Refs miss facemask call that screwed Bucs out of potential win over Falcons

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell in overtime to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football but the game shouldn't have even gone to overtime in the first place. With the Buccaneers trying to chew some clock time late in the game, Bucky Irving's facemask was grabbed but it went uncalled.

Had the penalty been called, the Bucs would have been in field goal territory because that penalty and the one actually called on Tampa Bay would have offset. Assuming the Bucs are able to knock through the field goal, they'd have been ahead by six points. That would have meant the Falcons had to score a touchdown to tie the game with an extra point to win it. They wouldn't have been able to send the game to overtime with a field goal.

Refs missed blatant facemask on Bucky Irving

What happened instead was that the Bucs faced 3rd-and-long and ended up having to punt the football away rather than attempting the field goal. The Falcons then drove 46 yards down the field and Younghoe Koo knocked the ball through the uprights to send the game to overtime.

From there, the Falcons won the coin toss, elected to receive the ball first, and four plays into overtime, Kirk Cousins hit KhaDarel Hodge with what ended up being the game-winning touchdown. Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers didn't even get a chance to touch the football in overtime.

We can be mad at the overtime rules here but the real frustration is squarely at the officials for missing that facemask penalty. The game likely goes completely different if that penalty is called on the Falcons because the Bucs can then take a six-point lead.

With this loss, the Bucs drop to 3-2 while the Falcons move to the top of NFC South with the same record.