In the fourth quarter of Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings, the Kansas City Chiefs defense let Donovan McNabb hit Michael Jenkins near the left pylon for a touchdown pass, bringing the Vikings to within one score.
The Chiefs held on so this is just a postgame note and not the story of the game but it appeared on the replays that Jenkins did not get both of his feet in bounds before making the catch.
The league tweaked the replay rules entering this season so that every scoring play would be automatically subject to review. This one was absolutely close enough to warrant a closer look, yet the officials didn't take another look at it under the hood.
Chiefs coach Todd Haley couldn't challenge the play because it was a scoring down and was visibly upset with the officials after the Vikings kicked the subsequent extra point, and the play wasn't reviewed.
"I never had a clear shot from our vantage point worth looking at," Haley said, "no different than had we been where we could challenge if it had been a non-scoring play...They have all the views they need there and I'm assuming they made the right call."
But I don't think they made the call and neither does Mike Pereira, the league's former officiating czar, who now works with FOX Sports. Pereira wrote about the play and came away with two errors.
First, there should have been a review as the play was too close to confirm. Second, if they had reviewed it, they would have seen that Jenkins doesn't bring his left foot down in bounds, which means the touchdown should not have counted. (This is all Pereira's opinion, of course, as he doesn't work for the NFL anymore.)
Something similar happened in Week 2 when New Orleans Saints RB Darren Sproles was awarded a touchdown against the Chicago Bears and the play was not reviewed, despite replays showing he stepped out of bounds.
The replay booth used to page the referee saying the score was confirmed, or it needed to be reviewed. After the Sproles incident, CBS Sports' Charlie Casserly reported that the league was changing the rules to include someone on the sidelines with a walkie talkie with access to the replay booth, in case the pager system doesn't work.
Luckily, though, the Chiefs won the game and this isn't something that we'll be harping on all week, though it appears to be a fairly significant error by the officials.
(H/T JComp11)