Sunday Night Football ended in controversy as the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Giants in part thanks to an assist from the refs.
The Giants had a chance to win the game with a walk-off touchdown on an untimed down at the end of the game because of a pass interference penalty. However, Tyrod Taylor's hopeful attempt to Darren Waller fell incomplete while Bills CB Taron Johnson had a blatant grip on the tight end's jersey.
New York got one call to extend the game. They didn't get a second.
Have a look at the play and decide for yourself if pass interference should have been called.
There's no doubt Johnson had a hold of Waller's jersey. The question is whether he committed pass interference by impacting his ability to catch the ball.
NFL refs missed a blatant pass interference call at end of Giants-Bills
Opinions may differ, but it seems clear that the jersey hold did have an impact on the play. Waller got one hand on the ball. His left arm was impeded by the hold and his positioning on the field while trying to make that catch was also altered. If the defensive back didn't have a fistful of jersey, Waller had a real chance to haul that in.
The refs don't want to make calls that decide the outcome of games, but in this case, they should have thrown the flag and the Giants should have had another play to try to win the game.
There's no saying whether or not New York would have ended up with the win. They still needed to make it into the endzone to win and the Bills needed to keep them out to win, they just needed to do it fair and square this time.
But that's the NFL for you. Not a week goes by without officials being involved in a no-call or a bad call. Teams need to do what they can to stay out of positions where one penalty or no-call can help decide the game.
