It wasn’t anywhere near as crucial as Ed Hochuli’s gaff in the Broncos-Chargers game earlier this season, but the refs blew another call Sunday, this one costing the Falcons a chance to possibly drive for a late score and beat the Eagles.
The 27-14 final suggests that Philadelphia soundly handled Atlanta, but it doesn’t provide the full story. Rookie QB Matt Ryan connected with Roddy White for his second touchdown pass of the game to cut the Eagles’ lead to 20-14 with just under four minutes remaining in the game.
After forcing Philly to go three and out on their next possession, the Falcons were set to get the ball back with just over two minutes left and no timeouts. But after returner Adam Jennings let a punt bounce at his feet, the refs called a muff and awarded the Eagles the ball at that spot. Replays clearly showed that the ball never touched Jennings but because the Falcons had used all of their timeouts, they couldn’t review it. Brian Westbrook (who had a huge day coming back from injury) then broke off a 39-yard touchdown run to put the game away.
Granted, Atlanta might not have scored anyway, but they never got the opportunity either. And it seems that more than ever, refs are way too flag-happy and it has cost teams chances to win ballgames. Earlier in this game, Trent Cole was flagged for a 15-yard personal foul penalty for a hit on Ryan that couldn’t have been a worse call. Cole hit him square and it wasn’t head-to-head or malicious at all.
I hate to talk about blown calls because they happen to every team every week. But they’ve seemed especially bad this year and it looks like they’ll continue throughout the season.
