In the final minutes of Sunday’s 30-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, a Tre Tucker catch that appeared to hit the ground never went to replay. Insider Ari Meirov called the missed replay assist a major officiating error, and FOX rules analyst Dean Blandino shared his own view on the miss. When Meirov asked, Blandino did not hedge.

“No doubt,” Blandino told Ari Meirov. “I mean, that was inside two minutes. So it’s not a play where the Chiefs could have even challenged. So that has to be replay. That’s a breakdown in mechanics, right? And look, the Raiders are going to go fast. They’re out of timeouts. It’s, you know, they’re down three. So you have to anticipate that. I’ve been in that situation before. I’ve taught that situation before. You know that if this is rule complete and the clock is running, you don’t have a lot of time to make a decision.”

Blandino has the background to back up his take. He is the head of officiating for the UFL, and he was the NFL’s Vice President of Officiating from 2013 to 2017.

Here is how it played out:

With 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Kirk Cousins hit Tucker down the middle for 23 yards, moving the Raiders to the Chiefs’ 49-yard line. The ball looked like it touched the ground before Tucker secured it.

Under the NFL’s replay system, coaches can throw a challenge flag only before the two-minute warning of either half. Because Tucker’s catch came inside the final two minutes, the Chiefs had no way to challenge it themselves. The review had to be initiated by the replay official.

That is where things fell apart. Las Vegas rushed to the line and spiked the ball. By the time a review could begin, or before it even got going, the next play had been run, and the earlier one could no longer be looked at. That is why the catch stayed on the stat sheet.

Down just three, the miss could have changed the outcome. Cousins spiked the ball to stop the clock, but Nwankpa intercepted his next pass with 10 seconds left.

Blandino was clear about what should have happened.

“If there’s any what we call smoke, and there certainly was smoke on that play. It didn’t appear to be a clean catch. You have to let them get lined up and then immediately stop the game. And that didn’t happen. That’s a breakdown in mechanics. And that’s one they’ve got to correct going forward.”

According to NBC Sports’ Zachary Krueger, a timely review would likely have ‘overturned’ the catch, but it stood, leaving the Chiefs and head coach Andy Reid disappointed.

Tucker’s day is worth a quick look. His eight targets were a season high, tying Ashton Jeanty for third on the team behind Brock Bowers with 11 and Mayer with 10, as Cousins threw 52 passes.

Since Bowers returned from his knee injury, Tucker has caught eight of his 12 targets for 87 yards over the last two weeks.

Tucker’s play isn’t the only thing putting NFL officiating under the microscope. Replay procedures, a lack of transparency, and record penalty numbers have all fueled the criticism this season.

NFL officiating faces growing scrutiny

Zooming out, officiating has been a headache across the league. Through Week 4, the NFL has logged 963 accepted penalties, the most through four weeks since play-by-play data tracking began in 1978. NFLPenalties.com shows a little more than 17 flags per game and 15 accepted, both the highest since 2009. The old highs were 16.2 and 13.7, set in 2015.

ESPN’s “Get Up” crew dug into the controversies, and Jordan Rodgers warned about what comes next.

“Be careful for an overcorrection because you better believe all the refs are seeing this. The NFL is as well. They’re going to be watching. They’re going to be a little looser,” Rodgers said on Wednesday’s episode.

“You can be sitting on the couch. You’re going to be really mad because there’s a bunch of holds that are not being called, and your team is giving up the touchdown. You’re like, ‘Wait a minute, you’re supposed to throw a flag.’ The best time to go skydiving is after a skydiving accident. Why? They double-check all those parachutes a little bit better, right? So there’s going to be a big overcorrection this week,” he added.

The league also suspended line judge Jeff Seeman for two games and referee Adrian Hill for one over unprofessional conduct toward a player, the first suspensions of officials since 2018.

It remains to be seen how things unfold from here.