Week 5 saw two disputed calls in relation to roughing the passer penalties, sparking outrage from the football community and in particular Chiefs and Falcons fans, who were on the receiving end of some fairly contentious officiating.
Starting with the most recent call in the Chiefs versus Raiders clash, a questionable flag against Chris Jones nearly cost Kansas City in their spirited 30-29 comeback at the Arrowhead on Monday.
Chasing a 17-0 deficit, the hosts, who are +650 to clinch the Lombardy Trophy in NFL betting, had just put their first points up when Jones stripped-sacked Raiders quarterback Derek Carr from behind just before the half-way point.
The defensive tackle ended up on top of the three-time Pro-Bowler, coming up with possession in the aftermath. Slow-motion footage also shows Jones cleanly recovering, adding to the dismay felt by the Chiefs faithful in what could have disrupted their staggering comeback after referee Carl Cheffers threw a flag for roughing the passer.
the NFL decided Week 5 would be the one with all the absurd roughing the passer calls, because Chris Jones just got one here on what should have been a strip sack pic.twitter.com/0qhMdefl7R
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 11, 2022
Cheffers has since come out to defend his decision in the post-game pool report, saying:
“The quarterback is in the pocket and he’s in a passing posture.
“He gets full protection of all the aspects of what we give the quarterback in a passing posture. So, when he was tackled, my ruling was the defender landed on him with full body weight. The quarterback is protected from being tackled with full body weight. My ruling was roughing the passer for that reason.”
Even though it appeared as if the penalty should be negated after the ball was dislodged from the quarterback, Cheffers added: “He still gets passing protection until he can defend himself. So, with him being in a passing posture and actually attempting to make a pass, he’s going to get full protection until the time when he actually can protect himself.
“The fact that the ball came out and was subsequently recovered by the defense is not relevant as far as the protection the quarterback gets.”
Meanwhile, Jones expressed his desire to have such flags be subject to review to eliminate similar penalty calls in the future.
Indeed, this was the second of two contentious calls in Week 5 following Sunday’s game where Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett was adjudged to have roughed Tom Brady after ‘unnecessarily’ throwing the veteran QB to the ground.
It sparked a wave of outrage across social media, with users labelling it the ‘worst call of the season’. The seemingly routine sack would have handed the Falcons the opportunity to launch a comeback with the Buccaneers forced to punt, but the latter instead ran down the clock to claim a 21-15 victory.
This very well might be the worst roughing the passer call in NFL history pic.twitter.com/DBejlYpd9N
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) October 9, 2022
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