Mike Pereira just as confused by referee Clete Blakeman as the rest of us: ‘I’m not sure what he said there’

It’s usually not a good sign when a referee makes headlines for something they did during a game. NFL official Clete Blakeman is no exception after a fairly disastrous Sunday.

The Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons put on a show for Berlin’s first regular-season NFL game. The score was tied 25-25 towards the end of regulation, and there was a little bit of confusion about whether or not there was still time left on the clock for one more play after an intentional grounding call. That’s when Blakeman turned on his mic to tell the crowd and audience at home exactly what had occurred.

At least that was the plan. The referee offered a sputtering, spastic explanation that there was a 10-second runoff that ended regulation and sent the game into overtime.

Rules analyst Mike Pereira tried to offer some help on the explanation, but was unable to make sense of it himself.

Mike Pereira has no idea what Clete Blakeman is talking about. pic.twitter.com/fM7fWVdyMk

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 9, 2025

“I’m not sure what he said there,” said Pereira on the NFL Network broadcast. “He said that they’re gonna go to overtime. But if they are gonna properly enforce this, they should have reset the clock to eleven seconds, cause that’s what it was.”

As Pereira said that, Blakeman returned and told the clock operator to put one second back on the clock, negating everything he had just explained.

Unfortunately for Blakeman, he wasn’t done making strange gaffes on the day.

And, according to Adam Amin, Blakeman screwed up the coin toss to begin overtime. They had to reflip! https://t.co/ZIB2TCEre3 pic.twitter.com/8A0QgnUlUG

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 9, 2025

Captains for both teams met with Blakeman for the coin toss to determine possession in overtime. The Colts called the flip correctly, so they opted to start with the ball in overtime. NFL Network went to a commercial as both teams prepared accordingly. However, when we returned, the Colts were kicking off to the Falcons. According to announcer Adam Amin, since Indianapolis was designated as the home team, it should have been Atlanta’s call. So they had to re-flip the coin, which the Falcons won, furthering the confusion.

The mistake didn’t seem to impact the outcome of the game. The Falcons eventually punted, and the Colts ended the ensuing drive with a touchdown to notch the 31-25 win.

Next time he’s traveling across the globe to call an NFL game, we hope Clete gets a little more sleep beforehand. He’s already prone to controversial and confusing decisions, even when he’s calling games in America.