It was a rough day for NFL teams in Ohio. First, the Bengals were on the wrong end of a very bad call that cost them a shot to beat the Steelers. Then the Browns were hit hard by an equally puzzling call.

Let’s set the stage. The Browns are trailing by five points with under 30 seconds to go. It’s Cleveland’s ball at the Ravens’ 30-yard-line. Josh McCown finds Terrelle Pryor for a big gain that brings that moves the ball to the 10-yard-line.

Then this happens:

Pryor is throwing the ball back to the official, it appears to slip out of his grip and hit the Ravens defender. Another ref sees this and throws the flag for taunting. Baltimore had been flagged for a defensive holding call, so the offsetting penalties wipe out the play.

It’s a terrible call made by a ref who clearly wasn’t aware of what actually happened and interpreted it as Pryor throwing the ball at an opponent. Why the other ref did not step in and let him know what had actually happened is beyond me.

The Browns should have had the ball ten yards out from the game-winning score. Instead, the ball was back at the 30 with under 20 seconds remaining. McCown then threw a game-sealing interception. Cleveland was 0-2 after getting out to a 20-2 lead.

The refs did get one thing right. When a dead ball foul occurs after a play in which the other team was flagged, those calls are offset. Typically, dead ball fouls are not counted against the previous play.

Here’s the official language from the NFL rulebook:

If there has been a foul by either team during a down and there is a dead ball foul by the other
team in the action immediately after the end of the down, it is a double foul, and all rules for enforcement
of double fouls apply

I’m sure that will appease Browns fans.