Chicago Bears fans finally received some validation for being upset with what appeared to be a handful of missed calls in Monday night’s loss to the Steelers.
A Hall of Fame cliche in sports is to blame the officials whenever something with your team goes wrong. It’s not often, but sometimes referees indeed deserve the blame that fans routinely place on their shoulders.
Monday night’s debacle in Pittsburgh between the Bears and Steelers appears to be a prime example of that. Tony Corrente’s crew was dragged across Twitter in what many were calling one of the worst officiated games anyone had witnessed in a very long time.
It sounds like the NFL’s officiating department agrees, or at least some of its members do.
According to Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero from NFL Network, a review of Monday night’s game revealed multiple missed calls by Tony Corrente’s crew.
The infamous taunting call was not mentioned, but a slew of other critical errors — such as late hits on Justin Fields — that could have impacted the result of the game were called out. The report isn’t officially from the NFL, rather the admission comes privately from officiating experts employed by the league.
Per the report:
But privately, members of the NFL’s officiating department who reviewed the game acknowledged that referee Tony Corrente and his crew erred on at least three separate critical calls and non-calls that went against Chicago in that 29-27 loss — including a low block penalty on the Bears that nullified a Justin Fields touchdown pass, sources familiar with the league’s thinking said.
If it’s not bad enough for Bears fans having to hear that officials screwed up calls, this next part if going to be a wicked knife twist.
Officials also missed multiple penalties by the Steelers, including a late hit on Fields that would’ve given the Bears first-and-goal on the same third-quarter drive and offsides by multiple Steelers on Cairo Santos’ 65-yard field goal attempt that fell short as time expired.
That’s right, officials blew a potential game-winning penalty that would have moved the ball closer to the goal posts for a Cairo Santos field goal. The original kick fell about eight yards short of the crossbar, but moving the ball five yards closer certainly could have changed the approach of the kick.
The NFL isn’t expected to discipline any members of the crew, nor does that sort of thing typically happen publicly. What this does do, however, is vindicate Bears fans who are still enraged over how poorly officiated the game was.