The Week 16 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions ended in a wild and controversial fashion.
With the Steelers leading 29-24 in the closing seconds, quarterback Jared Goff threw and completed a pass to wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who failed to cross the goal line but managed to lateral the ball back to Goff, who then scored what would have been the game-winning touchdown.
However, the touchdown ended up being negated because of a pass interference penalty called on St. Brown, which ended the game.
After all that went down, former NFL official and CBS Sports rules analyst Gene Steratore explained what went down.
"A completed catch, a backwards lateral, and a touchdown by Detroit. There was a flag thrown for offensive pass interference," Steratore explained. "The clock was at 0:00 when the touchdown occurred and because the penalty was committed by the offense, the game is over and the touchdown does not count."
Steratore went on to add that, in his opinion, St. Brown's progress was stopped and the play should have been blown dead before his lateral back to Goff, so that's where he disagrees with what went down on the field.
"My personal opinion is that St. Brown’s progress stopped around 0:02," Steratore said. "If it would have been ruled that way, the Steelers would’ve just declined the penalty and it would have resulted in a turnover on downs (since St. Brown clearly does not score)."
The only semblance of a potential controversy here is the penalty that was called on St. Brown that negated the play. When looking at the replay, it's pretty clear that St. Brown pushed off Steelers defensive back Jalen Rams ey, so there was grounds to throw the flag.
It was a brutal way to end the game, for sure, but throwing the flag there is defensible.
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