PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Whether it was the spinning expected touchdown by Diontae Johnson against the Bengals or Jesse James ‘not completing a catch’ against the Patriots, Steelers fans have seen calls go both ways. What Ravens head coach John Harbaugh and Joey Porter, Junior said Monday about the overturn on the Isaiah Likely touchdown.
“It was a drop,” Porter, Junior said. “It was close, though, really close.”
Porter said he’s looked at all the videos through various posts of the pass to Isaiah Likely late in the fourth quarter where Likely made a catch in the end zone and got two feet down. It was a play that was ruled a touchdown. After review, Likely didn’t get a third foot down before Porter knocked the ball away. The call was changed to incomplete and the Ravens would be stopped on fourth down directly taking six points off the board.
“I was just fighting because I was like ‘man, this can’t be my first touchdown I give up, especially not to a tight end’,” Porter said in the Steelers clubhouse about 21 hours after the game. “I was just fighting, just raking and it finally came out. At that point, it was up to the refs how they call it. After I looked at it, he didn’t get the third step. Incomplete.”
As the Ravens head coach was asked about it by reporters on Monday, he brought up the play that was ruled a Baltimore interception with 7:01 left in the game. On that play, Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw a pass that was tipped in the air, as he was trying to bat it down, Ravens Teddye Buchanon was getting his hands in. Buchanon ripped it away from Rodgers for the pick, but the officials said Rodgers had control of the ball with a knee on the ground before that point, changing the call to a completed pass and loss of nine yards. The Steelers would punt instead of the Ravens taking over at the Steelers 32-yard line.
“I believe a lot of things,” Harbaugh said when asked about the overturned touchdown. “I think the Aaron Rodgers play. You are talking rules. When you are making a catch, you have to survive the ground. He didn’t survive the ground. He wasn’t down by contact he was catching the ball on the way down with another person. You have to make a catch there and survive the ground. I don’t know why it was ruled the way it was on that one.”
“All of those things I’m sure they will explain to us. They have plenty of times to look at it. They are the ones that are experts on the rules. That’s the way it works.”
Harbaugh said he talked to his team about not making those calls an excuse. He said they don’t point any fingers. Harbaugh said the Ravens walk with their chests out and chins up and look forward to the next game.
They get one more shot at the Steelers, the regular season finale at Acrisure Stadium. That one should be interesting, they always are when the Steelers and Ravens meet.