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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took down the Atlanta Falcons in a 21-15 victory on Sunday to take sole possession of first place in the NFC South. But it didn’t come without a little bit of controversy.
With the Bucs facing 3rd and five late in the fourth quarter, Falcons defensive end Grady Jarrett came up with a clutch sack on Tom Brady. But it wasn’t a sack. It was a roughing the passer call tin the eyes of the referees.
refs called this roughing the passer on 3rd down and i genuinely do not know what Grady Jarrett could have done differently pic.twitter.com/VX6i0UpJiL
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 9, 2022
With the the Bucs getting a fresh new set of downs out of this, the Falcons were forced to burn their final timeout just ahead of the two-minute warning. Shortly afterwards, Brady hit Mike Evans on a slant for effectively a game-icing first down.
Social media immediately went ablaze following the roughing the passer call as critics continue to lament the over protection of quarterbacks with the current NFL rules. People also chalked this up to Tom Brady being bailed out by the referees once again as the Falcons lost out on an opportunity to potentially win the game.
Chances are, this won’t be the last time we’ll see a questionable call like this during the season.