{"id":387284,"date":"2026-01-04T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387284\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T12:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:12:09","slug":"referee-brad-allen-admits-panthers-could-have-had-a-choice-to-re-play-backward-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387284\/","title":{"rendered":"Referee Brad Allen admits Panthers “could have had a choice” to re-play backward pass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday\u2019s Panthers-Buccaneers game included a bizarre sequence in which a backward pass hit the ground, was picked up by Carolina running back Rico Dowdle, and was blown dead. Initially, referee Brad Allen mistakenly said the ball went out of bounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It absolutely didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Carolina continued the drive at the spot of the recovery, giving the Panthers second and 17 from the Tampa Bay 41.<\/p>\n

After the game, Allen explained the outcome of the play to pool reporter Greg Auman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe line judge made an initial ruling of incomplete, then the down judge saw that the pass was clearly backward,\u201d Allen said. Allen added that replay assist was not used, and that the ruling was made on the field.<\/p>\n

Allen then was asked whether an erroneous whistle was blown, which should have given the Panthers the choice to replay the down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was reported to me was the ruling on the field was a backward pass, and once it was possessed, the receiver or runner gave himself up which by rule caused the play to become dead,\u201d Allen said. \u201cBecause of the erroneous whistle, the Panthers could have had a choice to replay the down.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does \u201ccould have had a choice\u201d even mean? They either were given the option to re-play the down, or they weren\u2019t. Given that the Panthers didn\u2019t choose to re-do first and 10 from the 34 in lieu of second and 17 from the 41, common sense says Allen\u2019s crew never presented them with that option.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just a mistake by Allen\u2019s crew. The league office could have intervened, reminding Allen that the Panthers should have had an opportunity to re-play first down. That clearly didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

The drive ended three plays later, with a 54-yard field goal attempt that came up short. In a game that was decided by two points.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, the failure to give the Panthers first and 10 from the Tampa 34 instead of second and 17 from the 41 may have impacted the outcome of the game and, if the Saints beat the Falcons on Sunday, the resolution of the NFC South champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday\u2019s Panthers-Buccaneers game included a bizarre sequence in which a backward pass hit the ground, was picked up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-387284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}