There’s one clear solution for the Carolina Panthers and their gripe with Sunday’s fateful fourth quarter calls. As a matter of fact, they’re quite aware of that solution.
But is said gripe a legitimate one?
Carolina nearly snatched an improbable victory out of the jaws of defeat against the Cleveland Browns, rallying up 17 points in the game’s final 13 minutes to take a 24-23 lead with 1:13 left in the contest. All they had to do was stop a Jacoby Brissett-led offense.
Well, that became a tad difficult to do thanks, in part, to the game’s officiating crew.
The first play of the drive saw defensive end Brian Burns flagged for roughing the passer, which gave Cleveland a 15-yard kickstart to their game-winning possession. But, uh, this doesn’t exactly warrant such a call . . .
Damn. pic.twitter.com/1klARbhJsu
— John Ellis (@1PantherPlace) September 11, 2022
Five plays later, after the Browns got down to the Panthers’ 40-yard line with the clock ticking down, Brissett appeared to illegally stop the clock. Instead of immediately spiking the ball—as the rulebook states—he took more of an illegal, delayed spike upon peeking to his right towards wide receiver Amari Cooper.
The referees would stop to discuss Brissett’s “spike,” but ultimately decided it didn’t qualify as a penalty.
Which would be more like Item 4 in the rulebook pic.twitter.com/tlzgQsMEZc
— Bill Voth (@PanthersBill) September 11, 2022
Following the eventual loss, which came as a result of a subsequent 58-yard field goal from Cade York, Panthers players were none too happy in the locker room.
“They missed two calls,” linebacker Shaq Thompson said. “Brian Burns’ roughing the passer. He bull-rushed his own player into him. It’s not roughing the passer. And the fake spike, then you spike it again—you can’t do that. It’s illegal. Can’t do that.”
Running back Christian McCaffrey, simply, agreed:
Christian McCaffrey called the Brian Burns roughing a “horrid call.”
— Joe Person (@josephperson) September 11, 2022
But—as Thompson and McCaffrey would go on to add—you can’t leave the game up to the referees.
“It’s very frustrating,” Thompson said later. “It’s not the first time we let the refs beat us. But we kinda beat ourselves by starting off slow. So if we start off fast, we probably wouldn’t be in that predicament.”
Heck, even Burns couldn’t point the finger at the refs:
Brian Burns thought roughing call was clean, but doesn’t blame reps: pic.twitter.com/xxqUsZnOdp
— Joe Person (@josephperson) September 11, 2022
So, whether the calls were right or wrong (probably the latter), the Panthers know exactly why this loss came to be. If you don’t want the referees to decide the game, don’t give them a chance to.
