.jpg)
1 hour ago
2
The divisional round of the NFL playoffs featured several questionable calls that have only made fans' irritation with referees grow. On Saturday, Josh Allen seemingly completed a deep pass to Brandin Cooks in overtime to set up a potential game-winning field goal. After catching the ball and seeing his knee hit the ground, Broncos defender Ja'Quan McMillan ripped the ball away, and the pass was ruled an interception. The Broncos then went downfield and won off the strength of two pass interference calls.
On Sunday, two very similar plays took place. Houston Texans receiver Xavier Hutchinson caught a pass and was going to the ground when the ball was ripped out. Later that night during the matchup between the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams. Davante Adams caught a pass and had the ball ripped out for what appeared to be an interception. And since it was ruled that way on Saturday, surely it would be ruled the same on Sunday, right? Wrong. Adams was ruled down by contact.
Fans rightfully took to X to heavily criticize the NFL and its officials for their lack of consistency. However, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow strangely defended the officials, and took a pretty clear jab at fans.
"The amount of [people] that don’t understand what a catch is in the rule book flabbergasts me," Burrow said. "And it’s not the officials. The two plays yesterday were not difficult calls, and they got them both right."
While Burrow is entitled to his own opinion, it's hard to knock the fans for calling out obvious inconsistencies from officiating crews around the NFL - something that is far from new and only gets worse by the year.
English (US)