Former NFL player lights up refs for awful penalty call that really hurt the Bears in tough Week 1 loss to the Vikings
It was an egregious call.
A lot of finger pointing can go around for the Chicago Bears loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1, but ultimately it won’t do any good at this point. The result is the result and the Bears opened up the Ben Johnson Era with a 27-24 loss.
A lot didn’t go right for the Bears on Monday night, despite having a 17-6 lead in going into the final quarter of play. The offense was sloppy and filled with mental errors, quarterback Caleb Williams again found it difficult to find (and hit) open receivers, and the run game offered no help.
There’s another factor that played a major role in the Bears’ tough loss to open the season. The refs gave the team no favors either.
A lot of people were unhappy with the officiating in the Bears-Vikings Week 1 matchup
Let’s preface this first by saying the Bears played some undisciplined football when it came to the amount of penalties that racked up against the Vikings. The final tally was 12 penalties for 127 yards, including four false starts on offense and two pass interferences on defense.
But, when it came to one penalty specifically, the refs really screwed things up for the Bears. Late in the third quarter, the Bears’ offense finally started piecing together a drive until right tackle Darnell Wright was called for a holding penalty on first down. The drive ended four plays later on a missed field goal by Cairo Santos.
After the call was made, the reactions were expected. It was a very obvious missed call by the refs. The players and coaches can’t do much to call it out, but former players watching the game sure can voice their frustrations with a valid opinion.
“The NFL’s gotta be better. Officials, we just got to do this better,” former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz said about the play on social media. “It’s just not a holding. I think [the officials] see the end result of the play, which was guy on the ground. It’s just not a holding. I can’t stress enough, there’s nothing about this whatsoever.
“He just knocks his arms down. This is very very legal. It’s so frustrating because this is really a game changing play… He just sees the end result and throws the flag. It’s just bad, man.”
Schwartz is absolutely correct. It wasn’t a holding, Wright simply just dominated the defensive end on that play and while Wright can’t personally criticize the call, he can explain what actually happened.
“I mean it’s a simple, tug the jersey down, it’s a hold. If you knock the arms down, it’s not,” Wright explained after the game, via Nicholas Moreano. “Obviously, I mean, I knocked his arms down, but (the ref) saw it the other way. It’s what it is; you’re playing ball. Ref sees it one way. It’s whatever.”
Again, the result of the play was the result. That wasn’t what lost the game for the Bears but that specific call played a major role in swinging the momentum for the entire team. You hate to see stuff like that from the refs, but it’s going to happen every week. Good teams find a way to work through it.
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