The NFL needs to figure out its officiating crisis. While the men in stripes are unfairly criticized often, they’re also missing far too many calls.
What are we doing here?
This is the central question so many around the NFL ask on a weekly basis. It’s one thing to miss a holding penalty or make a tough call on pass interference. It’s another to watch Los Angeles Rams linebacker Clay Matthews hit Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson shoulder-to-shoulder and call it roughing the passer… even after a conference.
While Matthews penalty came on a first down, it changed everything about the ensuing moments. Los Angeles was leading 26-24 with Seattle out of field goal range as the final minutes approaches. Instead of an incomplete pass and second down, it was 15 yards, field goal range and a first down. Seattle went on to score a touchdown and on the drive to take the lead in the all-important Thursday night affair, 30-29.
Name a better duo than Clay Matthews and horrible roughing the passer calls pic.twitter.com/lblU0m6l4w
— Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) October 4, 2019
At no point in our history has the NFL ever been consumed more than it is now. The same can be said about the amount of slow-motion, high-definition angles we all get to see. In short, the officials need to be better than ever. If they aren’t, their mistakes are going to be exposed at a greater rate.
Back to Matthews for moment. This isn’t the first time he’s been whistled for a comically bad penalty. In Week 2 of last season, Matthews, then a member of the Green Bay Packers, was flagged for roughing the passer on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. It’s one of the most absurd 15 yards ever handed out.
Nobody expects the officials to be perfect, but for the NFL, an industry bobbing up more than $10 billions annually with ease, needs to do so much better in this department.