Nate Solder’s Touchdown In AFC Championship Game Was Illegal, NFL Says

Nate Solder’s touchdown catch in the AFC Championship Game seemed too good to be true. Probably because it was.

Dean Blandino, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, said Thursday that Solder’s improbable TD grab against the Indianapolis Colts shouldn’t have counted because the New England Patriots used an illegal formation on the play.

“There was an issue on that play where on the previous play, (Cameron) Fleming had reported as an eligible player,” Blandino told reporters in Arizona. “And on the Solder touchdown he went back to playing an ineligible position. That’s illegal. That’s an illegal substitution.

“So that’s something we discussed with the crew. (Patriots head coach) Bill (Belichick) was made aware of it. So we’re going to be looking for that, make sure we follow the proper mechanics so that doesn’t happen again.”

Fleming, by rule, would have needed to sit out one play in order to go from eligible to ineligible — unless there was a penalty, a timeout or it was the end of the quarter — and he did not, thus making Solder’s touchdown catch illegal. It’s not as if the league is going to retroactively take away Solder’s touchdown — the first catch and first TD of the offensive lineman’s NFL career — but the officials undoubtedly will keep a watchful eye on the Patriots’ formations in their Super Bowl XLIX showdown with the Seattle Seahawks.

Still, it was fun to see a 320-pound scamper his way to the end zone.