Thursday night's game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended in thrilling fashion when Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins hit receiver KhaDarel Hodge for a game-winning overtime touchdown, which ended the game 36-30 in Atlanta's favor.
But as it turned out, the real drama happened late in the fourth quarter, and on two plays that could have turned the tide for the Bucs. Had referee Ron Torbert and his crew officiated the game the way it should have been, there may not have been an overtime at all.
The play everyone's talking about happened with 1:39 left in the fourth quarter, and the Bucs up 30-27 at the Atlanta 31-yard line. Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving's run was negated by a holding penalty on center Graham Barton, but the crew missed a blatantly obvious face mask penalty on Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss. Had that been called, the penalties would have offset, and the Bucs would have had the play to do over. Instead, they now had second-and-23 at the Atlanta 41-yard line, and a drive that ended with a punt two plays later.
Just as bad was the missed hip-drop tackle Torbert and his crew missed the play before. Here, Rachaad White was tackled by Falcons defensive end James Smith-Williams in a way that was a violation of that rule, which has become a recent NFL point of emphasis. A hip-drop tackle happens when a defender "wraps up a ballcarrier and rotates or swivels his hips, unweighting himself and dropping onto ball carrier's leg.".
Which is what happened here, and the Buccaneers should have been given 15 yards and an automatic first down.
"I'm mad," White said after the game . "I thought the guy hip-drop tackled me but it is what it is. I ain't trying to get fined."
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, who was recently named to the NFL's Competition Committee, wasn't too happy either — specifically about the missed facemask call.
"Hopefully we can get to that," Bowles said postgame. "We're trying to get to that right there. I think it should be reviewed from the top or at least be reviewed by the coaches if anything else, so they don't miss [many] calls."
Would the Buccaneers have held their three-point lead with a competent officiating crew? We'll never know the answer, and that's the problem. We expect that Elliss and Smith-Williams will be fined by the league for their on-field exploits. We don't know whether Torbert and his crew will be downgraded because the NFL makes grades for officials private, which is another problem.
The third problem is that Torbert was not asked for a pool report interview after the game, so he went away unaccountable.
Accountability for officials has been a rampant issue in the NFL for decades, and it doesn't appear to be getting any better anytime soon.
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