The 2023 NFL season is officially over and congrats to the Chiefs on winning Super Bowl 58… But you know thats how it goes.
Unfortunately, the 2023 NFL season was once again largely defined by the many horrific calls — and non-calls — by NFL officials. Not that we expected anything to change this year.
2023 was another sad reminder that there’s way, way too much room for improvement regarding the zebras — as evidenced by these 30 horrific calls that put a stain on an otherwise thrilling season:
30. Defensive PI? What’s That (Packers-Chiefs Edition)
Woof. The Kansas City Chiefs-Green Bay Packers Week 13 Sunday night game is going to sadly be remembered for its horrible officiating — and not a defining win for Jordan Love over Patrick Mahomes.
The Chiefs’ final drive alone had three awful officiating mistakes that put the zebras under further scrutiny. The first was Carrington Valentine of the Packers getting away with clear-as-day PI on Marquez-Valdes Scantling with 43 seconds left.
29. Pass Interference Doesn’t Count On Hail Marys? (Part I)
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We kinda-sorta understand why officials are reluctant to throw a flag on the defense in Hail Mary situations. But when it’s blatant and obvious, you gotta follow the rule book and call it.
The Packers were fortunate that the refs stood by their whole “no throwing flags on a Hail Mary” philosophy on the final play of their aforementioned Week 13 win over KC:
We suppose, uh, the refs owed the Packers one because of the Fail Mary fiasco against the Seahawks back in 2012?
28. A Giant(s) Missed Call
The New York Giants-Buffalo Bills Week 6 Sunday night game did not end without controversy.
On the game’s final play, Tyrod Taylor’s heave to Darren Waller fell incomplete — but the Bills were flagged for defensive PI. That gave the underdog Giants one more shot to win it at the one-yard line:
Unfortunately for the Giants, the referees apparently decided that it’d be too cruel to throw another flag on the Bills – allowing Taron Johnson to get away with clear PI slash defensive holding on Waller:
Never change, refs. Never change.
27. Clean Sack = Roughing The Passer
We see our fair share of horrendous “roughing the passer” penalties every year. But if we had to pick the worst one, it’d be KJ Henry’s penalty for a clean textbook sack on New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones:
Like, really. What are we doing here?!
26. Dear Defense: No Hitting Patrick Mahomes CLEANLY In Bounds!
Allow us to complete the trilogy of complaints for the horribly-officiated Packers-Chiefs game with this call.
The Packers won the game anyway, but shame on Jonathan Owens for a completely fair and clean hit on Patrick Mahomes in bounds! Who could do such a thing?!
Good call, refs. Would have sucked if Mahomes got seriously hurt on such a clean in-bounds hit.
25. Holding On Micah Parsons Is LEGAL!
Hate on the Dallas Cowboys all you want, but they were in the right to be PO’d about the officiating against superstar linebacker Micah Parsons.
Throughout the season, officials kept letting opposing offensive linemen get away with blatant holding on Parsons. This controversy reared its ugly head in the Cowboys’ Christmas Eve loss to the Miami Dolphins, in which Parsons failed to draw a holding penalty despite being, well, clearly held all game long:
No wonder the Cowboys sent a complaint to the NFL about this. Can you really blame them?
24. Josh Allen Flops & Draws 15
Buffalo Bills superstar QB Josh Allen has developed an annoying habit of flopping, but to his credit, it seems to work in his favor.
Take, for instance, the ridiculous roughing the passer penalty he drew against Nicholas Morrow of the Philadelphia Eagles. Allen was barely touched but sold it well enough to draw the penalty:
Not sure if Allen or the refs should be more embarrassed over that. Wake us up when the league formally announces flag football rules for defenders and quarterbacks.
23. Browns Saved, Colts Screwed: Part I
This game is especially painful to relive now, seeing how it wound up costing the Indianapolis Colts a postseason berth.
The Colts led the visiting Cleveland Browns 38-33 with less than a minute to go in their Week 7 showdown. PJ Walker was strip-sacked, and the Colts recovered the fumble to seemingly ice the game.
Except, Darrell Baker Jr. of the Colts was penalized for illegal contact on Browns wide receiver Amari Cooper…who clearly pushed Baker to the ground and should have been penalized instead:
So the Browns got a fresh set of downs…which brings us to this…
22. Browns Saved, Colts Screwed: Part II
Even though this pass was clearly uncatchable, the officials again flagged Baker Jr. for defensive pass interference on Donovan Peoples-Jones:
On 4th-and-goal, Kareem Hunt rushed in the game-winning touchdown with only 15 seconds remaining. While the Browns would finish with an 11-6 record en route to the No. 5 seed, the Colts missed the playoffs by one game.
They would have gotten in if the refs used common sense and the rule book for this game against the Browns, though.
21. False Start = Defensive Delay Of Game?
We’ll give it to the refs…they always find a way to amuse us. I mean, up until the Miami Dolphins-Tennessee Titans Week 14 Monday night game, we had NEVER seen a false start penalty get changed into a defensive delay of game infraction:
Yanno what they say: There’s a first time for everything.
20. Clean Textbook Hit = Unnecessary Roughness
The scoreboard says the Cleveland Browns defeated the previously-undefeated San Francisco 49ers 19 to 17 in Week 6.
The scoreboard should carry an asterisk, though, since this clean hit by 49ers safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. on Browns wideout Elijah Moore drew a flag that set up the Browns’ game-winning score:
Gipson forgot the rules: No playing clean defense in football.
19. How To “Block” Alex Highsmith
Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Patrick Mekari provided the perfect blueprint in defending Steelers’ star pass-rusher Alex Highsmith.
Rather than perform a textbook block, just go ahead and blatantly hold Highsmith. The refs might not call it anyway — like they didn’t here:
18. Amari Cooper Is “Out Of Bounds”
Late in the first half of the Cleveland Browns-Tennessee Titans Week 3 game, Deshaun Watson connected with Amari Cooper for a beautiful 25-yard catch along the sidelines. At first glance, no big deal, right?
Well actually, the sideline official blew his whistle and immediately determined that Cooper was out of bounds. A closer look, however, shows that Cooper was CLEARLY in bounds the entire time:
The whistle meant the play could not be reviewed, so it cost Cooper a gimme of a touchdown.
17. Refs: Let’s Just Ignore The Obvious “Roughing The Passer” Calls
There are two problems with roughing the passer.
1. The refs ALWAYS seem to call the cleanest of hits a penalty
But also…
2. They always seem to miss the most clear-as-day roughing the passer penalties.
For example, how was Adam Gotsis of the Jacksonville Jaguars NOT flagged for this brutal hit that knocked Steelers QB Kenny Pickett out of the game?
Gotsis was fined $7 K for the hit afterwards, a clear indicator by the league that the officials messed this no-call up. Again.
16. Late “Holding” Flag On Sauce Gardner
Trailing by three with four and a half minutes to go, the New York Jets D needed a stop on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to keep the game alive in Week 4.
The Jets appeared to have gotten it when Michael Carter picked off Mahomes’ 3rd-and-20 downfield heave. Only two problems.
One, Sauce Gardner was flagged for defensive holding even though he clearly didn’t commit defensive holding. And two, the referee suspiciously threw the flag AFTER Carter intercepted the pass:
That bogus call allowed KC to run out the clock and leave Gotham with a three-point win. Another case of Jets fans not being allowed to have nice things.
15. No TD For You, Calvin Ridley
How was this NOT a touchdown for Jaguars’ wide receiver Calvin Ridley against Baltimore? Even after Doug Pederson challenged the call, the refs got a further review and still called it incomplete.
Not a good look for the refs that NBC rules analyst and former NFL official Terry McAulay was left completely speechless by the upheld ruling.
14. This ISN’T PI On Zay Flowers…?
The Colts and Ravens required overtime to settle their Week 3 contest in Baltimore. The game was tied 19-all with 3:25 remaining, and the Ravens facing a 4th-and-3 situation in Colts’ territory.
John Harbaugh instructed his team to go for it on fourth down. They drew up a pass to rookie receiver Zay Flowers, who was interfered with WELL before the ball arrived. No penalty:
The no-call was costly, too, as the Colts drove down the field and kicked the game-winning field goal.
13. …But This IS PI On Zay Flowers
Staying on the Zay Flowers-defensive-PI train….
On the bright side for Flowers and company, the officials kinda made up for the no-call in the Ravens-Colts game by throwing a pathetic defensive PI call on DJ Turner in the Cincinnati-Baltimore Week 11 game:
You lose some, you win some, right Zay?
12. Pass Interference Doesn’t Count On Hail Marys? (Part II)
Remember what we said on the Travis Kelce-Packers Hail Mary entry about how the refs never throw flags on such plays? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers learned this the hard way in their Week 8 Thursday night loss to the Bills.
I mean, the refs missed MULTIPLE defensive infractions on this play. How many did you spot?
By our count, that’s two wins the refs graciously handed the Bills this year via horrible non-calls on the game’s final play…
11. Justin Herbert Gets Away With Intentional Grounding
If we’re being real, it feels like the officials oftentimes only enforce the intentional grounding rule when they feel like it. They were either half asleep or too lazy to penalize Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert for quite literally the most obvious “intentional grounding” call of the season:
Oh, the humanity.
10. Lane Johnson’s Allowed To False Start
There’s a legend around the NFL that Eagles star offensive tackle is the master of getting away with obvious false start calls.
Read into that how you’d like, but he certainly got away with the most obvious false start infraction of 2023 against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 15:
9. Do The Refs Hate Justin Fields?
As we’ve touched base on several times in this video, the refs make countless horrific “roughing the passer” calls a year.
But for some reason, officials have constantly kept the flags in their pockets if there’s a dirty and unnecessary hit on Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields.
We could be wrong, but pretty sure any form of contact to the head is a penalty — let alone when a QB is sliding and giving himself up:
That’s more textbook roughing the passer then like 90 percent of the actual roughing the passer calls that were made this year…
8. Fletcher Cox Commits “Roughing The Passer” On Patty Mahomes
How many times have we told you, Fletcher Cox and NFL defensive players going up against star quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes especially? Just about any form of legal and clean contact on a QB is bound to draw a penalty — so don’t try to sack or hit him! Ever!
7. Horse-Collar Tackling Is Legal Now!
Remember what we said earlier about how Josh Allen’s flopping antics tend to draw ridiculous penalty flags? Well, not everything goes Josh’s way — so keep that in mind haters.
For instance, Haason Reddick of the Eagles was allowed to horse-collar tackle Allen to the ground without being penalized.
Reddick almost ripped the guy’s jersey off and still avoided a penalty. But yeah, let the league tell you that officiating is just fine the way it is.
6. Leave Jimmy G Alone, Minkah!
Minkah Fitzpatrick is one of the best defensive backs in football right now, but the Steelers’ superstar has to learn one thing by now: A clean, not-at-all dirty sack on a quarterback is still going to result in a flag.
5. Pathetic, Pitiful & Putrid Call On The Patriots
Bill Belichick is the greatest coach in NFL history with nearly 50 decades of coaching experience.
We’d love to get the chance to ask him if this defensive holding call against Alex Austin was the worst call he’s ever seen in — especially considering it wiped out a potential game-changing takeaway for the Pats:
4. Hands Off Of Jalen Hurts
If this is going to be called “roughing the passer” on Christian Wilkins against Jalen Hurts, then, well, we don’t know what to tell you:
Are they going to ban rushing the QB at this point? Just curious..
3. Too Much “Speed” There, E.J.
We kid you not. What you’re about to see really happened. Colts linebacker EJ Speed was really penalized for a clean shoulder hit on Atlanta Falcons running back Tyler Allgeier here:
Guess before long, it’ll be illegal to touch the ball carrier on offense, too.
2. “Fair Catch Interference” Is No Longer A Penalty?
The rule is as clear-cut as it gets: If a return man makes the fair catch signal, any contact with him is supposed to be a penalty — no matter how much contact there is.
Where’s the flag? Oh yeah, forgot this is the NFL refs we’re talking about.
1. Taylor Decker’s “Ineligible” Fiasco?
How else were we gonna end this list?
You all know what happened by now. Taylor Decker clearly goes to the official to report as eligible before the Lions attempt a game-winning two-point conversion against the Cowboys:
Decker catches the game-winning try…only to be flagged for “illegal touching”. The officials claimed he didn’t report eligible? That’s funny, I wonder what else he was telling the refs beforehand:
The Lions’ last two-point try was unsuccessful as the Refs — ahem, Cowboys — escaped with a one-point victory. Pathetic, NFL. Just pathetic. Please fix this in 2024 — somehow. We’re begging you.
What other horrible NFL officiating calls of 2023 should we have included on our list?
