The Kansas City Chiefs picked up their third win of the season on Sunday night, but it’s a win that might not have happened had they not benefited from a controversial no-call that came late in the fourth quarter of their 22-17 win. over Atlanta.
With just under 4:30 left to play in the game, the Falcons faced a third-and-5 from the Chiefs’ six-yard line. On the third down play, Kirk Cousins threw a laser to Kyle Pitts, but he couldn’t come up with the ball. One reason Pitts couldn’t make the catch is because senior safety Bryan Cook was draped all over him and he was draped all over him well before the ball got there.
As you can see below, Cook basically hugged Pitts before the ball even reached the tight end on a play that probably should have been flagged for a pass.
NBC/NFL
Here’s a video of the play so you can see what it looked like at full speed.
Despite the apparent interference, there was no penalty flag thrown on the play.
So why wasn’t Cook flagged for PI?
According to referee Tra Blake, it’s because the official who was responsible for making that call didn’t see any interference happening.
“That’s a real-time call that officials have to make a judgment call on,” Blake said in the pool report. “From the angle they had at the time, they didn’t feel there was anything wrong done.”
Since pass interference is no longer reviewable, officials must make a quick judgment call when it comes to throwing a flag for PI and in that case, the officiating crew did not feel the play warranted a flag.
“That’s a real-time judgment call for us,” Blake said. “We are doing the best we can to make that decision.”
So therefore there was no pass interference flag thrown on a play where there appeared to be obvious pass interference.
That said, even if the officials had thrown the flag on Cook, there’s no guarantee the Falcons would have won. If the officials had thrown a flag, the Falcons would have received a first down at the one-yard line with about four minutes left in the game. Had Atlanta scored a touchdown, they would have gone up 23-22 waiting for the extra point (They probably would have gone for two in an attempt to go up 25-22).
At that point, the Chiefs would have had more than three minutes to drive down and take the lead, so Kansas City certainly still could have won even if the flag had been thrown, but the fact that they got the benefit of a bad no-call definitely pulled through. the wrath of everyone in Atlanta.
Falcons coach Raheem Morris was asked about the non-call after the game and he decided not to comment.
That’s the old answer “If you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say it at all”. Morris didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get fined for criticizing officials, but it’s pretty clear he didn’t agree with the non-call.
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