NFL says Steve Smith interfered, majority on this site agree

On Tuesday, the NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino went on his company's network to say that Steve Smith did in fact commit offensive pass interference on what otherwise would have been an 80-yard touchdown to potentially win the game.

Smith did make contact with safety George Iloka, though how much and the extent of whether Iloka flopped or not has been debated since. But as Blandino said, the rule, the way it's written at least, sides against Smith and the Ravens.

"Pass interference is any act that significantly hinders an eligible player's ability to catch a pass," Blandino said. "When we look at this replay, you can see Smith put his left hand in the chest of the defender and pushed him down. We do feel that this is the correct call.

"And when you look at it, reverse the roles: If that was a defender pushing a receiver down, I don't think anybody would be questioning the call. The rules are the same to both sides of the ball: That is offensive pass interference."

It should be noted, though, that the majority of folks that come to this site agree with Blandino. A poll posted Monday morning has 54 percent of the respondents saying that it was the correct call.

As with 99.9 percent of games, one play — this Smith play — didn't decide the outcome. There were multiple factors that led to the Ravens losing. But this play was certainly a pivotal one that could have suddenly switched the outcome and had Baltimore riding high.

Instead, this week's game against Pittsburgh is that much more important as far as the divisional race is concerned.