Referees failed to adjust clock after review of Dez Bryant's overturned reception
When Dez Bryant's acrobatic near-reception down the sideline was overturned and ruled to be an incomplete pass, it drew a storm of criticism, although most agree that the rule was called correctly. However, referee Gene Steratore and the team of officials Sunday did make one mistake, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, when they didn't adjust the time on the game clock after the replay review.
Bryant made the play down the sideline with 4:36 remaining on the clock, but about 30 seconds ran off the clock before Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy elected to challenge the ruling on the field. After a review, Steratore ruled that the play was incomplete, which should have triggered a reset of the game clock to 4:36.
Instead those 30 seconds vanished.
On the ensuing possession, the Packers managed to drive the field and complete a 12-yard pass just after the two-minute warning that gave Green Bay a fresh set of downs and the ability to kneel out the remainder of the clock. With 30 more seconds, the team would have been forced to kill the remainder of the clock.
Would that have meant another possession for the Cowboys? It's impossible to say, but the chance would have existed.
