While he appreciates the NFL’s communication and transparency, Bills general manager Brandon Beane still feels that the officials did not make the correct call on Josh Allen’s quarterback run on a fourth-and-1 play in the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s AFC Championship game.
Ahead 22-21 at the time, the Bills turned the ball over on downs after the officials determined that Allen did not get the first down. The Chiefs scored on their ensuing drive, and although the Bills did respond with a touchdown of their own, the missed fourth-down attempt ultimately loomed large in the outcome of the game.
“It’s frustrating,” Beane told reporters on Thursday. “You know, there’s only so much I can say. We work with the league to try to get clarity, and I’ll give them credit, they’ve taken our calls, they’ve sent video and things like that.
“If you’re talking about the fourth-down play … I feel like he got that. And I still feel like he got that. I felt that in the moment. Nothing has changed my mind on that.”
Beane also addressed the officials determining that Chiefs wideout Xavier Worthy’s 26-yard grab late in the first half that was ruled as catch despite the ball hitting the ground as Worthy was trying to pull it in. The Bills challenged the call, but it was upheld. The catch set up a Chiefs touchdown.
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“I thought it was a good challenge,” Beane said. “When the ball touched the ground, you have to have possession. It’s like, what is possession? And what Matt says is possession might not be what Elena says is possession, you know? But when the ball touches the ground, someone has to have established possession.”
Unfortunately, controversy regarding calls has overshadowed another well-played postseason game between two excellent teams. But instead of the focus being on anything the Bills or Chiefs players did, a lot of the attention in the aftermath of this past Sunday’s game has been whether or not the officials got several calls right. This is a recurring theme that has fans and even some media members/prominent former players asking for improvements.
“I think that we owe it to the fans that we get it right, and I think that we are at a point and time where we can,” Hall of Fame quarterback and current ESPN color analyst Troy Aikman recently said of the state of the NFL’s officiating “We can get it more right. That was my position and just trying to lean on the NFL and say, ‘hey, we gotta fix this. We gotta address this in the offseason.'”
To his credit, Beane made it clear that the Bills are not blaming the officials for Sunday’s loss.
“They’ve given how they see it, and that’s their job,” Beane said. “It is what it is. I mean, those are just like plays we didn’t make in the game, too. So, by no means are we saying that that’s why we lost the game.”
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