DETROIT -- Golden Tate was confident from the beginning that his touchdown catch in the second quarter Sunday was going to be a touchdown from the get-go, even though it was initially ruled an interception by Walt Coleman's officiating crew.
Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford threw the ball to Tate, who caught the 2-yard pass in the middle of the end zone. The ball was knocked out by Chicago Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller, tipped in the air by Tate and then by Chicago defensive lineman Eddie Goldman and then into the hands of Bears linebacker Jonathan Anderson, who came down with it.
The officials deemed it an interception, which would have meant the Lions would have had a 14-13 lead instead of a 21-13 lead after the extra point. Then, after review, the ruling was overturned to a touchdown for Tate.
"I felt like it was a touchdown from the get-go and after watching, I still felt it was a touchdown," Tate said. "But I didn't know what they were going to decide they were going to say, that it wasn't enough to overturn it, whatever it is.
"I'm just glad it went our way. I was pretty sure that it was a touchdown and just glad it was and not looking back."
Coleman explained after the game that Tate had the ball with two feet down standing upright, so that meant he had become a runner in the end zone when he took a third step, which is when Fuller stripped the ball.
Seeing that in video evidence was enough for Coleman and his crew to overturn the interception.
"He wasn't going to the ground, he was standing upright. Two feet down. Possession of the ball. Takes one more step, and then the ball was stripped out," Coleman said in a pool report. "Well in the end zone, once you have the completed catch, it's a touchdown. The play is over. He was standing upright.
"It wasn't like he was going to the ground where he would have had to have held on to the ball. But he was standing upright. Completed the catch with the ball in the end zone -- that makes it a touchdown."
The play once again called into question what is a catch, what isn't a catch and what the process of the catch rules are. This has been an issue in the NFL for years, dating back to the Lions-Bears game that opened the 2010 season in which Calvin Johnson did not complete the process of the catch, turning a game-winning touchdown for Detroit into a Bears victory.
It has since been a question in catches made by Dez Bryant, Tyler Eifert and Devonta Freeman.
After the game, Chicago receiver Alshon Jeffery wondered what does, in fact, constitute a catch.
"If you watch Devonta Freeman, he clearly made a catch. He went over the goal line. No touchdown," Jeffery said. "To me it looked like the same play. Except our guy had his hand up and stripped the guy. That's an interception. So how can you clarify that? I don't know."
Johnson said he's just glad Tate's touchdown "was a catch" and didn't want to go into it further. Neither Chicago coach John Fox nor Detroit coach Jim Caldwell wanted to talk about the ruling, both saying that Tate possessed the ball.
While Tate was confident this catch was actually a catch, he did also say there are times he does wonder what is and is not a catch in the NFL these days.
"Yeah, sometimes," Tate said. "Over the past few years, there's been some instances where I thought it was a catch and some where I thought it wasn't a catch and it's been vice versa. So my mindset is don't put us in that position in the first place, and you don't have to worry about it."