The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Los Angeles Chargers 16-13 at home on Sunday in Week 1 of the NFL season, and the lack of fans may have cost them.
Cincinnati was driving late and got the ball down to the Charger 3-yard line with 12 seconds to go. They had a 1st-and-goal play, and Joe Burrow threw a quick out to A.J. Green in the end zone.
Green caught the ball and may have gotten both feet down in bounds, but he was called for a penalty. The officials flagged Green for offensive pass interference for pushing off against Casey Hayward Jr. to create space before he made his cut.
The penalty pushed the Bengals back 10 yards to the 13. They attempted a tying field goal on the next play, which Randy Bullock missed.
Green pushed off and deserved to be flagged, but officials don’t always throw flags even when they are deserved. In particular, they don’t tend to throw flags on the home team for key plays when they know they’re going to get booed to the moon for making such a call.
The lack of fan attendance at most NFL games this season means that there is less of a home field advantage. One of the biggest advantages — beyond the crowd noise affecting opposing teams — is the influence fans have on referee calls.
Simply put: it’s much easier to call a game fairly when there are not fans around to get on your case.
Would the officials have made a call of that impact in front of 65,000 Bengals fans? That’s debatable. But it’s much easier to make that call when you know you’re not going to be booed.
