The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Carolina Panthers, but the NFL officiating crew led by Jerome Boger did not make it easy at all.
The Thursday Night Football game had a 16-year veteran on the job. That ought to create a seamlessly administered game with fluid communication among the various members of the crew.
Tonight’s #TNF officiating crew is led by 16-year @NFL official, Jerome Boger. #TBvsCAR pic.twitter.com/5BJ7G8RQVB
— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) September 13, 2019
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Although the Buccaneers walked out of Charlotte with a 20-14 win, Jerome Boger's officiating partners stood in their way on a play at the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.
Several mistakes were made by the refs late in this contest — Boger's crews regularly struggle with game administration — but this was the most conspicuous error by far.
As noted in the tweet below by Tim Ring of ABC's Phoenix TV affiliate, KNXV, Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians did not challenge the changed spot, quite possibly because he assumed the first spot was going to remain intact.
That is a reasonable assumption, but “reasonable” doesn't fit a lot of NFL officials' decisions these days:
When the ref is born and raised in Charlotte. 🤣🤣🤣 How does Arians not challenge that? pic.twitter.com/NvKmXt474Z
— Tim Ring (@timringTV) September 13, 2019
The second spot gave the Carolina Panthers a first down. They drove to the Tampa Bay 2-yard line but were stopped on fourth down when Vernon Hargreaves stopped Carolina's Christian McCaffrey short of the marker.
The fact that the Buccaneers won this game will make the spotting inconsistency less consequential in the immediate aftermath of this NFC South battle, which moved the Bucs to 1-1 and the Panthers to 0-2. However, a nation of football fans watched one and only one game on Thursday.
The fact that Jerome Boger and his colleagues demonstrated poor communication, sloppy administration, and ultimately deficient calls will be remembered by fans. The credibility of NFL officials took yet another hit.
Just wait when teams far better than the Bucs and Panthers are involved in a massive Week 13 primetime game on NBC… or when another Rams-Saints disaster occurs in January.
No one in the NFL has any confidence that these officiating horror shows will decrease in frequency. That is a huge problem for the league.
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