A key moment with less than two minutes to play Thursday night in Cleveland could have determined the outcome of the game based on how the officials interpreted and applied the relevant rules.

Facing third-and-two at the Pittsburgh 25 with exactly two minutes to play, quarterback Jameis Winston dropped back to pass. Linebacker Patrick Queen released. Winston tried to get rid of the ball before Queen dismissed him.

Queen hit Winston as he threw. And while the Browns were flagged for a lineman illegally touching the ball, no intentional grounding call was made.

Had it been called on the ground, it would have been fourth-and-15-of-38 for the Browns. Which would have given them a game to basically save the game.

Here is the relevant part of the regulation: “Intentional grounding shall not be called if . . . the passer initiates his passing motion to an eligible receiver and then is significantly affected by physical contact from a defensive player who causes grounding in an area not in the direction and vicinity of an eligible receiver.” (Emphasis added.)

Watch the song. (I couldn’t find a link to it, but it’s in the broadcast, which is available on demand.) Winston apparently knows he’s about to be fired and just drops the ball. Apparently he was hit while trying to throw the ball, not while trying to throw it to an eligible receiver.

First, was he “significantly affected by physical contact” from Queen? Officials apparently decided it was.

Second, did the contact cause the pass to land in an area not in the direction and vicinity of an eligible receiver? Officials apparently thought so.

Both are debatable. And here’s the thing: we know grounding when we see it. A defender has a defender coming at him and the defender gets rid of the ball in an act of desperation.

He is certainly not saved from the ground on purpose because he fails to get rid of the ball before he is hit.

This was not a situation where a quarterback was preparing to throw to an eligible receiver and had his arm hit in a way that caused the ball to explode into an open area of ​​the field. Grounding occurs when a quarterback, while “facing an imminent loss of yardage due to pressure from the defense, throws a forward pass without a realistic chance of completion.”

That’s what it looked like. How can the hit that the defender specifically tried to avoid by getting rid of the ball turn grounding into no grounding?

Hopefully there will be a group report on this. Even if there is, don’t expect the report to admit the call was wrong.

Even though it looks like it could have been.