DENVER — It went into the stat sheet as a touchdown catch by Romeo Doubs from Jordan Love. The third-quarter pass saw Doubs and Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II each get two hands on the football in the end zone.
The touchdown went to Doubs. “Tie goes to the runner,” as the cliché goes.
But for those watching the CBS broadcast of the Broncos’ 19-17 win over Green Bay, it became a source of controversy after the network’s rules expert, former NFL referee Gene Steratore, asserted that he would have called it an interception because Surtain’s feet landed first as the two players simultaneously possessed the football.
But that wasn’t how the game’s actual referee, Alex Kemp, saw it. Nor did the NFL’s instant-replay reviewers in New York City, which watched the play as part of the automatic review of any play that results in a turnover or a score.
And according to Kemp, when Surtain’s feet hit the ground didn’t matter; it was all about whether Doubs controlled the football.
“We ruled on the field that the Green Bay receiver controlled the ball while airborne and came to the ground and never lost control of the ball,” Kemp said via a pool report, “and therefore, by rule, it is a touchdown.”
Kemp added that simultaneous possession would lead to a reception — not an interception.
“Had we ruled that on the field, it would still be a touchdown,” Kemp said. “By rule, simultaneous possession is a touchdown, or is a catch by the receiver.”
And replay affirmed it.
“Since the ruling on the field was a touchdown, we reviewed the play for the elements of a catch, which were control and maintaining control when he went to the ground, and then the receiver kept control of the ball,” NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson said, via the pool report.
“There were no views that showed that the receiver ever lost control of the ball from the time he initially possessed it until he completed the catch process on the ground.”
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