The Baltimore Ravens pulled off one of the most impressive wins from Week 1 of the 2012 NFL season after a 44-13 beat-down of the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football thanks to an impressive performance by the offense. While most of the hype in the Ravens’ passing game has been focused on Torrey Smith, it was Anquan Boldin that emerged as the top wide receiver by catching four passes for 63 yards with one touchdown.
Boldin’s lone touchdown came in the second quarter when he hauled in an impressive 34-yard pass from Joe Flacco to give the Ravens a commanding 17-3 lead, but the play was reviewed as the replay clearly showed that he lost control of the ball when it hit the ground. However, even after further review, the officials still ruled the play a touchdown–which is absolutely ridiculous.
The NFL installed a new rule for the 2012 season in which every touchdown will be reviewed upstairs to make sure officials don’t miss any calls–which also saves coaches the trouble of risking the loss of a timeout. So if the replay clearly showed the ball falling out of the arms of Boldin when he was falling to the ground and the officials took the time to review the play–how did they still manage to get it wrong?
It’s no secret the replacement officials will be under the microscope throughout the regular season and calls like this just make them look bad. Luckily, this game ended up being a blowout because if the Ravens only won by single digits–this call would have caused even more controversy.
