Subscribe
Follow Us
The Buffalo Bills lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 9 because the Bengals were the far superior team. That said, the officiating in this Sunday Night Football game was bad, and the worst call came on a Josh Allen intentional grounding call right before halftime. After the game, the Bills QB said that call was like nothing he’d seen before.
On 3rd-and-6 with 24 seconds left in the first half, Allen dropped back (under no pressure), and threw a pass deep down the left sideline. Bills wide receiver Gabriel Davis stopped his route, and the ball sailed over him to where Allen thought he would be if he kept running.
The officials somehow called that intentional grounding.
Do you agree that this was intentional grounding? pic.twitter.com/PnH6ecoZtc
— Tanner Phifer (@TannerPhiferNFL) November 6, 2023
There was obviously some miscommunication between Allen and Davis, as the QB was not trying to avoid a sack by throwing it away. However, the penalty stood, the Bills punted to the Bengals, and the half ended. It wasn’t a huge deal in the end, but it was a horrendous call that could have been a game-changer under different circumstances.
“I’ve never seen that call in my life,” Allen said after the game, per ESPN Bills reporter Alaina Getzenberg.
The Josh Allen intentional grounding call highlighted a ridiculous loophole in the rule, where officials technically should call the penalty if there is no receiver in the area, per NBC rules expert and former NFL referee Terry McAulay.
Announcer and former NFL WR Cris Collinsworth pushed back, incredulously, but failed to make the most important point. The NFL's website specifies that in addition to the lack of a pass-catcher in the area that McAulay was describing, there also has to be “a passer, facing an imminent loss of yardage because of pressure from the defense.”
That didn’t happen, making this a terrible call and supporting Allen’s implication that he’s never seen something this dumb before.
