The NFL has a strict rule against players criticizing officials, and Lamar Jackson might just have walked into it. The Baltimore Ravens QB made a somewhat critical judgment of the referees’ controversial call on Tyler Shough’s final touchdown that gave the New Orleans Saints a 24-17 comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
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“I’m a Raven, I don’t think he scored,” Jackson told reporters post-game (via Jeff Zrebiec on X). “But refs, you know, they went with their call, and it is what it is.”
The NFL doesn’t really allow players to call out the referees and their decisions to protect the integrity of officiating. In such instances in the past, players have faced up to $25,000 in fines, as Puka Nacua did in 2025 for criticizing officiating. Though Nacua’s comments were more straightforward, Jackson could also face a fine if the officials interpret his “I don’t think he scored” as direct criticism of the ref’s judgment.
Nonetheless, that would be the least of Jackson’s problems, after he saw the Ravens lose a 17-9 lead in the fourth quarter. On the back of Tyler Shough’s heroics, the Saints scored 15 unanswered points. On 2nd and 4, Shough threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave to level the score, and then came the final controversial moment.
At 4th-and-goal, Shough tried to sneak in for a 1-yard touchdown, hoping to break the plane of the goal line. In the scuffle, it seemed like Shough lost the ball during his fall, and Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey eventually picked up the loose ball. But the officials on the field awarded the touchdown, and NFL Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth later explained that they couldn’t find enough video evidence to overturn the on-field call.
“The key here is the ruling on the field is a touchdown,” said Butterworth. “So, we need clear and obvious video evidence that he didn’t score in order to reverse the on-field ruling. We stopped the game, it’s a high-leverage play, we wanted to make sure to either find clear and obvious video evidence that he didn’t score or to confirm the call on the field. We exhausted all available angles and could not prove clear and obvious that he did not break the plane of the goal line.”
On the Ravens’ side, Lamar Jackson wasn’t the only one upset with the call. Even coach Jesse Minter and linebacker Roquan Smith, who leapt over the pile to try and stop Shough, shared similar statements.
“You know, those are so subjective and so hard to tell,” Minter said. “It is what it is, honestly.”
Smith, too, took the route of letting it go despite the game-changing nature of the call, saying,
“At the end of the day, whatever the refs call on the field, that is what it is. I did not see it as one, but at the end of the day, they get paid to make the calls out there, I get paid to play ball to the best of my ability, so I cannot focus on what is out of my control.”
Unfortunately for the refs, the pileup at the touchdown line prevented a clear line of sight.
For now, Jackson and the Ravens need to accept the bitter ruling. At 1-1 after Week 2, they will next face the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, Sept. 27.