Harbaugh says NFL admitted mistake on Travis Jones penalty, but Isaiah Likely call remains murky

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After walking away from the Ravens’ 27-22 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a list of questions about the officiating, John Harbaugh said Monday that he initiated a call to the league office, a move he said is rare.

The league was “gracious enough” to give him and general manager Eric DeCosta a lot of time, but Harbaugh walked away with no more understanding about what constitutes a touchdown catch. But the league did give him permission to share that the officiating crew messed up on the unnecessary roughness call on defensive lineman Travis Jones.

“They told me I had permission to state this, that it was the wrong call and shouldn’t have been called,” Harbaugh said.

Jones was flagged for unnecessary roughness against the long snapper when the Steelers were kicking a field goal midway through the second quarter. Both Jones and Harbaugh were confused after the game because Jones did not make contact with the long snapper’s head or neck.

After the game, referee Alex Moore said Jones “ran [the long snapper] over” and that “You cannot make any forcible contact to that player.”

However, the NFL rulebook states that illegal contact comprises forcible contact to the head or neck of a defenseless player; lowering one’s head and contacting a defenseless player with a helmet; or launching at a defenseless player. It does not state that there can’t be any contact at all, which the league office confirmed in its call with the Ravens.

“It is not forcible contact to a defenseless player,” Harbaugh clarified. “It’s not whether you run a player over trying to block a field goal. That has nothing to do with it. It’s forcible contact to the head and neck area.”

While the Ravens got the satisfaction of knowing they were right, that doesn’t change that the Steelers scored a touchdown on the ensuing first down, adding seven points instead of three. But Harbaugh acknowledged that no officiating crew will be perfect and that they have a hard job.

That was the only rule that was truly clarified during the conversation.

Even after some time to digest what he was told, Harbaugh still felt like the definition of a catch “is about as clear as mud right now.”

Harbaugh pointed out after the game that there was a dissonance in why Isaiah Likely’s touchdown catch was reversed compared to why linebacker Teddye Buchanan’s interception of Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was reversed.

“It didn’t clear anything up, it didn’t make it any easier to understand any one of the two calls,” Harbaugh said. “They’re very hard to understand how they get overturned. But they did. And that’s where it stands.”

Likely’s touchdown was reversed because he didn’t complete a football move, or what’s referred to in the rulebook as “an act common to the game,” after taking two steps with the ball in his hands. For him, that would have been completing a third step, but NFL Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth said after the game Likely didn’t complete that step before the ball was knocked away.

That requirement seems to contrast to catches made on the sideline, which require just control of the ball and two feet in bounds, or when players score touchdowns by breaking the end zone plane with the ball, Harbaugh agreed when asked.

Another element to a catch is “surviving the ground.” And Harbaugh did not think Rodgers survived the ground or maintained possession long enough to be ruled down before Buchanan ripped at a ball Rodgers was trying to corral after his pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage.

“I mean, you’re going to the ground,” Harbaugh said. “You have to have control of the football. You have to survive the ground when you make a catch. That’s what a catch is. You can’t say the time element’s like that and he satisfies a time element when you’re going to the ground. The time element doesn’t apply to going to the ground. So it’s pretty clear-cut.”

Both calls came in the fourth quarter. The call against Likely erased a go-ahead touchdown with just under three minutes to play. And the earlier call in Rodgers’ favor gave the Ravens worse field position and less time.

But Harbaugh declined to blame the officiating for the loss, just like his players took blame for not playing well enough in the postgame locker room.

Why Emery Jones Jr. didn’t see time at guard

A week after playing 16 offensive snaps in his NFL debut, rookie offensive lineman Emery Jones Jr. didn’t see the field Sunday.

Harbaugh said Jones didn’t outplay left guard Andrew Vorhees — Jones rotated in at left guard for his first game — or right guard Daniel Faalele in the Ravens’ Week 13 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Both starters played every offensive snap against Pittsburgh.

“You’re going into the game with your best guys that you feel are playing the best, so you’ve got to meet players where they’re at,” Harbaugh said. “Not to say he couldn’t get more time this week, based on what happens in practice or how guys are doing health-wise and those sort of things, but that’s where it was at. Emery’s doing great. He’s in a great place. I love where he’s at, and I think if he went out there, he’d compete like crazy and I think he’d play great, because I would trust him to go play great. But based on that performance, you couldn’t say it was better or even the same.”

Harbaugh said Vorhees and Faalele “played exceptionally well in the run game,” helping the Ravens rush for 217 yards (5.4 per carry), but acknowledged they were “too inconsistent, probably,” in pass protection. Faalele allowed a team-high four pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, while Vorhees was tied for second with two.

“Every player has plays they want back,” Harbaugh said.

Kickoff struggles

Rookie kicker Tyler Loop’s kickoff struggles resurfaced Sunday, with one of his kickoffs landing out of bounds and two others landing before the 10-yard line, handing the Steelers solid field position.

Loop also dropped two returned kicks inside the 10-yard line and had another hit the landing zone and bounce into the end zone, forcing the Steelers to start at their own 20, but Harbaugh said the Ravens “don’t want the short kicks.”

“We’re not trying to kick the ball to the 10- or 15-yard line,” Harbaugh said. “Those are really tough to cover. You catch the ball at the 15, how far do you have to run? So those are too short. And he’s a young guy. He’s a rookie. And so he’s working on it. He’s not consistent at this point. We need him to be more consistent. We’d like to have the ball inside the 5. If it leaks into the end zone, it leaks into the end zone sometimes. So that’s kind of where we’re at with it.”

Loop has six kickoff penalties this season — four for balls landing short of the landing zone and two for balls landing out of bounds.

“You go out there and you’re trying to put that ball down the field,” Harbaugh said. “You’re trying to kick it right. And sometimes you don’t hit it right. It’s probably more like golf than anything else.”