Referee Alex Moore defends controversial unnecessary roughness call in Steelers

Of the three controversial decisions in the Steelers-Ravens game, the first allowed Pittsburgh to swap a field goal for a touchdown.

It happened when the officials called unnecessary roughness on Ravens defensive tackle Travis Jones, for hitting Steelers long snapper Christian Kuntz. The Steelers took the three points off the board, and scored six on the very next snap.

After the game, referee Alex Moore explained the decision to pool reporter Jeff Zrebiec.

“The snapper by rule is a defenseless player, so the contact would be unnecessary,” Moore said. “Basically, he ran him over.”

So the snapper can’t be contacted at all?

“You cannot make any forcible contact to that player,” Moore said. “The calling official felt like the contact rose to the level of being unnecessary against a defen