Buccaneers survive getting screwed by worst call of Week 2 in crunch time of MNF

Bad calls are, unfortunately, part of the NFL. However, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers certainly have an argument that they shouldn’t be as big of a part of the game as they were on Monday Night Football in Week 2 on the road against the Houston Texans. Because in crunch time of this matchup, the refs made a call — or, rather, almost did, but then chose not to — that could’ve cost the Bucs a win.

With Tampa clinging to a 14-13 lead late in the fourth quarter, they were forced to punt. The kick got off clean and went to Texans rookie Jaylin Noel on the right sideline, but the Bucs had coverage closing in on him quickly. The defender, however, flew right by Noel, which opened up a big lane for the returner to scamper down the field into scoring range. Then, a flag hit the field.

That didn’t result in a penalty, though. The refs huddled after the play, which had Houston already in field goal range to take the lead, and then said that there was no flag for a block in the back on the play.

Just one problem with that: It definitely looks like there was a block in the back on the play. See for yourself:

While I could maybe understand not making the call in the first place, if the officials saw it well enough to throw the flag, there was certainly enough of a case for the penalty to not pick it up. That’s just a wild turn of events, one that’s hard to call explicable.

Luckily, the Buccaneers survived the egregious no call

Immediately, the no call burned Tampa Bay as Nick Chubb ripped off a long touchdown run to give the Texans the lead, 19-14, after a failed two-point conversion. That still gave the Bucs a couple of minutes to try and win the game, but it still shouldn’t have been that situation as quickly as it was for Baker Mayfield and Co.

Thankfully for aggrieved Buccaneers fans, that was enough time. Mayfield, thanks to a big fourth-down run from the quarterback and then a big scamper from Bucky Irving. That allowed them to get inside the 5-yard line with under 10 seconds left and punch it in to retake the lead, ultimately being the score that secured the win.

Just because the Bucs won, however, doesn’t mean we should forget how bad the officiating in such a crucial moment was.

NFL officiating’s woes get the primetime stage on Monday

Refs haven’t exactly enjoyed the best Week 2. Most notably, Chiefs and NFL fans were up in arms over the Eagles’ infamous Tush Push on Sunday as the Philadelphia offensive line appeared to both be lined up in the neutral zone and false starting, neither of which were called on the league’s most infamous single play.

So, it’s saying something to say that the play on Monday Night Football was worse — but it was. Circumstantially, that’s a spot where you, at minimum, want the refs to show some conviction. Picking up the flag on the apparent block in the back is the opposite of that.

It’s made even worse by the fact that it seems, despite what ESPN’s rules officials might say, that the penalty did, in fact, happen. Picking up that flag in that situation is just awful and, frankly, unacceptable. If Tampa hadn’t been able to withstand that and gone on to lose, you have to wonder if this would be a much bigger deal than it probably will be.