NFL officiating must take more accountability after latest primetime gaffes

When you are wrong, just admit it.

The Cincinnati Bengals lost yet another gut-wrenching battle to the Baltimore Ravens Thursday night.

Like a lot of the Bengals games in the last few years, it came down to the final minute yet again.

Year after year, technology is getting tenfold better, but it seems like the human is getting worse.

Granted the Bengals, offensively and defensively missed plays they could have capitalized on, but there are three plays in particular the referees need to take accountability for and just simply admit they missed the call.

Two calls which happened on the same crucial play.

The first missed call happened as Burrow stepped back to throw, completed the pass, and then got drilled from behind, clearly after the ball was released. I can’t say always, but it seems like most of the time, like 99% of the time, this play would garner a flag, especially for certain quarterbacks, which I will not mention.

The unfortunate part of the situation is Burrow admitting he doesn’t get those calls.

The final two calls happened in the most crucial part of the game, the 2-point conversion attempt for the Bengals to take the lead and potentially win.

You can’t overlook big missed calls in crucial moments of different games. It would be a different story if there were complaints by Bengals fans only, but last night there were several analysts, non-Bengals fans, and even eye companies commenting on the plays.

This actually isn’t the first time something like this has happened on Thursday Night Football this season, as the Los Angeles Rams benefitted from a horrific no-call late in their win over the Minnesota Vikings on an obvious facemask penalty.

As one of the largest organizations in the country, it’s time for NFL officiating to admit the calls were missed and be better than this.