NFL officiating executive addresses controversial Bengals touchdown in Wild Card game vs Raiders

In the opening wild-card matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Las Vegas Raiders, the officials made a critical error which resulted in a touchdown for Cincinnati.

And like a person new to the poker tables in Vegas, the officiating crew doubled down on the bad call.

After the game, the crew at ESPN revealed the response of the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson on the blown call.

When asked to explain the conversations had following the touchdown pass, Anderson revealed what exactly was determined to let the call stand.

“We confirmed with the referee and the crew that on that play – they got together and talked – they determined that they had a whistle, but that the whistle for them on the field was blown after the receiver caught the ball,” he said.

Anderson was then asked to clarify that the officials didn’t believe the whistle was blown during the ball flight.

“That’s correct. they did not feel that the whistle was blown before the receiver caught the ball,” he responded.

Although the referees did not believe that their errant whistle came while the ball was still in flight, a brief review with audio would have suggested otherwise. Unfortunately for Las Vegas, they find themselves on the losing side of history again, after losing the game 23-16. Similar to the franchise 2002 loss to the New England Patriots after a Tom Brady fumble was overturned citing “the Tuck Rule.”

Cincinnati’s controversial touchdown

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is recapturing some of the magic he used to help the LSU Tigers win the National Championship in 2019. On a third-and-four from the Las Vegas Raiders 10-yard line, the former LSU Tiger connected with Tyler Boyd for the touchdown. But what made the play colder than the temperatures in Saturday’s game was the ease of the pass made as Burrow was drifting out of bounds.

However, as retired NFL official and member of the NBC crew calling the game, Terry McAulay, explained on-air that touchdown should not have counted. Because of an erroneous whistle blown by one of the officials on the field, the play should have been ruled dead. And as a result, the play should have been replayed because of the whistle being blown. Fortunately for the Bengals and their fans, that was not the ruling that was made, resulting in Cincinnati going up 20-6.

By letter of the law, this is a dead ball for the #Bengals. Obviously it was an officiating mistake. Question is did it impact the coverage by the #Raiders? pic.twitter.com/vWHjeLTKjU

— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) January 15, 2022