It wouldn’t be a primetime NFL game without some controversy mixed in there and Sunday night's contest between the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants was no exception.
After the Giants got a free play following a defensive pass interference call on the Bills, the next play again had the potential to be nullified by a defensive penalty. As Giants quarterback Tyrod Taylor lofted a pass to tight end Darren Waller, Bills cornerback Taron Johnson had a hold of Waller's jersey.
Waller's left arm appeared to be hindered as he attempted to make the catch, which usually would result in a pass interference penalty. However, no flag was thrown and the Bills escaped with a 14-9 win dropping the Giants to 1-5.
After the game, the NBC broadcast crew reviewed the play with former NFL official Terry McAulay. He did his best to clear some things up and give his opinion to the NFL audience.
“It certainly wouldn’t be holding, the ball’s in flight,” McAulay said, via Jelani Scott. “And had the ball not been in flight that jersey pull is an automatic foul, we understand that. Once the ball’s in flight, now it changes what that pull means. It has to significantly hinder the receiver, and one can argue it did.”
Cris Collingsworth then offered his opinion, to which he said there was “no question” the hold stopped Waller from making an attempt at the catch, to which McAulay agreed.
NFL officials under heat again
It's easy to judge NFL officials after seeing dozens of slow-motion replays of a play they saw in seconds in real-time. It's hard to officiate NFL games, especially in primetime during the guaranteed final play of the game. The referees called a defensive pass interference in the same scenario a play earlier though so the situation was not much different.
Of course, back-to-back penalties for the Bills on defense would have prompted plenty of jeers from the Buffalo crowd, but the officials have a job to do and can’t let the fans play a factor in their decision-making. If that play happened in the middle of the second quarter, it would get called immediately almost every time and NFL refs wouldn’t think twice about throwing a flag on the same team on consecutive plays.
There's no guarantee that the Giants would have scored a touchdown to win the game on a third final play but they should have at least been given the opportunity. Hindsight raises that even more with the fact that they've now lost four games in a row and failed to score double-digit points in a game for the third time this season.
Being an NFL official is a thankless job as it is in any sport. Blaming referees for losses is not always received well but it is an easy excuse for teams to make, especially in this sort of end-of-game scenario.
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