Panthers should be livid over calls (and non-calls) in Week 18 loss to Buccaneers

The Carolina Panthers missed another chance to clinch the NFC South on Saturday night by dropping a tough 16-14 decision to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There is plenty of blame to go around for the loss, including a terrible first-quarter performance and a questionable flea-flicker play that did not work as planned. 

They also have plenty of reason to be livid with referee Brad Allen and his crew.

Panthers should be upset over missed calls (and blown calls)

Allen's crew is no stranger to controversial calls, and Saturday's game had more than a few.

Some of the more blatant missed calls were a missed face-mask call when Tampa Bay's SirVocea Dennis ripped the helmet off of Carolina's Tommy Tremble with no flag.

Along those same lines there was also a missed late-hit out of bounds in the fourth quarter that could have given the Panthers an additional 15 yards. 

One of the most bizarre missed calls was a premature whistle that stopped a play when Carolina quarterback Bryce Young threw the ball backwards to running back Rico Dowdle. When the ball hit the ground, Dowdle picked the ball up with room to run, only to have the side judge call the pass incomplete and the play whistled. They eventually corrected it to a backwards pass after the fact, but the damage was already done by stopping the play. 

The two more "judgment" calls that should have Carolina its heads were two pass interference calls that impacted both sides of the ball.

The first was an offensive pass interference call against Tetairoa McMillan that negated a 38-yard play that would have Carolina set up deep in Tampa Bay territory. 

ESPN rules analyst Mike Chase agreed with the call (as TV rules analysts typically do despite evidence to the contrary), but the announcing crew was not having any of it.