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Erroneous whistle on Bengals touchdown sparks controversy in NFL wild card game

The NFL playoffs kicked off on Saturday afternoon with the Bengals and Raiders opening the festivities. So far, it really couldn’t be going any better for Cincy, a franchise notorious for postseason failure that found a way to beat Las Vegas, 26-19.

And they appeared to have a little help from the referees, too.

With Cincy looking to pad a lead during a two-minute drill at the end of the first half, Burrow rolled to his right and fired a dart to Tyler Boyd in the end zone. There was just one problem: An official on the sideline blew his whistle early because he thought Burrow stepped out of bounds before he threw the ball.

Oops.

Here’s another angle, in slo-mo glory (or agony, if you’re a Raiders fan).

While the replay showed Burrow was clearly in-bounds, and thus the play (and touchdown) would count under normal circumstances, the rules are not as kind.

As dug up by ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, the official NFL rulebook states that if a pass is in the air and a whistle happens to go off, the play should be blown dead, no questions asked. NBC’s Mike Tirico also confirmed on air that “by rule, they cannot have a touchdown on that play.”

Uh, that did not happen. While there may have been a second or third thought about the decision, the officiating crew gave the Bengals the touchdown anyway. A ruling that proved pivotal in a neck-and-neck game.

Here’s the official pool report from the post-game, explaining why the errant whistle didn’t take the touchdown off the board. In short, per NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating, Walt Anderson: The whistle was apparently blown after Boyd caught the ball, despite replays showing otherwise.

 

With the touchdown, the Bengals’ spread moved to -16.5, and their moneyline jumped to -2500, at Tipico Sportsbook . They would go onto cover -5.5 with a game-saving interception at the end of the fourth quarter.

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