Before Justin Tucker made history and broke the Lions hearts Sunday afternoon at Ford Field, it appeared Lamar Jackson and the Ravens got a gift from the officials.
With the Ravens facing second and 10 from Detroit's 48-yard line with seven seconds to play, the play clock on the TV broadcast hit zero nearly two full seconds before Baltimore snapped the ball. The apparent delay of game penalty, which would have cost the Ravens five yards and forced them into a Hail Mary attempt, went uncalled, and Tucker drilled a game-winning, record-breaking 66-yard field goal on the very next play.
Asked if delay of game should have been called, Dan Campbell said, "There’s nothing I can say to that. Because it’s the same thing. Tomorrow you’ll get an apology and it doesn’t mean anything. That’s life. That’s the hand we were dealt and we still had an opportunity. That was fourth and a long way to go and we gave it up.”
Indeed, the Lions had the Ravens facing fourth and 19 from their own 16-yard line two plays prior to the snap in question. Jackson hit a wide-open Sammy Watkins down the middle of the field to keep the game alive.
The caveat to the controversy is that the play clock on TV doesn't necessarily match the clock on the field. Referee Scott Novak said afterward that he hadn't had a chance to review the play and that he's unaware whether the clocks "are synced up or not."
"But as far as our mechanics, the back judge is looking at the play clock and if it were to hit zero, he sees the zero, and he then looks to see if the ball is being snapped. If the ball is being snapped, we will let the play go. If it’s not moving, it’s delay of game. Those are the mechanics that we apply on that play," Novak told PFWA pool reporter Justin Rogers.
Asked if it was possible that the back judge wasn't in proper position to get the best view of the clock and the snap, Novak said, “No, I don’t believe so. The back judge was in position on everything all game. So I wouldn’t doubt that he wasn’t in position on that play."
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh cited the same officiating process as Novak in explaining why delay of game would have been the wrong call.
"The way they operate, there’s always leeway on that," Harbaugh said. "Happens all the time when we’re on defense. There’s a mechanic that the officials go through: they look to see if the ball’s up, then they look at the clock. They can’t see both things at once. So they’ve got a way that they do that and the mechanics would not have made that delay of game."
Lions quarterback Jared Goff said he didn't see the play when it happened, but "heard about it" after.
"They’ll say sorry tomorrow," said Goff, echoing his head coach. "It’s OK. Again, like I said, every game there’s probably 20 of them that could go either way and you can’t harp on those. You can’t think about those. You just gotta execute every play as best you can and we came up short. Hats off to them for making the throw and making the kick."
But the controversy didn't end there. There was also speculation that Jackson got away with intentional grounding after the snap, firing a pass out of bounds toward no receiver in particular to allow Tucker to take the field before time expired. Novak said it wasn't grounding because a) Jackson wasn't under pressure and b) he had a receiver between the sideline where the ball went out of bounds and the yardage numbers on the field.
"No pressure, no grounding for the quarterback. And then with the receiver over there, there’s nothing as well," Novak said.
Nor did the controversy end there. It also appeared that Ravens right guard Kevin Zeitler was guilty of a false start before the snap in question, which, again, would have pushed Baltimore back five yards. Maybe Lions running back Jamaal Williams said it best: "Really, sometimes fate is against us."