Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos: 3 things we learned
Officials
The Raiders have had a long and complicated relationship with the officials, and today was no different as Oakland’s third offensive possession was litter with controversy.
The decision to reverse the call of touchdown on the Hunter Renfrow pass was about as confusing as it gets. There didn’t seem to be clear and indisputable evidence that he didn’t break the plane, so it is hard to see why they reversed it. Then on the next play, it seemed like Alec Ingold was in, but they stuck with their original call due to the lack of clear evidence. So there was some inconsistency, which has been a theme for this season with the officials.
To be clear, the Raiders DID NOT lose this game because of those questionable decisions by the refs. However, the issues with the review system need to be talked about because the NFL cannot continue going on like this.
Personally, I think Jon Gruden complains way too much about the officiating, but he had some legit reasons to be upset.
The Raiders do also have a tendency to complain about calls with little to stand on, and that also happened during this game. There were some calls on defense the Raiders didn’t like, including a PI call on Trayvon Mullen towards the end of the first half. Mullen looked to be holding Courtland Sutton on the play, so perhaps that should have been the call instead of PI. However, there was contact, and it’s hard to see exactly what the Raiders and Mullen expected on that play.
The Erik Harris hit is a little more of a legit case, but with how overprotective the league has been on hits like that, you can’t expect that to go uncalled. Oakland would be looking for the same call if it was on one of their receivers.
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Overall the officiating has been spotty for plenty of teams this season; we just watch more Raiders game, so we tend to think it is targeted only at us. The league has a serious issue on their hands and hopefully, they make some adjustments in the offseason not just for the Raiders, but for every team’s sake