What is leverage? Explaining call on Broncos’ Dondrea Tillman at Colts

In the end, the Colts lost any ounce of leverage — and then the Broncos gifted them 15 yards of it to lose in catastrophic fashion.

After Indianapolis’ coaching staff had called a near-perfect game Sunday to wear Denver’s defense thin, head coach Shane Steichen placed the last minute of an already bizarre Week 2 game on a silver platter for the Broncos. With 1:44 left and a first down at the Broncos’ 43-yard line, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor motored for two yards. And Steichen let the clock tick. And tick.

Two plays later, and two Colts timeouts to wind the clock down, Steichen placed his entire faith in the right leg of Spencer Shrader to nail a 60-yard field goal. Shrader, predictably, missed as time expired. Denver won. For a second.

A streaming yellow flag came flying in as the Broncos’ Dondrea Tillman appeared to push down on the back of a member of the Colts’ field goal unit to give himself an aerial boost to try and block the kick. The referee’s call: leverage, a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty that suddenly gave Shrader another shot at a now-45-yard attempt.

In the NFL rulebook, one particular phrase matches the Tillman push-off.

Defined as illegal: “Placing a hand or hands on a teammate or opponent to gain additional height to: (1) block or attempt to block an opponent’s kick or apparent kick, or (2) attempt to jump through a gap to block an opponent’s kick or apparent kick.”

Postgame, referee Craig Wrolstad reiterated that players aren’t able to propel themselves by pushing off to block a kick.

“In this case, (Tillman) came across the line to the right guard and he put his hands on the right guard and pushed off him to elevate himself in the air, in order to try to block the kick,” Wrolstad told a pool reporter. “You’re not allowed to do that. It is a personal foul and a 15-yard penalty.”

Of course, Shrader nailed the 45-yarder, the Colts reached back into the jaws of defeat and yanked out a win, and Broncos quarterback Bo Nix was left to stare blankly into the distance on a sideline bench.

“I was just going for the ball, trying to make a play,” Tillman said in the locker room postgame. “But, just gotta get in, look at the film, just see what I can do better from it, learn from it.”

Originally, the foul was called on the field on Broncos defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike, who was next to Tillman. Uwazurike did appear to grapple with the Colts’ long snapper, but didn’t use him for an aerial boost like Tillman.

“We’ll look at the tape,” head coach Sean Payton said postgame. “We haven’t seen it.”