Atlanta’s Thursday night thriller comes with a small asterisk. The Buccaneers were denied a chance to seal the deal in regulation due to an apparent facemask foul late in the fourth quarter.
It happened with 1:39 left and Tampa Bay leading 30-27. After Kirk Cousins’ only interception of the night appeared to put the Bucs out of the game, running back Bucky Irving gained 7 yards on second and 13 yards from the Atlanta 31. The flag came out and it appeared to be the result of an attack. He apparently grabbed his face mask when he was tackled.
Instead, the Bucs were called for holding and were pushed out of field goal range, forcing them to second-and-23 from the Atlanta 41.
The drive ended in a punt and the Falcons drove into field goal position, forcing an overtime session.
The fouls should have canceled out and the Bucks had another crack at second-and-13. No one knows what happened next. Either way, it was supposed to happen.
Officials make mistakes all the time. As the NFL expands its acceptance of clear and unambiguous visual evidence through formal replay reviews and replay assistance, this should be remediable with clear and unambiguous visual evidence.
There is no subjectivity or ambiguity when removing the face mask. The evidence is almost always clear and unambiguous.
This is an easy fix, especially as the league increasingly uses replay to get the correct call. That’s everything anyone wants (except Falcons fans at this point). Answer the phone correctly. Use replays to do this. In an era where the NFL works closely with the NFL and legalized gambling is rampant, it is more important than ever to minimize the impact of human error on the outcomes of bets placed by more people. Masu.
This is easy. Put this at the top of your list of offseason rule changes. Facemask fouls are subject to replay assist and replay review. It’s been a while.
Don’t worry, Falcons fans. It won’t affect the outcome tonight. Ultimately, it may protect the team from something similar happening in the future.
