One of the strangest plays of the 2025 NFL season was called correctly on the field, only to be overturned by replay review.
In the Week 14 Ravens-Steelers game, Aaron Rodgers threw a pass that was batted back to him, and Rodgers grabbed the ball, as did Ravens linebacker Teddye Buchanan. They wrestled for it as Rodgers went to the ground, Buchanan ended up with it, and the officials on the field ruled it an interception. Then a replay review ruled that Rodgers had possession of the ball with a knee down, and Rodgers caught the pass.
That replay review was incorrect. A league spokesman confirmed to PFT that when NFL Executive VP of Football Operations Troy Vincent said there were replay reviews the league wishes it could have back, that ruling of a Rodgers catch was one of them. It should have been an interception.
That play was a big moment in the fourth quarter of a big win for the Steelers, as it allowed the Steelers to run another minute off the clock and resulted in a 50-yard field position swing between where the Ravens would have had the ball if the interception had stood, and where the Ravens got the ball after the Steelers punted. Considering that the Ravens ended up narrowly losing, and ultimately losing the AFC North because of that loss, it's a huge disappointment to Ravens fans that the replay review process overturned the correct call on the field.
Now that the league office has had time to carefully scrutinize the play, PFT is told that the Rodgers play should have been ruled the same way as the Bills' interception in overtime of their playoff loss to the Broncos. On that play, Bills receiver Brandin Cooks did have the ball as he went to the ground, but he did not complete the process of the catch by maintaining possession on the ground. Denver's Ja'Quan McMillian snatched the ball away from Cooks and secured the interception, just as Buchanan snatched the ball away from Rodgers and secured the interception.
On McMillian's interception, the ruling on the field stood. It should have stood on Buchanan's interception as well.