NFL officiating has another baffling day in big moments on Sunday

BOSTON -- Officiating an NFL game at live speed is a difficult job. Everyone understands that.

That's why, with the advancements in technology, the NFL has embraced the usage of replay review more and more to ensure that calls are correct. It's a great concept, in theory. In practice, the football world is left to scratch its collective head, wondering how certain calls can still be so wrong.

Two such moments took place on Sunday: One in an early game with most of the country watching, and another in the nationally televised nightcap.

In Buffalo, after Minnesota had improbably taken the lead thanks to a Josh Allen fumble in his own end zone, the Bills were desperately working to drive down the field to kick the game-tying field goal before the end of regulation. On a second-and-2 from the Buffalo 40-yard line, Josh Allen fired a pass toward receiver Gabe Davis, who appeared to make a catch while falling out of bounds, picking up a first down and stopping the clock.

Everyone on the Vikings' sideline argued that Davis had bobbled the ball, but the officials on the field ruled that it was a good catch.

The Bills then hurried to the line, but nearly 16 seconds passed between the ruling of a catch and the next Buffalo snap -- ample time for the replay official to buzz down to the referee to stop the game to take a closer look.

That buzz, though, never came. And it clearly should have.

The Bills ended up driving deep into Minnesota territory (aided in part by an iffy-but-more-standard pass interference penalty call against the Vikings) and kicking the game-tying field goal, though Minnesota would go on to win in overtime.

After the game, senior VP of NFL officiating Walt Anderson admitted that the replay official should have stopped the game and that the catch ruling would have been overturned.

"Even though it happens fast and Buffalo hurries to the line of scrimmage for the next play, if the replay official can't confirm it was a catch on that long of a completed pass, we should stop play to ensure it is a catch," Anderson told pool reporter Lindsay Jones.

That admission begged the question: Why didn't the replay official stop the game for a review?

"We will spend a lot of time analyzing the video and audio with the crew," Anderson said. "I'll have to find out from the replay official exactly what he didn't feel like he saw to stop the game."

Uh. Ya think?

The question, really, is whether or not Anderson would have made that admission had the Vikings not won the game. The NFL is great at making billions of dollars but is not always the best at admitting fault. Credit to Anderson for not compounding one issue by covering it up here, though.

The issue of the Bills having 12 players on the field for a run stuff in overtime did not come up with Anderson, unfortunately.

The other instance of questionable NFL officiating on Sunday came before halftime of the prime-time game between the 49ers and Chargers in Santa Clara. This one might not have been as black-and-white as the Davis drop, but it nevertheless left every spectator and participant feeling perplexed as to what took place.

In the final minute of the first half, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert scrambled and tried to pick up a first down on a third-and-6 at the Niners' 40-yard line. Rather than give himself up and slide, Herbert fell forward, trying to reach the line to gain. In the process, he absorbed a hit to the back from 49ers defensive back Jimmie Ward. That contact propelled Herbert's body forward, resulting in a helmet-to-helmet collision with linebacker Dre Greenlaw.

A penalty flag immediately flew, which is to be expected. What was not expected was a call from New York, which came with a mandate to eject Greenlaw from the game.

"What the officials had was a flag for a player lowering his head and making forcible contact and Rule 19 allows us when a flag is thrown to examine the play and if we feel the action is flagrant then the rule allows us to disqualify the player and that's what we determined. It was a flagrant act," Walt Anderson -- who had a busy day -- told a pool reporter.

Here's the play in question:

Rather alarmingly, Anderson and his office ruled that Herbert had been down by contact long enough for Greenlaw to have been able to actually avoid making contact with him -- a ruling that is objectively insane to anyone who has even a fundamental knowledge of how tackling works and how fast games move in real speed.

"The timing, the manner in which the player had an opportunity to make other choices and to make a different decision. Those all go into factoring whether something is flagrant. Those are just some of the factors that are considered," Anderson said. "The runner was a downed runner. He was already down by contact. That certainly plays into taking a look at the actions taken by the defender. If he had other choices in terms of his actions, we felt like the actions he took were flagrant in nature and that was the reason for disqualification."

That's a tough one, and it certainly left 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan a bit mystified.

"No, I didn't think [he deserved to be ejected] at all. It kind of actually blew my mind," Shanahan said. "I understand the penalty, I totally get that, right at the [first] down marker, he was lowering his shoulder. But I gotta learn what that is. I get how it is with the penalties and stuff, because I think he did hit his helmet -- I haven't seen a replay, I'll see it when I get home tonight and watch it again. But I didn't know, I thought there had to be intent and something unnecessary, and that was a big play right there. And for us to lose Greenlaw for the whole game off that, I mean, that really shocked me. So hopefully they can teach us that so we can understand why we lost one of our players."

The situation was then further complicated by the concussion spotter removing Herbert from the game, despite Herbert not showing any outward signs of a concussion. Backup Chase Daniel entered the game and quickly threw two incompletions before taking a sack. The Chargers kicked a field goal and headed into the locker room, with the not-concussed Herbert back at quarterback for the second half.

Obviously, that level of erring on the side of caution comes as a result of the concussion spotters completely ignoring obvious concussion symptoms from Tua Tagovailoa earlier in the year, allowing him to stay in a game and then play on a Thursday night the following week, a sequence which left him unconscious in the middle of a football field on a nationally televised game. The NFL failed terrifically in that instance. Since then, the league has overcorrected that mistake, with Herbert's case being the most high-profile occurrence -- though that did not involve the officiating crew.

In any event, it's never a great thing for the NFL when the VP of officiating has to speak to two different pool reporters about two different calls. In one case, Anderson admitted the crew on the field messed up. In the other, Anderson claimed he and his office made the objectively right decision.

Neither call technically cost the aggrieved party. The Vikings won in overtime (despite the Bills slyly using 12 players at the goal line), and the 49ers held on for a 6-point victory. But it was one of those days in the NFL where most viewers are left to wonder how either situation would have been received if it had taken place in a playoff game or a Super Bowl. Last year's championship game was marred by suspect officiating, and a day like Sunday -- after already dealing with the infamous roughing the passer penalties earlier this season -- only adds to the public skepticism about the NFL's ability to properly call football games on a reliable basis.