NFL head of officiating Dean Blandino has admitted that referee Jeff Triplette made a mistake in awarding a touchdown during the second quarter of Sunday's match between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Indianapolis Colts.
Bengals running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis was initially ruled to have fallen short of the line on a fourth-and-goal having been tripped by Colts defensive tackle Josh Chapman, but the decision was overturned after a review, giving Cincinnati the touchdown and a 14-point lead.
However, Blandino believes that there was not enough evidence to reverse the call and admitted that it should have been a Colts' ball rather than a Bengals score.
"It wasn't a correct call. We made a mistake here. The call on the field was that he was touched and he was down by contact with the ball short of the goal line," Blandino said on NFL Network.
"In order to overturn that there has to be indisputable visual evidence that the call on the field was incorrect. That's the standard. When we look at these angles, it's close.
"[I] don't think it's definitive either way, and when it's not definitive either way, that means the call on the field should stand. So we made a mistake here. This should not have been overturned. This should have been Indianapolis' ball."
The Bengals went on to win the game 42-28 to move a step closer to the playoffs.
Barney Corkhill
