Did Clete Blakeman’s Officiating Crew Make Two Mistakes on Tyler Shough’s Game-Winning Sneak?

It’s a young seaso yet, but so far, we can call the New Orleans Saints the NFL’s Comeback Kings at this point.

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In Week 1, they overcame a 21-0 third-quarter deficit to the Detroit Lions, and nearly won the game, falling short by a 31-30 overtime total. And in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, Kellen Moore’s Saints came back from a 14-3 disadvantage to beat Baltimore, 24-17.

The game-deciding play came with 1:28 left in the game, when quarterback Tyler Shough appeared to bash his way into the end zone from one yard out on a quarterback sneak. Kudos to the Saints for traversing 68 yards in 16 plays to make this happen… but did they?

As they say, let’s go to the tape.

At the conclusion of the play, it looked like Shough didn’t quite get in, but as the original call was for a touchdown, it was unlikely to be reversed on review. The replay official did review the ruling that Shough broke the plane of the end zone, and it was upheld.

As former referee and current CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore pointed out, that set things up for nothing but frustration.

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I am more surprised that the ruling on the field in #NOvsBAL was touchdown vs instant replay standing with the on-field ruling.

After looking at all the angles in replay, I can’t see the football cross the goal line. Plays at the goal line are incredibly hard to overturn because… pic.twitter.com/uWZYcr2zbp

— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) September 20, 2026

And, as Steratore pointed out, Blakeman and his crew also missed a crushingly obvious face mask penalty that should have been called on Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith.

So, if everything was called as it should have been, the Saints would have had first-and-goal at the Baltimore one-yard line, and four tries to get the ball in the end zone. But that’s not what occurred, and although the Ravens got away with a face mask, the Saints got away with quite a bit more — a touchdown that didn’t actually happen.

This would not be Blakeman’s first high-profile mistake — we’ve covered that before. And before. And… well, before.

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This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 4:32 PM.