Buccaneers: 3 bogus penalties that shaped the loss to the Bears

Three bogus penalties that shaped the Buccaneers’ loss to the Bears

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered a gut-wrenching loss to the Chicago Bears on the road Thursday night in a game that ended with a final score of 20-19.

While it’s understandable that the Buccaneers had plenty of opportunities to put the game away and to take control of the contest and they didn’t do it, it also has to be noted that this was one of the most poorly officiated ballgames that we’ve seen in quite some time.

At times Tampa Bay was undisciplined, but other times, it seemed as if the officials were just looking to call something. Here’s a look at three bogus penalties that shaped the Buccaneers’ loss to the Chicago Bears.

3. Series of penalties on the third quarter drive

The Buccaneers committed five penalties on their second drive of the third quarter and while you can’t call all of these ‘bogus’ because of couple of them were frustration fouls and simply undisciplined plays, we want to bring you back to the very first one.

The Bucs were driving when Ronald Jones II reeled off a 5-yard run down to the Bears’ 30-yard line. That’s when Tristan Wirfs was flagged for a ticky-tack holding call that set the entire drive on fire.

Could the officials have called holding in that circumstance? Sure. But it’s extremely interesting that the Bears had several of the same plays on the flip side and they weren’t flagged once when they were mounting a drive.