NOT-SO-INSTANT REPLAY: SMITH’S TD REVIEWED TWICE

PHILADELPHIA » Upon further review, can the reversal of a touchdown have a review?

That was the odd sequence in Philadelphia when Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith dragged in his feet on a catch to stay inbounds and score a touchdown against the New York Giants. Or did he?

The call was ruled a touchdown but the scoring play was under review. The officials reviewed the play and announced that the call was overturned and was ruled incomplete.

But then the officials announced that, well, the review of the review was under review. Got that?

This review conclusively showed that Smith had control of the ball and kept his feet inbounds (“I kind of felt like Michael Jackson”) and the Eagles scored the touchdown for a 20-3lead.

Walt Anderson, NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating, said the play was reviewed twice because the officials wanted to make sure it was the right call.

“The original communication between the replay booth and the referee was that it looked like it was going to be an expedited review. And I know the referees are trying to make those announcements quickly,” he told a pool reporter. “By the time we could say there are additional angles, he had already made that announcement. And then we said, no, we’re going to stop play and look at this because we had multiple angles relative to was it a continuous step.”

Anderson added: “After we looked at everything, it looked like there may have been evidence that the toe drug first, before the heel ended up stepping. And since the ruling on the field was a touchdown, that’s when we say, well, we don’t have evidence to change it from the ruling and that’s why we stayed with touchdown.”

The Eagles beat the Giants 34-10.