ATLANTA — There was one specific play during the Atlanta Falcons’ Week 14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks that sparked questions postgame inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

With the score tied at 3-3 and 1:11 remaining in the second quarter, the Falcons faced third-and-5 from the Seahawks' 25-yard line. Quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a deep ball down the sideline to wide receiver Darnell Mooney in the left corner of the end zone. Mooney caught it, and Atlanta's offense looked for the touchdown signal.

Instead, the referees called for an incomplete pass, stating Mooney had stepped out of bounds prior to catching the pass from Cousins.

"We ruled that he did not re-establish himself back in bounds, that he went out on his own," referee Alex Kemp said via a pool report. "He was not forced out."

That begged the follow-up question as to what Mooney needed to do in order to re-establish himself.

"He would have to get two feet down in bounds in order to re-establish, two feet or a body part, back in bounds," Kemp said. "If he had and would have been the first to touch, it would have been a foul for illegal touching of a pass. The penalty enforcement for that would be the exact same as an incomplete pass. It's loss of down at the previous spot. Had we ruled what we ruled or the other way, the result of the play would have been the exact same thing."

So, Mooney was not going to get the touchdown either way.

Kemp said Falcons head coach Raheem Morris could have thrown a challenge flag. However, Kemp noted Morris would have been challenging whether Mooney was out of bounds. Nothing else was up for debate, as whether Mooney was forced out of bounds or not is not a reviewable entity.

Morris said in his press conference that he wanted the play to be reviewed by the NFL live. He was looking for some type of call on the defender rather than Mooney – either an illegal contact or defensive pass interference, for example.

"My explanation was I thought it should have been a call on the play," Morris said. "Potentially, you get a call on the play, re-establish yourself, catch the ball, and it should have been a touchdown. They explained to me that they didn't see it that way.

"Whatever the case may be: It's not a touchdown. It is what it is. You go with what the official said in that moment. We'll figure out what the right decision was moving forward."

Because the Falcons did not convert the third down, they opted for a 43-yard field goal rather than going for it on fourth-and-5. Kicker Zane Gonzalez made the boot, giving Atlanta a three-point lead.

Seattle answered on its very next drive with a 48-yard field goal of their own. That put the score at 6-6 come halftime.

Morris did not think Mooney's nulified touchdown was a momentum-turning play.

"No," he said. "The momentum-turning play was the kickoff return after the half."

The Seahawks returned the Falcons' second-half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. Then, Seattle rattled off another 10 points in the third quarter. The Falcons added a 27-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, but the Seahawks added two more touchdowns.

The final score was 37-9, Seahawks. The Falcons are now 4-9 and officially eliminated from playoff contention with four games remaining.

Although one touchdown wouldn't have changed the outcome, Atlanta can't help but look back on that second-quarter play and wonder the impact it had.

"You try not to let anything deflate you," Cousins said. "You try not to let anything beat you. You try to keep playing ... and believe that if you do that, you'll be competing until the end. But yeah, you look back at the end of the game and kind of say, 'Yeah, that would have been a nice one to have there, and it just didn't go our way.'"