The Buffalo Bills beat the Los Angeles Rams 37-34 in overtime on Monday night, and one of the loudest moments of the broadcast had nothing to do with a touchdown.
Midway through the third quarter, with the Rams ahead 14-13 and Buffalo facing second-and-21 near midfield, Josh Allen threw to tight end Dalton Kincaid on a route that would have gained roughly 15 yards. Rams safety Quentin Lake had both hands on Kincaid. No flag came out.
What the Booth Said
ESPN’s crew did not let it pass. Joe Buck called it “a massive miss on not throwing a flag there.” Troy Aikman, watching Lake look toward the official, said, “I can see why he was looking,” and later called it “a huge non-call.”
Rules analyst Russell Yurk was the most direct of the three, saying the play was “clearly a foul” and “should be defensive pass interference, which is a pretty good chunk of yards.”
Buffalo threw incomplete on third down and punted.
The Part That Complicates the Outrage
Here is where the clean narrative falls apart. The officials missed a second significant call Monday, and that one went against Los Angeles.
In overtime, Nate Landman forced a James Cook fumble that the Rams recovered. Landman removed his helmet during the play, which is a 15-yard penalty. It was not called. Had it been, Buffalo would have kept possession at a better spot.
So the crew missed one that would have helped Buffalo and one that would have helped Buffalo again, in opposite directions, in a game with 24 combined penalties. That is not a conspiracy. That is a crew that had a long night in a game nobody could officiate cleanly.
Why It Still Matters
Defensive pass interference is the single most consequential judgment call in football. It is an automatic first down and it is spot-of-the-foul yardage, which means the difference between a flag and no flag on that snap was a Buffalo punt versus a Buffalo first down in Rams territory.
The league has never been willing to make DPI reviewable on a permanent basis. It tried briefly after the 2018 NFC Championship Game, when the Rams were the beneficiaries of the most famous missed interference call in modern history against New Orleans. The experiment was abandoned after one season because nobody could agree on a standard.
Monday was a reminder that the standard still does not exist. Three broadcasters with a slow-motion replay reached the same conclusion in about four seconds. The officials on the field, in real time and without that replay, did not.
The Rams Have No Case
Los Angeles will not get traction complaining about this one, and it should not try. The Rams gained 454 yards, picked up 33 first downs, scored five touchdowns and committed zero turnovers. They lost because Harrison Mevis missed a 50-yarder and had a 48-yard game-winner blocked.
The Bills got a break in the third quarter. The Rams got one in overtime. Then the Rams released their kicker on Tuesday, which tells you where they think the game was actually decided.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.