It wasn’t a ‘phantom’ false start penalty on Browns’ field goal attempt

With 2:09 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Cleveland Browns lined up for a 56-yard field goal attempt to knot the game with the Baltimore Ravens, 23-23. However, officials threw penalty markers onto the field and Cleveland Browns fans were, and are, in an uproar.

However, it’s clear long-snapper Charley Hughlett picked up the football and defensive end Brent Urban is expressing that to the official after the flags went onto the gridiron.

Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh agreed with the officials and shared what he saw after the game.

“Yes, the left tight end [jumped]. The left tight end moved, for sure,” Harbaugh said. “I also felt like – they were trying to draw us offsides with a double cadence – what the centers do a lot of the time is they’ll move the ball. I thought he picked the ball up. You can’t pick the ball up; you’re really not allowed to move the ball in a hard fashion to draw someone offsides, but that’s what I thought it was. Then, they said also that the left tight end moved, so they kind of got themselves on it, and that’s what they called.”

Another part that could’ve factored into this was Hughlett bobbing and snapping his head. According to Las Vegas Raiders long-snapper Trent Sieg, the NFL cracked down on excessive movement like such last season.