The officiating crew in Thursday night’s game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens missed several key calls, and Al Michaels seemed as disgusted with the situation as anyone.
The Ravens defeated the Bengals in a 35-34 shootout at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md. After blowing a 21-7 lead in the second half, Cincinnati got the ball back with less than two minutes to go in the fourth quarter and the Ravens leading 35-28.
Joe Burrow put together an impressive 70-yard touchdown drive and the Bengals decided to go for two and the win. The two-point attempt was unsuccessful, but Cincinnati should have gotten another shot at it. There appeared to be two penalties by the Ravens on the play, one of which was an extremely obvious blow to Burrow’s head.
Rules analyst Terry McAulay said on the Amazon broadcast that the Ravens got away with two penalties on the two-point attempt. Michaels then ripped the referees and said poor officiating has become too big of an issue across the NFL.
“Too many games end this way. They just do,” Michaels said. “You miss calls, the whole thing. It’s so frustrating to the fans, so frustrating.”
Terry McAulay felt the Ravens got away with 2 penalties on the game-deciding 2-point attempt.
"It was clearly defensive holding…and that does look like forceable contact to the head of the quarterback," McAulay.
"Too many games end this way. They just do," Al Michaels. pic.twitter.com/Pl7WqjdWr6
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 8, 2024
The Ravens were on the wrong end of a costly penalty call in the first half, so both teams had their issues with the officiating.
Michaels has been more vocal in calling out officials in recent years. The 79-year-old broadcaster was also openly disgusted with an officiating crew during another “Thursday Night Football” game earlier this season.
