Lost in the mayhem of the Patriots' miraculous 25-point comeback to win Super Bowl LI 34-28 was whether running back James White actually scored on the final play. Television replays did not clearly show if his knee was down before the ball broke the plane of the end zone, nor was it clear if the NFL reviewed the play.
As it turns out, the league did, with NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino confirming a review on the final play.
"Remember in overtime you don't kick the extra point," Blandino said in a video released by the NFL. "So the officials were briefed prior to the start of the drive that if we have a touchdown that's close, replay is going to stop the game immediately and review the play. You have to keep the sidelines off the field, you have to keep everybody off the field, almost impossible in this situation."
(Fast forward to 2:45)
Just released - @NFL Sr. VP of #Officiating@DeanBlandino breaks down the game-winning play from #SuperBowl on this week's media video: pic.twitter.com/tnDNCdRab5
— NFL Football Ops (@NFLFootballOps) February 8, 2017
"We are going to review this play if it's remotely close. Watch the play -- toss sweep to the right, runner is going to reach the ball over the goal line. The line judge you'll see from the bottom here he's going to signal touchdown immediately. The replay official signal is signaling to the officials on the field to stop the game to review the play. Watch the field judge react to that signal by putting up his hand that we're reviewing the play.
"The play did go under review, the referee looked at it, this is the angle that confirms the ruling on the field."
Blandino broke down the play as it would have been reviewed. Essentially, you can't actually see White cross the plane with the ball but he broke the plane before his knee hit the ground, according to Blandino.
"Remember, the ball just has to cross the plane of the goal line prior to being down by contact. Here's the plane of the goal line right there," Blandino began, before highlighting the plane.
"Watch the football, just before you start to lose it, the ball is going to break the plane of the goal line and you can see the knee is still up at that point," Blandino continued. "And when the knee is down, the ball, even though we can't see it, we know it has broken the plane a few frames prior to that.
"The ruling on the field was confirmed, the play did go under review, the call was confirmed and that's how the game ended."
The interesting thing is it probably didn't matter. The Patriots were getting six points on the drive. But the Falcons certainly would have been fine forcing the Patriots to play one more down before sealing the all-time biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.
But it's good to know the league reviewed it, when many people believed that they just let it slide despite a lack of firm, immediate evidence that White crossed the goal line.
