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The NFL has acknowledged that officials flagged the wrong player in the Buccaneers’ 24-16 win at Dallas on Thursday, October 8. The flag for illegal hands to the face went on Tampa Bay defensive tackle Calijah Kancey and was marked off against the Buccaneers, but the hand to the face came from Cowboys guard Tyler Booker.
The admission came in the league’s weekly officiating video, where rules analyst Walt Anderson walked through the second-quarter snap by jersey number. Anderson said “it’s clearly not a foul by No. 94,” Kancey’s number, and that any illegal use of hands on the play belonged to No. 52, Booker. He went further than a routine correction: he said the league’s officiating office in New York should have stepped in during the game and fixed the call before it was enforced.
What the wrong call was worth
The game was tied 7-7 when the flag came out. Called on the defense, illegal hands to the face is five yards and an automatic first down, so Dallas got a fresh set of downs it had not earned. Had the foul been called on Booker, the Cowboys would instead have been backed up 10 yards on an offensive penalty.
The damage was limited. Dallas did not score on the drive, and Tampa Bay pulled away in the third quarter with touchdowns from Emeka Egbuka and Bucky Irving and a Chase McLaughlin field goal for a 24-10 lead. Irving finished with 165 rushing yards on 21 carries. Kancey made his objection clear on the field at the time, but a player has no way to challenge a flag thrown against him.
The result stands and the league has announced no remedy. The Buccaneers were penalized 14 times for 92 yards that night, twice as often as the Cowboys, who drew seven flags for 57 yards.
A tool the league did not use
The league office already has a way to help crews with this kind of mistake. The competition committee has told officials that, when a foul is called, they can use objective information to confirm they have the right player before the penalty is marked off. Anderson’s point was that this was exactly the kind of miss that guidance was written for, and nobody used it.
The admission arrives in a tense month between the league and its sidelines. Earlier this week the league fined Mike Vrabel, Aaron Glenn and Nick Sirianni $250,000 each for their conduct toward officials, with the money held in abeyance. Booker himself turned up on the Week 6 fines list a week later.
The win over Dallas is still the only one of Tampa Bay’s season. Todd Bowles’ team followed it with a 26-19 overtime loss to Pittsburgh in Week 6, after leading 16-3, and sits at 1-5.
What comes next
The Buccaneers visit the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, with Baker Mayfield set to return from his thumb injury. The 2-4 Cowboys play at Philadelphia on Monday, October 26, at 8:15 p.m. EDT.
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