Jerome Boger and the rest of the officials that worked Saturday night’s Bengals-Raiders game are probably out for the rest of the playoffs, according to an ESPN report Sunday morning.
It’s little consolation to Raiders fans after Saturday night’s debacle. And although leaking to Adam Schefter that Boger’s crew is out for the rest of the postseason is a tacit admission that they screwed up, the NFL would not admit wrongdoing on the most egregious blown call of the night.
With two minutes left in the first half, Joe Burrow scrambled to the sideline and found a surprisingly open Tyler Boyd in the back of the end zone
The reason Boyd was surprisingly open: officials had clearly blown the play dead while the ball was in the air. Replays make that clear, as you can hear the whistle blow and see the Raiders secondary stop covering before the ball is caught.
A whistle during the play means that the ball is dead and the down should be replayed. But NFL officiating honcho Walt Anderson — giving the postgame interview instead of Boger — gave the implausible explanation that the refs thought the whistle was blown after the catch, something that is clearly false.
“They did not feel that the whistle was blown before the receiver caught the ball,” Anderson told a pool reporter.
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, who was the one chasing Burrow to the sideline, said he heard the whistle. “I heard it, and I thought he was out,” Crosby said. (Replays showed Burrow did manage to stay in.) “In the moment, we didn’t know because we heard a whistle. The ref said he was out, and then they said it was a touchdown. And then there was no review.”
Despite the erroneous touchdown in a game his team lost 26-19, Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia took the high road.
“That’s a good crew,” he said. “There were a lot of things that went on both ways, so I’ve got no problem with the officiating. I’ve got enough problems with my job; I can’t do the officiating, too.”
