One way or another, the refs got this one wrong. And it cost the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a touchdown.
With less than two minutes remaining in the first half against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Bucs cornerback Jamel Dean forced a fumble of Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed. Bucs safety Antoine Winfield scooped up the loose ball and returned it 47 yards for what should have been Tampa Bay’s second defensive touchdown of the first half.
Officials called it a touchdown on the field. But upon review, they took it off the board. Here’s the explanation:
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“There was a whistle blown after the defense recovered the ball,” referee Ron Torbert said after review. “It will be the defense’s ball at the spot of the recovery. First down.”
Instead of a scoop and score, the Bucs took over at the Saints’ 47. Three plays later, Baker Mayfield lost a fumble on a strip-sack by Chase Young, and the would-be Tampa Bay touchdown instead resulted in zero points.
Fortunately for the Bucs, it didn’t matter for the outcome as they cruised to a 23-3 win to improve to 6-2.
Where’s the whistle?
Winfield recovered the clear fumble and returned it to the end zone without being touched down down at any point. If a whistle blew, it should not have.
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But there’s no evidence of a whistle being blown from the Fox broadcast of the game. And players from both teams played the entire play out as if the ball was, indeed, live. It’s hard to fathom why officials would have said that a whistle was blown when there wasn’t, but there’s nothing from the broadcast to indicate that there was one.
Either way, officials robbed the Bucs of a score. Either they blew a whistle that shouldn’t have been blown. Or they didn’t blow a whistle and for some reason determined after they fact that they did. And the Bucs went into halftime with a 7-3 lead instead of a 14-3 margin.