The officiating crew that called the sloppy wild card playoff game between the Las Vegas Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals has been pulled from the postseason by the NFL.
That’s the expectation, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who reported that Boger’s crew won’t receive high marks in the NFL’s grading process.
Schefter also noted that the NFL’s getting middling feedback on its decision to mix and match officiating crews:
“One league source did not express surprise at Boger’s performance; others around the league have commented on it during various points of the season, and the NFL has received mixed reviews for mixing its officiating crews in postseason games, taking officials from different crews and assigning them to work together.”
The officiating in Saturday night’s game was an unmitigated disaster. The highlight, of course, was the inadvertent whistle during a Joe Burrow touchdown pass to Tyler Boyd that caused all sorts of wild reactions.
But that was hardly the only issue on a night of missed calls, extended referee huddles and other problems. One notable whiff featured the officials missing a Raiders player calling a timeout, Burrow completing a pass for a first down while earning a roughing-the-passer flag, only for officials to negate the whole play and grant the timeout.
While Boger’s crew has had persistent issues, the NFL is also very much to blame for the poor showing. Mixing and matching crews, which means ruining the chemistry a crew has built all season, is a terrible idea — it’d be like Cincinnati pulling three offensive line starters and ruining their chemistry for a playoff game.
Either way, the Bengals won’t be seeing Boger and Co. in the divisional round when they face one of their two possible opponents.
