Former NFL vice president of officiating and current Fox Sports analyst Mike Pereira believes the Super Bowl was well-officiated with the exception of three decisions, including two that had a considerable impact on the game.
The Rams scored a late touchdown to earn a 23-20 win over the Bengals on Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. A controversial non-call and a controversial call are still drawing conversation two days later.
On the first play of the third quarter, Bengals receiver Tee Higgins hauled in a 75-yard touchdown after grasping the facemask of Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who fell to the ground as a result of the contact. There was no flag thrown on the play. Then with 1:38 remaining in the game, Cincinnati linebacker Logan Wilson was called for defensive holding on Los Angeles star receiver Cooper Kupp on a third-and-goal incompletion from the 8-yard line.
The penalty gave the Rams a new set of downs from the 4-yard line and set up the go-ahead touchdown pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford to Kupp. Pereira also caught a false start penalty earlier in the action that was missed. Still, he viewed the overall work from head referee Ron Torbert and his crew as strong with the exception of those two calls in particular.
“This game is so hard to officiate,” Pereira told the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Tuesday. “I can’t say that it was a poorly officiated game. I mean, it would’ve been a really well-officiated game if they would’ve gotten two of those three, the facemask and not called a defensive holding. But it’s still my kind of football because all the judgement calls were correct. There were no replay reviews. There were no expedited reviews. There was no video assistant. It was all pretty clean.
“I can’t say it was poorly officiated. But because of those two misses, that creates the conversation. It’s deserved. I mean, that’s deserved. Those are two misses that you would think would not be misses, that’s for sure.”
The game featured just six registered penalties, two on the Rams and four on the Bengals.