The Pittsburgh Steelers used every possible second in Monday Night’s game against the San Diego Chargers to emerge victorious 24-20. Le’Veon Bell’s game-winning 1-yard TD run with no time remaining sealed the deal, but the team should’ve had even more time.
The game clock operator at Qualcomm Stadium somehow ran off 18 seconds of game clock after the Chargers kicked off with 2:56 remaining in the fourth quarter. The result of the play was a touchback, so no time should’ve ran off. But the clock kept ticking, and by the time the Steelers ran their first play of the drive, the game clock showed 2:38.
Major clock error on kickoff. Steelers lost 24 seconds on a touchback. pic.twitter.com/ET9MOfgBGn
— Jason Vida (@jasonvida) October 13, 2015
ESPN producer Jason Vida took a screenshot of the play-by-play recap as proof.
Official box. FG at 2:59. Kickoff at 2:56 (touchback). Steelers first play at 2:38. pic.twitter.com/IxPprHYXhb
— Jason Vida (@jasonvida) October 13, 2015
The NFL declined to comment on the clock error after the game, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
NFL reportedly is declining comment on the 18-second clock error before the Steelers' final drive. #transparency
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 13, 2015
We’ll likely never know if the error was intentional or not, but the Steelers nearly got screwed. The NFL will likely release a statement about it at some point today, so we’ll see what they have to say about it.