Officiating any sport is a difficult job to do. Things move quickly, there’s a lot going on at once, and in the professional sports setting, it is loud and intense.
Missed calls are going to happen at times.
But what can’t happen is missing a clear offsides penalty pre-snap, especially if you’re a line judge looking straight down the line of scrimmage at the moment. For former NFL official and current NFL on CBS analyst Gene Steratore, who appeared on the 102.5 WDVE morning show Tuesday, that missed call in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Green Bay Packers, one that helped change momentum in the game, was simply unacceptable.
“Those types of things cause me major anger and anxiety at the same time because…these are misses, right? I mean, this is a lack of concentration mistake,” Steratore said of the missed call, according to audio via DVE. “You have two officials looking down the line of scrimmage whose primary responsibility before the action even begins is to make sure that people don’t false start, and people aren’t in the neutral zone at the snap. It’s not like, ‘Hey, this play was fast and somebody screamed me out or something.’ No, they didn’t. You’re looking right down the barrel of the gun there.
“Get the play right.”
It was an egregious miss. Based on real time and replay, it was clear that two Packers defenders were offsides on the play in pass rusher Micah Parsons, and defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt. Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers believed he drew them offsides, and was a bit aggressive with his throw, firing to Roman Wilson downfield.
The pass fell incomplete, but it should have been a 3rd and 3 since it was a free play. Instead, the officials just missed it. According to Steratore, they made it worse by huddling in a situation they couldn’t review or change it, and still got it wrong.
“Then when you see officials want to have this collaboration here after a play like that, that causes me anger. Like I truthfully, as a fan, as an official more than anything, it’s like there’s no reason to have a conversation,” Steratore added. “If you miss this layup, then you miss the layup. But don’t start talking like, ‘is that a block in the back? Did one of you other guys or guys have a different angle and let’s walk through this?’ No.
“…Get away from the conferencing. You miss the layup, move on, chew somebody out at halftime and put your big boy shoes on and start getting this stuff right. We’re in the NFL and we can’t miss it.”
That’s a call that simply can’t be missed. It’s not a judgement call. It’s a black and white foul. Two players were in the neutral zone at the snap, and it was plain as day.
Shawn Hochuli’s crew missed it, and it was part of a terrible night for that crew. That missed call, along with the missed push off on Packers tight end Tucker Kraft’s 59-yard catch-and-run didn’t cause the Steelers to lose the game.
But there’s no denying those two missed calls helped change the momentum of the game and caused things to snowball for the Black and Gold in what ended up being a very ugly night.
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