the Steelers would have been called for an offsides penalty and that would have advanced the ball an extra five yards. Instead of getting time put back on the clock or getting the ball closer to the end zone, Baltimore got neither.
While this sequence certainly didn’t make things any easier for the Ravens, they shot themselves in the foot time and time again with costly penalties and turnovers to put them in position to need a game-winning drive. Hopefully, Baltimore can shore things up in the coming weeks to avoid being in situations where they put the game in the officials’ hands.