Refs Attempt To Explain Colossal Screw Up Against Bucs

But the advancement of the football wasn’t allowed. Was it ruled an incompletion with the thought that Shaheed didn’t take more than two steps?

Nope.

Well, Winfield never went to the ground when he had the ball, so how is it Bucs ball but not a touchdown? Apparently there was an erroneous whistle.

Where did the whistle come from? Literally nobody knows. The Fox broadcast played a replay of it with all the sounds of the game and not one whistle was heard.

It was an egregious moment in the game. It was malpractice, and Winfield and the Bucs were robbed of a touchdown.

Then in the third quarter Winfield intercepted a pass from quarterback Tyler Shough that he took to the house. The refs ruled he was down, but that was very, very questionable, too. There’s no doubt, though, that the original scoop and score was the most glaring mistake.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was just a befuddled as everyone else about the explanation he was given.

“I’m still pissed off over some of it,” Bowles said. “But that’s tough sledding. He (Winfield) did a hell of a job today getting the ball out. We have to do something. We will discuss with the league and go from there.

“He said it was an erroneous error in blowing his whistle. He legitimately stripped him. I have no answer.”

Refs Try To Explain Their Blunder On The Bucs

Following the game, there was a pool report conducted by Luke Johnson of the New Orleans Times-Picayune/Advocate with game official Ronald Torbert to get more clarity about the mishap. Here is the full exchange.

Question: Can you describe what happened after the Rashid Shaheed fumble that was initially ruled a touchdown on the field but then was called back because of the whistle?

Torbert: “We ruled that there was a fumble. It was recovered by the defense, but there was a whistle blown from the other side of the field. The official thought that the runner was down. We were able to award the defense the ball after the fumble but because the whistle had been blown, we could not award the advance afterwards.”

Question: And you said the whistle came from the far side of the field?

Torbert: “Yes.”

Question: And that was determined after a discussion amongst the crew rather than a replay review?

Torbert: “That’s correct. That was just the crew on the field that had that discussion.”

Question: And I guess just for clarity’s sake, once a whistle has been blown, the play is ruled dead automatically, correct?

Torbert: “Yes, there are certain situations, such as if there’s a fumble and an immediate recovery in the aftermath after the whistle is blown, in certain cases we can award the ball to the defense. Or award an interception. So generally, yes, the ball is dead when the whistle’s blown. But in this case we were able to award the fumble but not the advance.

And that’s the issue with officiating in the NFL. There isn’t any accountability for these big mistakes.

The league won’t do anything about it and neither can the coaches and players. Yes, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles can get in front of a microphone each press conference and call out the refs, but then he gets hit with a very hefty fine and loses thousands of dollars for doing so.  You can’t blame him for not wanting to take money out of his pocket. The same goes for the players, too.

The refs are getting protected by the league for some reason and it’s difficult to understand why. Is this the best that the NFL has to offer? We’re talking about the highest level of football and the most popular sport, and calls and are getting missed left and right? It’s difficult to make any sense of it.

Thankfully Tampa Bay was able to overcome all of this and win in convincing fashion. Let’s hope there’s not another big play later in the season that could impact the outcome of the game. Because at this point it’s out of everyone’s hands – and it’s always in the officials’ hands.