NFL Twitter destroyed the referees of the Kansas City Chiefs-Las Vegas Raiders game after one of the worst roughing the passer calls in recent memory. To their defense, however, the official who made the call firmly expressed his belief that he made the right decision.

Speaking to Adam Teicher of ESPN, NFL referee Carl Cheffers provided his reasoning why he called for roughing the passer despite what many believe to be a clear tackle. For those who missed it, Chiefs DT Chris Jones appeared to tackle Raiders QB Derek Carr in the second quarter of the contest and even snatched the ball from him. However, Jones was instead called for the penalty as Las Vegas went on to end the half, 20-10.

In his defense, Cheffers said that even though Carr lost the ball and the defender landed on the quarterback, it's still roughing the passer because he is in passing posture and gets full protection.

“The quarterback is in the pocket and he's in a passing posture. He gets full protection of all the aspects of what we give the quarterback in a passing posture. So, when he was tackled, my ruling was the defender landed on him with full body weight. The quarterback is protected from being tackled with full body weight. My ruling was roughing the passer for that reason,” Cheffers detailed on his interpretation of the NFL rule.

When asked if losing the ball and the defender landing on the QB negate the penalty, Cheffer was firm with his stance on the matter: “No, because he still gets passing protection until he can defend himself. So, with him being in a passing posture and actually attempting to make a pass, he's going to get full protection until the time when he actually can protect himself. The fact that the ball came out and was subsequently recovered by the defense is not relevant as far as the protection the quarterback gets.”

Of course a lot of people still disagree with the call, with many saying that Carl Cheffer's interpretation is flawed.

Roughing the passer calls have been a hot topic over the weekend, with the Atlanta Falcons experiencing it firsthand against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It remains to be seen how the NFL will respond to the back-to-back issues, but perhaps they can provide more clarity on the correct interpretation of the rule.