The officials working the Ravens’ 27–22 loss to the Steelers in Week 14 are going to want this call back.

Baltimore coach John Harbaugh told reporters Monday that the NFL admitted referees mishandled a unnecessary roughness penalty in the second quarter called on Ravens defensive tackle Travis Jones.

“We did discuss the Travis Jones call,” Harbaugh said. “They told me I had permission to state this: It was the wrong call. That should not have been called.”

Midway through the second quarter, Steelers kicker Chris Boswell booted a 32-yard field goal through the uprights that would have given Pittsburgh a 13–3 lead. But officials flagged Jones for unnecessary roughness after the fourth-year defensive tackle pushed his way past the Steelers’ long snapper.

"The snapper by rule is a defenseless player, so the contact would be unnecessary,” official Alex Moore said in a pool report Sunday evening. “Basically, he ran him over."

Harbaugh and the NFL itself, however, disagreed one day later.

“It’s not forceable contact to a defenseless player; it’s not whether you run a player over trying to block a field goal,” Harbaugh said. “That has nothing to do with it. It’s forceable contact to the head or neck area [that would warrant the penalty].”

RELATED: NFL Refs Keep Botching Critical Games That Decide the Playoff Race

Instead of finishing that drive with a field goal, the Steelers were awarded a first-and-goal from the 6-yard line. Kenneth Gainwell punched it in for a touchdown on the very next play, and the Steelers took a 17–3 lead—a critical four-point swing.

The Ravens went on to lose by five points, 27–22. But that wasn’t the only controversial call from the Ravens’ seventh loss of the season.

John Harbaugh rips NFL’s lack of clarity over definition of a catch

With 2:47 to play and the Ravens trailing 27–22, quarterback Lamar Jackson hit tight end Isaiah Likely in stride for what was initially ruled a 13-yard touchdown. Likely appeared to catch the ball and took two steps before the ball was punched out.

After review, the play was overturned. Officials ruled that Likely did not have possession of the football and instead ruled it an incomplete pass.

Baltimore failed to score a touchdown on its next three plays, and gave Pittsburgh the ball back with 2:22 to play with the score stuck at 27–22.

“Do I think there needs to be clarification there? Yeah, it’s about as clear as mud right now,” Harbaugh said Monday of the NFL’s definition of a catch. “That’s how I feel about it.

“There’s a lot to it. We had a conversation with the league office, and they were gracious enough to spend a lot of time on the phone with myself ... and we appreciate that. It didn’t clear anything up; it didn’t make it any easier to understand—either one of the two calls. They’re very hard to understand how they get overturned. But they did and that’s how it stands.”

The Ravens did get the ball back again with 1:56 to play and had every opportunity to put together a game-winning drive but came up short. Baltimore is now 6–7, one game behind the Steelers for first place in the AFC North.

There were plenty of moments that cost Baltimore at beating Pittsburgh on Sunday, but these two calls in particular—including one that the NFL ruled was incorrect—certainly did not help.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Admits Refs Made Costly Wrong Call in Ravens’ Tight Loss to Steelers.

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