NFL confirms referee Jeff Triplette's latest blunder

Tom Pelissero | USA TODAY Sports

After review, the NFL is throwing another flag on referee Jeff Triplette after all.

Dean Blandino, the league's vice president of officiating, said in his weekly NFL Network appearance on Tuesday that Triplette was wrong to overturn a key fourth-and-goal stop by the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

"No, it wasn't a correct call. I'll start with that," Blandino said. "There was not enough evidence to overturn the ruling on the field."

It's the second public reprimand in nine days for Triplette, whom Blandino said in a statement last week was wrong not to stop the game amidst "obvious confusion as to the status of the down" on the Washington Redskins' final drive in a Dec. 1 loss to the New York Giants.

Triplette's latest gaffe came earlier in the game, but it was a pivotal moment nonetheless, with the Bengals leading the Colts 7-0 just before halftime. The ruling on the field was Cincinnati running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis was down by contact inside the 1-yard line.

Replays appeared to show that Colts nose tackle Josh Chapman may have tripped Green-Ellis in the backfield, sending him stumbling to the ground. But Triplette overturned the call anyway, doubling the Bengals' lead and shifting the momentum in a 42-28 win.

"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. "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 — 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."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello had told USA TODAY Sports in an email Monday that Triplette's decision was "a judgment call." But the threshold is higher for overturning a decision on the field, and Blandino said it's his responsibility to make sure that standard is applied consistently.

Blandino did not address why Triplette apparently only viewed replays for potential contact on the goal line — not in the backfield, where it appeared Chapman may have gotten enough of Green-Ellis to make him strumble.

Pressed by a pool reporter on whether Green-Ellis was touched in the backfield by Chapman, Triplette said, "I don't know about that. … There was nobody that touched him at the goal line. … We looked at the goal line."

Aiello confirmed Triplette could look for contact elsewhere, even if the initial ruling had been that the runner was touched down at the goal line.

"The referee can review the whole play," Aiello said in the e-mail.