Ball Don’t Lie: 3 worst calls from Week 2, including Chiefs, Eagles and more

Week 2 of the NFL season has come and passed and it's been quite a crazy two weeks.

No rookie quarterback has thrown a touchdown. Bryce Young has already gotten benched in favor of Andy Dalton. Injuries are destroying some of our favorite players. The Kansas City Chiefs have a controversial win, aided by the referees, already.

Speaking of referees, they made their presence felt in Week 2. There were a ton of calls, some that changed the game, during the second week of games. Whether it was more blatant missed holds, ticky-tack calls or questionable pass interference calls, the refs made the headlines as much as any specific player did.

Let's look at the three worst calls from Week 2.

Missing holding calls added up for Kansas City in their Week 2 win

If you watched the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Cincinnati Bengals, there's a good chance that you were able to spot some bad calls during the game. Now, I'm not here to talk about the controversial pass interference that set the Chiefs up to win the game. There was a ton more that went on that should be drawing eyes instead of that one specific play.

Throughout the entire game, the Kansas City tackles were getting away with some pretty egregious holds on Cincinnati's edge rushers. This happened on the aforementioned pass interference play, but the specific play I want to highlight was a third and 19 Chiefs pass in the first half.

Take a look at the left tackle on this play:

As Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson attempts a speed rush move, Chiefs left tackle Kingsley Suamataia egregiously grabbed ahold of Hendrickson, ending up with a headlock on the defensive end. Mahomes scrambled out of the pocket, convientily in the hole that was created by the hold.

This play didn't result in any points though. Kansas City punted on fourth down and the Bengals took the ball into the half. But the call was still a terrible miss from the referees that could have resulted in points for Kansas City.

Jalen Hurts called for delay of game after first down spike

The "No Fun League" strikes again.

The NFL is notorious for not letting the players express themselves. Recently, the league and its' officials have been much better about this. Players have finally been allowed to celebrate and show some emotion while they play. It's pretty refreshing and the league plays into it, highlighting the same celebrations that they used to penalize.

On Monday Night Football's matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles, one official took the term "No Fun League" to a whole new level.

After rushing for a massive first down in the first half against the Falcons, Jalen Hurts emphatically spiked the football to celebrate. He was met with a little yellow penalty marker from a nearby official.

Take a look at the play itself:

This penalty makes absolutely no sense to me. The play clock starts when the play is finished, not when the referee gets the ball and spots it. Spiking the ball doesn't delay the game at all. Spiking the ball just means the official won't be able to spot it for a few extra seconds, which, in turn means the Eagles won't get to run their play for a few extra seconds. As long as the play is off before the 40 second play clock hits 0, it shouldn't be a delay of game.

What's the difference between this spike and a player pointing the football for a first down and dropping it to the turf?

Lions catch a break with a miscalled fumble

While the first two plays on this list were bad calls, they didn't specifically impact the game too much. The Eagles lost some yards on the Hurts delay of game and the Chiefs were able to rush for a few extra yards because of the uncalled hold, but neither play really impacted anything.

As for the next play, there could have been a much different outcome if it was called differently.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon Ra St-Brown made a catch and turned up field to make a play. After tucking the ball and swiveling his head up field, St-Brown was drilled by a Tampa Bay Buccaneers defender resulting in what appeared to be a fumble. The nearby referee quickly called it an incomplete pass though.

Here's the play:

St-Brown makes a catch, tucks the ball and turns up field to begin running before he is hit. This is all that it takes to constitute something as a catch and fumble, by definition. But it went down as an incomplete pass.

If this play was called a fumble, the Buccaneers would have been given the ball in much better field position, maybe even a scoop and score touchdown for Tampa Bay. Instead, it goes down as incomplete and the Lions are able to punt the ball all the way to the other 13-yard line. Tampa Bay wouldn't get any points on the ensuing drive.