Referee Jerome Boger and the officiating crew that worked the Cincinnati Bengals' 26-19 win Saturday against the Las Vegas Raiders at Paul Brown Stadium are not expected to officiate again this postseason following "their problematic performance Saturday highlighted by a controversial whistle," according to a report Sunday from ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Many reacted via social media to the whistle; NFL Network's Tom Pelissero called it "a huge mistake" by Boger's crew.
More from Schefter:
The NFL grades officials after each game, and Boger and his crew are not expected to receive high marks for Saturday, when they ruled that a whistle occurred after Cincinnati's Tyler Boyd caught a touchdown from Joe Burrow -- although replays appeared to show otherwise.
The league usually takes officials assigned to the divisional round -- not the wild-card round -- to work the Super Bowl. But officials that earn high grades this weekend could and would be under consideration for the Super Bowl.
One league source did not express surprise at Boger's performance; others around the league have commented on it during various points of the season, and the NFL has received mixed reviews for mixing its officiating crews in postseason games, taking officials from different crews and assigning them to work together.
NFL senior vice president of officiating training and development Walt Anderson said after the game that Boger's crew decided the whistle on the field was blown after the receiver caught the ball.
The play wasn't reviewable.
In addition to the whistle, ESPN's Kevin Seifert wrote that Boger shouldn't have penalized Bengals defensive end Khalid Kareem for roughing the passer with 1:51 left in the game.
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