Bold claim: The NFL’s catch rule is a moving target that keeps tripping teams up, and Mike Tomlin almost nudged it back toward clarity — but didn’t push hard enough. The pattern is familiar: the cheated team gripes loudly, while the helped team stays quiet. In Baltimore on Sunday, two late-game calls again muddied the catch rule, hurting the Ravens and quietly helping the Steelers clinch a needed win.
The Ravens were right to be upset. The Steelers, predictably, stayed restrained.
When asked about the nullified Isaiah Likely touchdown with 2:47 left, Tomlin acknowledged the controversy but explained his mindset: he’s learned to move on. He cited past incidents like the Jesse James play from 2017 as examples of how controversial calls exist in big games. His goal is to drive enough plays to keep the outcome from hinging on one call. That’s why you won’t hear him lobbying New York for postgame explanations.
Yet the broader point remains: a couple of unfortunate calls can erase all the preparation and effort a team has poured in.
So does Tomlin understand the current catch rule after two replay rulings — Rodgers’ catch seemingly not maintained through the ground, and Likely’s non-catch that appeared to have been made? Tomlin says yes, framing football as bang-bang, fast, and exciting for fans, and noting that the system aims to protect against errors by making certain results automatically reviewable, reducing the need for a direct challenge.
In truth, Tomlin’s stance may reflect a practical acknowledgment that the outcomes helped his team retake the AFC North lead. It’s not surprising that a team benefits from a praise-worthy miscall and stays quiet when the result goes its way.
Analyst voices like Chris Simms have urged candor: the team that benefits from a miscall should openly label it as such. The Rodgers play violates the rule about maintaining possession while going to the ground, and the Likely play violates the rule about what constitutes a catch beyond a third step with possession. In both cases, the replay standard felt misapplied, not just debated.
For the Steelers, the uneasy truth is that the league’s current uncertainty around what counts as a catch could haunt them too in the future. Tomlin’s generally pragmatic approach can coexist with a forthright challenge to the process—either accepting a ruling while questioning its accuracy or admitting error when warranted.
With these two plays, the answer many expected from Ravens coach John Harbaugh was a gripe about the rule; what surprised some was Tomlin’s willingness to say the rule wasn’t applied properly. If he had been more explicit, it might have generated real momentum to reform the catch rule quickly. Instead, years after the league claimed to fix the rule, the issue remains muddied and contentious, ready to spark ongoing debate in the comments and across the league.
