Refs owe Jeffery Simmons and Tony Pollard a big apology for ruining Titans touchdown vs Chiefs

The Titans won big anyways, but it should have been bigger.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
Add as preferred source on Google

The Tennessee Titans beat the hapless Kansas City Chiefs 26-9 in Nissan Stadium Sunday, marking their first home win in 412 days. That’s a ridiculously, embarrassingly long time! But that time is now behind us, and the clock has reset.

The final score does a good job reflecting the nature of the beatdown Tennessee put on Kansas City, but there are four points that got taken off the scoreboard at the end of the game that the refs really screwed up for a couple of Titans players.

Jeffery Simmons “failed” to report as eligible on final touchdown

In the final five minutes of regulation, the Titans lead 23-9 with the ball in scoring range. Three consecutive Tyjae Spears runs followed by three consecutive Tony Pollard runs punched the ball into the endzone to go up 29-9, pending the extra point. Star DT Jeffery Simmons came in on a special package on the final run from the one yard line, leading the way for Pollard into the endzone.

The Titans’ kicking unit came onto the field and was preparing to to score the 30th point of the day when the refs suddenly threw a flag and blew a whistle: penalty on the offense, Illegal Formation, number 98. The officials claimed that Simmons did not report as eligible when he came on for the play.

Except, he absolutely did. I was there in person, and with my own two eyes, I watched him do it. If you were watching at home, I’m sure that you saw with your own two eyes a replay of him running onto the field with his hand up and rubbing the numbers on his chest. Everybody with eyes on this game seemed to catch the giant man in bright red long sleeves run in and declare himself eligible. Everybody, apparently, except official Clete Blakeman and his crew.

“They said he has to go directly to the ref to report… I mean, he’s running out there, (number) 98, and everyone in the whole entire stadium” exclaimed interim head coach Mike McCoy after the game. “but, you know, he has to go directly to him (Clete Blakeman).”

Simmons was just as incredulous over the whole thing at the podium.

“From my understanding,” Simmons explained, “when I’m looking at him, I’m a defensive player, I wear a big arm brace, red sleeve, I’m looking right at you, and I’m throwing my arm up and rubbing my chest. When he said he didn’t acknowledge it, I guess he was reporting (Oli) Udo first, and I guess I should have actually went up to his face and did it again, I guess, but that’s the kind of explanation, because I (the official) got a lot to handle during that play. but as I’m running up the field, I’m looking, like I’m looking, making eye contact with him doing this, and I mean, I don’t know.”

Simmons said he did nothing differently today than he did last week when he reported eligible and caught a touchdown pass. While he definitely needs to make absolutely certain with the refs each time going forward, this was a mistake on the official’s part. And it took a touchdown off the board as result. The Titans ended up getting stopped and kicking a field goal.

What does four points in a blowout really matter though, right? Well to RB Tony Pollard, it could mean a whole lot of money. He has a $200,000 contract incentive that he receives if he scores 7 rushing touchdowns this season. That score would have been his sixth, but now he’s still hunting a pair of touchdowns with just two games left to play.

Related Articles