Refs in Texans-Bills game almost makes dumbest call ever

The Houston Texans are in trouble in the wild card game, and they almost found themselves in a deeper hole thanks to incompetent officiating.

The Wild Card round hasn’t gone so well for the Houston Texans, who have been beaten up by the Buffalo Bills in the early going. The Texans were down 13-0 at the half and received the kickoff to start the second when absolute madness ensued.

The kick boomed deep into the end zone, where Houston’s returner caught it eight yards deep and casually flipped the ball to the ref as is the procedure after essentially fair-catching it. The officials didn’t blow the play dead, and the Bills fell on the ball in the end zone for what was ruled a touchdown.

The play ended up being talked about by the crew, including the alternates coming off the sidelines, and sanity prevailed. The officials realized the Texans’ returner wasn’t stupid enough to toss the ball away in the end zone with his team down double-digits in a playoff game. The touchdown was taken off the board for the Bills, but it didn’t do much good for the Texans, who quickly went three-and-out on the possession.

The Texans are already in a ton of trouble thanks to their lackluster approach to their biggest game of the season, but things almost got fifty times worse thanks to incompetent officiating. The NFL is lucky that common sense took over and a potentially game-ending missed call was changed, but it does make you wonder how much of a problem the sloppy officiating will become as the playoffs progress.