As bad as NFL officiating has been this season — and it’s bad enough that Roger Goodell had better do something about it — there’s a long list of entrants for the worst call of the 2023 campaign. That said, the forward progress call that robbed Houston Texans cornerback Desmond King of a fumble return touchdowns in Houston’s Sunday game against the Denver Broncos might take the booby prize.
With 7:24 left in the third quarter, Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson threw a short pass to running back Samaje Perine, and it certainly looked as if King stripped the ball and returned it for a touchdown.
Not so fast, as referee Shawn Smith’s crew determined that Perine’s forward progress had been stopped, and therefore, it was not a fumble. You’d have a tough time finding any evidence of that on the field. CBS rules analyst and former NFL referee Gene Steratore agreed. As Steratore is generally inclined to give his ex-comrades the benefit of the doubt, this was a definitive statement.
In #DENvsHOU, the ball did not come loose immediately upon impact, so the ruling of forward progress is not reviewable.
IMO, the running back is attempting to shed the defender and is not being driven backwards beyond his control prior to losing the ball. If that is the case,… pic.twitter.com/Hq0PqxKGwY
— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) December 3, 2023
It might be nice if forward progress was reviewable in this case. It might also be nice if NFL officials would stop deflating games with their outright incompetence.