I don't want to know what Bills Stadium, surrounding parking lots and the entire city of Buffalo would have looked like had the Colts happened to win on Wild Card weekend.
Fortunately, that wasn't the outcome, and quite frankly, the Colts didn't deserve that outcome. To my eyes and the eyes of fans around the nation, the Colts didn't even deserve the chance for that outcome that they ultimately received from the refs.
With under a minute remaining in Saturday's first of three playoff games, Philip Rivers attempted to continue a game-winning or game-tying drive, finding Zach Pascal deep for a 17-yard completion. Stumbling after making the grab, Pascal appeared to regain his footing and subsequently lose the football as he got back upright. In other words, Pascal quite clearly looked to have fumbled the football.
However, the referees ruled him down by contact and apparently had no intention of reviewing the play. This was strike one for the Twitter audience.
How do you not review that?!
— Michael Kist (@MichaelKistNFL) January 9, 2021
It is FUCKING WILD that McDermott had to take a timeout to get these slapdick fraud clown referees to look at this play lol it's THE END OF A PLAYOFF GAME and the refs are just like "yeah he was down go ahead and run the next play" WUT
— Nick Kostos (@TheKostos) January 9, 2021
But what if they didn’t have one? 🤷♂️
— Travis Haney (@travhaney) January 9, 2021
Thanks to Sean McDermott's timeout, the referees did go and review the play. Crisis averted... right? Wrong. The call stood. Strike two.
im legitimately scared for the refs
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) January 9, 2021
Former referee Gene Steratore offered his two cents following the play, disagreeing with the on-field officials' assessment of what occurred.
And what would have been strike three is if the Colts had used that undeserved opportunity to drive down the field and kick a field goal to tie the game or — even worse — win it with a touchdown. Fortunately, that didn't happen. The game ended with a Rivers heave toward the end zone that was ultimately broken up by the Bills secondary, sending Buffalo to their first divisional round appearance since 1996.
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM App
Follow RADIO.COM Sports
Twitter | Facebook I Instagram




