One of the worst calls you’ll see all year. In the first quarter of Sunday night’s game of the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Los Angeles Chargers, right tackle Sam Tevi jumped early. Or at least it seemed like he did. But there was no flag from the refs and the play kept going, resulting in a long touchdown by Travis Benjamin. Take a look at this mess for yourself.
Brutal no call. Clear false start on the RT. Instead, a Chargers TD. #Steelers pic.twitter.com/bg4v0YY4TF
— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) December 3, 2018
That non-call and scored allowed the Chargers to jump back into the game after going down 13-0 early.
It isn’t the first time officials have so clearly blown a call on a false start. In fact, it happened in favor of the Chargers against an AFC North opponent, the Cleveland Browns, early in the season.
NFL referee, Hugo Cruz, was fired last week after a missed false start call in the Chargers Browns game. The play ended up in a touchdown so it was a bad look. The NFL said Cruz was fired for "poor performance". This sets a precedent for all refs moving forward. pic.twitter.com/LiIaMWuUiV
— Call on the Field? (@flag_play) October 29, 2018
And resulted in another score.
As the tweet indicates, referee Hugo Cruz was fired following the week, the NFL citing a history of poor performance as the reason. It was an unprecedented move by the league, who usually move on after the season, not during.
Will the same happen this time? Probably not. But that doesn’t make the miss any more acceptable.
