Yahoo Finance Philip Rivers rips Marcus Peters interception call that sparked Ravens' rally past Colts
The Baltimore Ravens were struggling for much of the day Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.
After the Ravens logged 55 yards of first-half offense, running back Gus Edwards fumbled in the red zone on the opening drive of the second half.
But a controversial call got them back into the game against a tough Indianapolis defense en route to a 24-10 victory.
This was an interception?
On the first Colts play after the Edwards fumble, quarterback Philip Rivers looked deep down the right sideline to wide receiver Marcus Johnson. Cornerback Marcus Peters maintained a bead on the underthrown ball and made what looked like a nice pass breakup on the first-down play.
The pass was ruled incomplete on the field. Peters didn’t protest the call, but the Ravens did, challenging that Peters actually came down with an interception.
Here’s another angle of the play that shows Peters failing to control the ball before it fell to the ground incomplete. Replay officials thought otherwise.
This was called an INT 🤔
pic.twitter.com/NNs13ErFV5— PFF (@PFF) November 8, 2020
Upon review, officials ruled that Peters intercepted the ball and fumbled it before it was recovered by teammate Chuck Clark.
Ten plays later, Edwards scored a touchdown to give the Ravens a 14-10 lead.
NFL’s official explanation of the call
Here’s the official explanation from NFL officiating head Al Riveron, who argued that there was “clear and obvious visual evidence” that Peters had control of the ball and took three steps before fumbling.
A breakdown of the interception in #BALvsIND: pic.twitter.com/eteo6CPctq
— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) November 8, 2020
Rivers irate
The Colts likely have a different definition of what constitutes “clear and obvious.” Rivers certainly does.
“It’s gotten so jacked up how the catch rule is,” Rivers told reporters after the game. “Nobody that’s played any amount of football or has been around the game thought that was it was catch, including the guy that dropped it.
“You can slow it down to milliseconds, and you can just make it a technicality about three feet touching the ground even though somebody that’s sitting back watching, probably hasn’t thrown a football in his life gets to call it. ”
Philip Rivers with some words on the NFL's catch rule. pic.twitter.com/xpfVOrIjXM
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) November 8, 2020
Baltimore takes over after pick
The Ravens dominated both sides of the ball after the interception to improve to 6-2 in the battle between two of the AFC’s best teams. The Colts dropped to 5-3.
Lamar Jackson and Baltimore’s struggling offense woke up after halftime, tallying 211 yards in the second half after the 55-yard effort before halftime. Jackson completed 19 of 23 passes for 170 yards while adding 58 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
The Ravens’ defense, meanwhile, held the Colts scoreless after halftime while limiting Rivers to 227 yards on 43 pass attempts with no touchdowns and one interception. Peters had a big game, tallying five tackles and a forced fumble that led to a defensive touchdown in addition to his interception.
Baltimore caught a big break and made the most of it in a critical win.
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