Walt Anderson: Officials got a replay assist to rule the Cardinals on fourth down

In the second quarter of today’s Ravens-Cardinals game, Arizona running back Emari Demercado turned it over the middle on fourth-and-1. The umpires spotted the ball, and when the strings began to come out for measurement, the umpires re-spotted the ball, moving it back and away from the first down.

So why did the officials move the ball past the original point? NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson says the replay booth decided the original point was wrong.

“This was a replay pass from the booth on the court,” Anderson said via Pool Report. “With the replay assistance rule, what that allows us to do is provide the officials with objective information if we end up with clear, clear video evidence. We waited a little bit because we weren’t quite sure where the officials were going to initially spot the ball after all the players were cleared and we could see that it was It was actually spotted on the big line. Then the replay official told the refs that the ball was clearly short and that’s why the ref ended up moving the ball. Obviously, given the lack of fourth downs with the new rule this year, a failed fourth attempt is a booth review. But since we We did help, we knew it was short. That’s why we didn’t stop it further to review it again.

NFL officials increasingly rely on the replay booth to quickly alert them if a call is wrong. If he corrects a bad call and does so without having to delay the game for a formal review, that’s a good thing.