Once again, the NFL season has been overshadowed by officiating errors. In today’s Monday Night Football game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Baltimore Ravens at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the visitors found themselves on the wrong side of poor officiating. Unnecessary penalties and missed calls impacted the game which the Ravens won 41-31.
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This led the fans and former Eagles’ center Jason Kelce to call out the refs.
One of the calls heavily criticised was when the referees made a holding call on Daniel Faalele for merely blocking Lavonte David. The call negated a rushing TD from Lamar Jackson.
The videos illustrated that there was no holding, and the offensive linemen merely overpowered the defender. Kelce took to X and remarked:
“Ball don’t lie!! Not only did the official make a poor holding call on Faalele, but they missed a penalty on the Bucs, my man Linderbaum got his legs cut out in the open. they outlawed that years ago. #MNF “
Ravens Nation also chimed in. They wrote, “For the record this was NOT a hold… Do better @NFLOfficiating.” Fans wasted no time voicing their frustration under the post. Some of them highlighted the excessive number of penalties during the game.
Others pointed out that the refs have missed worse holding calls throughout the season. Yet, unreasonably penalized Faalele for doing nothing wrong. Many also stated that poor officiating has become glaringly obvious and demanded that officials be held accountable for their mistakes.
They’ve thrown so many penalties tonight.
— Joe Shmoe (@lebron_jinkles) October 22, 2024
There’s literally hundreds of plays across the NFL each week with waaaaay more egregious holdings that don’t get called. This was absolutely insane to call when Faalele did nothing
— Chad Brizendine (@ChadBrizendine) October 22, 2024
Officiating is not so good this year.
Wish they would be held more accountable for bad calls.
Are they?— Omertà (@ogp2396) October 22, 2024
Jason pointed out that the refs missed another obvious call on the same play. This was when the Bucs’ corner tackled the Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum low in open field. Kelce emphasized that this type of tackle was banned.
These weren’t the only calls that went against the Ravens on Monday. The officials evidently missed a bad hit on Lamar Jackson. It was when the Buccaneers’ lineman Calijah Kancey dove into the QB, making an illegal helmet-to-helmet contact.
Are they waiting until they knock Lamar Jackson out before they call these? pic.twitter.com/Gaq6Kgk5k3
— Ravens Nation (@LIVERavenNation) October 22, 2024
There were a couple of other calls as well that the 2-time MVP didn’t get. One was for roughing the passer when K.J. Britt slammed into Lamar after he had already released the ball.
The NFL banned the hip-drop tackle in the 2024 season. But despite that, no such call was made when Antonie Winfield Jr made such a tackle on Zay Flowers.
In the end, the Ravens didn’t have to pay for blatant mistakes and poor officiating, as they emerged victorious. They now have five straight wins in their bag this season and are going to meet the Cleveland Browns next.
