Sean McDonough rips NFL officiating, blames it for ratings decline

The Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets did not exactly put on a great show Monday night, and the officiating didn’t help. Head official Jerome Boger and his crew threw a whopping 19 penalty flags, making the game — which was never close — extremely hard to watch.

Ratings have been down across the NFL this year, and games like that won’t help. Sean McDonough, who has replaced Mike Tirico on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast this season, was not shy about bashing his network’s own product.

Sean McDonough absolutely eviscerating NFL officiating and the overall product on air. Wow! #MNF #NYJvsAZ pic.twitter.com/VEb1iKglT8

— Danny Lawhon (@DannyLawhon) October 18, 2016

“If you’re looking for reasons why TV ratings are down in the NFL all over the place, this doesn’t help,” McDonough said. “The way this game has been officiated is not something anybody wants to watch.”

We’re not sure how the higher-ups at ESPN would feel about McDonough’s assessment, but it’s hard to argue with it. Monday night’s game was horrific, and we can’t just blame this quarterback for that. There’s no need for the game to be slowed down by that many penalty flags.