No matter which team you were rooting for on Sunday, we can all agree that the officiating job performed by referee Shawn Hochuli and his crew in the Philadelphia Eagles’ 37-34 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills was iffy at best, and outright incompetent at worst. Moreover, Hochuli seemed to see no issue with his bad calls in the pool report he gave after the game.
It may be too late to do anything about officiating in the NFL at this point outside of unplugging the thing and plugging it back in, but one Eagles player came out on Monday and said that he wouldn’t have minded if a penalty had been called on him. In this case, it was cornerback Darius Slay, who was filmed grabbing Bills receiver Stefon Diggs before the ball arrived while umpire Terry Killens Jr. was looking at… well, who knows what he was looking at.
Refs miss calls all the time.. nobody perfect. But holding an grabbing goes on every play. If they would’ve called it I wouldn’t be mad at all! https://t.co/IL8z5I3UB1
— Darius Slay (@bigplay24slay) November 27, 2023
There was also this incompletion from Bills quarterback Josh Allen to receiver Trent Sherfield with 4:33 left in the first half. This certainly seemed as if Slay basically tackled Sherfield before the ball arrived. No flag.
“So on that play from the view and the angle of the official, we just didn’t feel that it significantly hindered the receiver’s ability to catch the ball,” Hochuli said.
At least the players knew what was up.