Philadelphia's James Bradberry said he was hoping officials "would let it go" on a late defensive holding call that gave Kansas City a first down on its way to a game-winning field goal.
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You know who didn’t protest or lobby for the call? The WR who was held. What that tells you is that clearly this had been the case throughout the night. What always frustrates fans, coaches, etc in sports is a lack of consistency. No different than a basketball game where someone gets mugged on the way to the hoop and it doesn’t get called. You routinely hear the announcers say, “they’re obviously letting them play”. Or, you see a ticky-tacky foul early and they say, “clearly they’re calling this game tight”. Both teams then understand what to expect. The fact that it was so limited that the receiver didn’t even ask for the flag tells you the way the game had been played up to that point.
But again, as I said last night, if we defer to the rules expert, he was fine with that being called. The problem is that the Smith catch was overturned, going against everything in the rulebook. If that penalty isn’t called, then regardless of what ultimately happens, no one is complaining. There is a form of holding on every single play. Something as non-egregious as that should never completely decide a championship game.
To be clear, there’s nothing that guarantees Philly drives the field with a minute left and gets the FG to force OT, or that they win it once there. The issue is that it opens a debate when it could’ve been settled on the field.
