Browns coach Kevin Stefanski still waiting for explanation on false start on field goal

Kevin Stefanski left Baltimore on Sunday expecting to hear his phone ring at some point Monday from the NFL. The Browns coach remains waiting for that call to come.

“Not yet,” Stefanski said on a Zoom call Monday. “I have had one phone call in. I will have another phone call later today.”

The topic of the phone calls center on one specific play in Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the Ravens. With just over two minutes remaining, the Browns lined up at the Baltimore 37 to try a game-tying 55-yard field goal.

Before the ball was snapped, flags flew from the officials. That’s when the confusion arrived.

On replay, it looked like the left side of the Ravens line jumped across and hit the right side of the Browns line. There was movement on the left side of the Browns line, but it looked like it came after the movement and contact by the Ravens.

The officials’ call? False start on the Browns’ Michael Dunn, who’s lined up at left guard.

“I’m not really sure what to say about it,” Dunn said after the game. “They called it on me, so they must’ve saw something, but I didn’t think I moved. I’ll see on tape what exactly happened, but I feel bad it hurt us at such a pivotal part of the game.”

The penalty moved the ball back five yards. The spot, meanwhile, moved back five yards as well.

The kick, a 60-yard try by Cade York, ended up being blocked by the Ravens’ Malik Harrison. Harrison lined up head up on Dunn, then slid into the center-guard gap and blocked the kick.

A day later, there remained multiple questions surrounding the play. The biggest centered on what was the actual reason for the flag.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who was a special team coach with the Philadelphia Eagles more than 15 years ago, argued that long snapper Charlie Hughlett caused his team to jump by moving the ball. The replays do show Hughlett moving his head to look back at holder Corey Bojorquez, but the ball movement is hard to tell clearly.

“I mean, Charlie’s a veteran long snapper,” Stefanski said Monday. “He did nothing differently than he did his entire career. We’re in no way trying to draw them offsides in that situation. The risk-reward is way, way, way too high. You may do that if it’s on the plus-10 and it’s a short field goal. There’s teams I see do that, but that’s certainly not what we were doing there.”

Story continues

Beyond the question of the flag itself was the process used by the field-goal unit. Specifically, there was a question of if the spot wasn’t where it should have been after the penalty mark off.

Typically, the holder puts the spot seven yards behind the line of scrimmage on a kick. However, both the 55-yard try that never occurred and the 60-yard try that was blocked were both eight yards behind Hughlett.

“I think with the penalty moving us back those five yards, I think we just didn’t adjust accordingly,” Stefanski said. “Those guys are always working to make sure that they’ve got their landmarks correct. I don’t believe that was the reason the ball was blocked.”

The reason why the blocked kick proved to be such a crucial part of the loss was because of another penalty the Browns drew just two plays before. Amari Cooper was flagged for offensive pass interference with 2:18 remaining, negating a 34-yard touchdown that would’ve given the Browns the lead.

Cooper, who was running a go route down the right sideline, was hand-fighting with cornerback Marcus Peters as he ran. Before the ball got to him but after he had gained a step on Peters, he extended his arm at about the Ravens 10 toward Peters.

The contact wasn’t substantial, but it was certainly there on Cooper to help him get a bit more separation.

“You’ve seen that one go either way,” Stefanski said. “There’s hand-fighting in this league. I get it, he created some separation there. So, you’re beholden to whatever the officials saw.”

Cooper didn’t hide from the call in the locker room after the game. He took responsibility, said “it’s something I should not have done.”

Cooper’s teammates were chalking both flags up to “football” things.

“Unfortunately, it’s part of football,” All-Pro left guard Joel Bitonio said Monday. “It’s an imperfect science reffing games. Like you said, Amari’s a 50-50 call most of the time, and then, if we make the field goal, we just go to overtime and play against them in overtime. Or, they had some time, too, to go down and score, I think. It was one of those things where it definitely didn’t help us. We still could’ve found other ways to get a win.”

Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ

Bengals at Browns

Time: 8:15 p.m. Monday

TV: ESPN

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns coach Stefanski still waiting for league call on false start