Raiders got screwed by refs on Joe Burrow TD with erroneous whistle

Joe Burrow threw a second-quarter touchdown on the Raiders, but an erroneous whistle when the refs thought the QB was out of bounds should’ve been honored.

For the most part, the Cincinnati Bengals were moving the ball well in the first half of the AFC Wild Card Round matchup with the visiting Las Vegas Raiders. Their job moving the ball, though, was made much easier late in the second quarter thanks to the refs absolutely jobbing the silver and black.

On third down, it was a bit of a broken play and Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow bought time by moving toward the sidelines to his right. He was right on the boundary when he let loose a throw.

That throw was caught in the back of the end zone by Tyler Boyd and, after deliberation by the officials, was ruled a touchdown to give Cincinnati a 20-6 lead.

Raiders screwed by refs as Joe Burrow touchdowns shouldn’t have counted

However, if you listen before the catch, there is a whistle that happens before the touchdown catch is made.

Per the NFL rulebook, when an erroneous whistle such as that happens, the play is ruled dead at the moment of the whistle.

NBC Sports’ Terry McAulay weighed in and agreed that the play should’ve never resulted in a touchdown by rule.

“Once they rule him out of bounds, [the play] is over,” McAulay said on the NBC broadcast. “What they should have done, because it was an erroneous whistle, was actually replay the down because it was a loose ball in flight. They can’t have a touchdown on that play, by rule.”

It’s absolutely wild that this is clearly the rule that, frankly, is pretty well-known and the Raiders still had to give up seven points. Sure, the whistle was erroneous as Burrow wasn’t out of bounds, but the letter of the law doesn’t care about that.

And by the letter of the law, the Raiders got absolutely hosed.