Kevin Stefanski left Baltimore on Sunday, hoping to hear his phone ring from the NFL on Monday. The Browns coach is waiting for that call to come.
“Not yet,” Stefanski said in a Zoom call on Monday. “I made one phone call. I’ll make another phone call later today.”
The plot of the phone calls centered on a specific game in Sunday’s 23-20 Ravens game. With just over two minutes left, the Browns lined up at Baltimore 37 to tie the game at 55 yards.
Before the ball broke, the referees’ flags flew. That’s when the confusion came.
On replay, it was seen jumping over the left side of the Ravens line and hitting the right side of the Browns line. There was movement on the left side of the Browns line, but it seemed to come after the Ravens’ movement and contact.
Call of the authorities? False start for Browns left-back Michael Dunn.
“I really don’t know what to say about it,” Dunn said after the game. “They called out to me, so they must have seen something, but I didn’t think I was moving. I’ll see exactly what happened on tape, but I feel bad for hurting us in such an important part of the game.”
The penalty slid the ball back five meters. Meanwhile, the spotlight was also pulled back five meters.
Cade York’s 60-yard kick was blocked by the Ravens’ Malik Harrison. Harrison headbutted Dunn, then went into the middle guard and blocked the shot.
A day later, many questions remained surrounding the game. The biggest focused on what the real reason for the flag was.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who was a special team coach with the Philadelphia Eagles more than 15 years ago, argued that long snapper Charlie Hughlett had moved the ball, causing his team to bounce. Replays show Hughlett moving his head to look back at retainer Corey Bojorquez, but it’s hard to tell the ball’s movement unequivocally.
“So, Charlie is a senior longfish,” Stefanski said on Monday. “He hasn’t done anything different from what he’s done throughout his career. In that case we’re not trying to pull them offside in any way. The risk-reward is very, very, very high. Plus you can do it – 10 and a short shot. There are teams that do that, but that’s definitely not what we’re doing there. “
Beyond the flag issue was the process used by the field target unit. Specifically, after the penalty, there was the question of whether the point was where it should have been.
Typically, the holder places the point seven yards behind the scrimmage line on a hit. However, both the 55-yard try that never happened and the 60-yard try that was blocked were eight yards behind Hughlett.
“I think we didn’t adjust accordingly with the penalty taking us back those five yards,” Stefanski said. “These guys are always working to make sure they get their landmarks right. I don’t believe that’s why the ball was blocked.”
The reason the blocked shot proved to be such an important part of the loss was because of another penalty the Browns had taken just two games ago. Amari Cooper was flagged for offensive pass interference with 2:18 remaining and denied a 34-yard touchdown that would have given the Browns the lead.
Cooper, running a trail to the right, was fighting hand-to-hand with Marcus Peters as he ran. Before the ball could reach him, but after he took a step towards Peters, the Ravens extended his arm towards Peters around 10.
The contact didn’t matter, but it was definitely there to help Cooper break up a little more.
“You’ve seen it go both ways,” Stefanski said. “There’s hand-to-hand combat in this league. I get it, it created a split there. So, you owe everything the authorities have seen.”
Cooper did not hide from the search in the locker room after the game. He took responsibility, said, “It’s something I shouldn’t do.”
Cooper’s teammates were chalking both flags on the “football” stuff.
“Unfortunately, that’s part of football,” All-Pro left guard Joel Bitonio said on Monday. “It’s an imperfect science reffing game. As you said, Amari is often a 50-50 pick and then, if we score, we go into overtime and play against them in overtime. I think there’s also time to go down and score. It was one of the things it didn’t help with. Still, we could have found other ways to win.”
Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.
On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ
Bengals at Browns
Time: Monday 20:15
TV: ESPN