Oakland

Referee: Paper Provided ‘reaffirmation' of First Down, Raiders Fuming From Call

OAKLAND – The Raiders' 20-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night swung on a fourth-quarter, fourth-down measurement so close a result was hard to determine.

Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott's sneak on 4th-and-inches didn't get far, and possession wasn't perceptible right away. Officials brought first-down markers to midfield for a measurement with five minutes left in the game.

A Cowboys first down was awarded. Eventually. Officials took a long look at the ball in relation to the sticks, and then used a folded index card as part of their decision.

Referee Gene Steratore told a pool reporter after the game that the card wasn't part of the original decision.

"That was already finished," Steratore said. "The ball was touching the pole. I put the card in there and as soon as it touched, it was nothing more than a reaffirmation. The decision was made based on my visual from the top looking down and the ball touching the front of the pole."

Steratore was asked why the card was used at all, and Steratore reiterated that the card did not make the judgment. Steratore had not used a card before, even as affirmation for a first-down decision.

"It's maybe been done at some point in someone's career but I didn't use the card for my decision," Steratore said. "I used my visual looking at the ball reaching the pole."

If all that sounds confusing, it should. It certainly was for the Raiders, who lost a golden opportunity to win a game. Dan Bailey's 19-yard field goal concluded that drive and created the final margin for victory.

The Raiders had an opportunity to win the game later in the fourth quarter, but quarterback Derek Carr fumbled through the end zone trying to cross the goal line and win the game with 30 second left, which is a turnover and a touchback by rule.

That swing first-down decision, however, really stuck with the Raiders after the game.

"I don't want to get fined, okay?" Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio said. "I'm not happy with the way things were done…(I've) never seen air like that and have it somehow turn into a first down. There was air between the ball and the stick. That's short. The ball goes the other way. Period."

Raiders middle linebacker NaVorro Bowman was in the thick of things, and was flummoxed by the spot, the decision and that Dallas was awarded a first down he doesn't believe it earned.

"If you could be in the circle and see where that ball was, I don't see how they got that," Bowman said. "For them to pull that paper out to solidify the first down? There was space between the ball and the sticks. I just don't know."

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