The Bills’ Heartbreak Might Once Again Create An NFL Silver Lining?
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
As much as some of the players might not want to blame the refs for the Buffalo Bills’ loss against the Kansas City Chiefs, there is one thing for sure: Had a couple of questionable calls gone the other way, it might be the Bills preparing to face off against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
Although nothing can be done about what happened before, there are still a couple of positives that could come from it. The Bills just need to push the right buttons, get other teams on board, and get a couple of big changes made that could improve the NFL.
Yes, Patrick Mahomes made the winning plays late in the AFC Championship Game, but before he even had the ball in his hands for those big moments, there were two calls on consecutive plays that might have changed the entire outcome of the game.
Referees missed two first down calls in Bills AFC Championship loss to Chiefs, a breakdown pic.twitter.com/YHJGlI4YiQ
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) January 28, 2025
In Chiefs territory early in the fourth quarter, it looked like the Bills might have picked up a first downs on consecutive plays, but both spots by the officials had the Bills just short. Instead of the Bills almost being in field goal range, the Chiefs got the ball back, and while Kansas City eventually turned the ball over, those plays stopped Buffalo’s momentum cold.
Were they 100%, indisputable first downs? Well, we can’t be for sure, even though it sure looked they were, especially Josh Allen‘s fourth-down QB sneak. But, hey, we can’t know for sure from replays alone.
But here’s the problem: We could have known for sure by using readily-available technology. This is 2025, not 1965. Soccer has goal-line technology and VAR technology, which will tell when a player is offside and when a goal is scored. What does the NFL have?
We have 60-year-old Clete Blakeman and his crew standing on the sideline, running up and down with a chain to determine what is a first down. Even after the chain is on the field, it’s still technically a judgment call with the ref deciding where to spot a ball, then looking down to decide if it’s a first down. Most of the time it’s obvious, but not always. Remember when Gene Steratore had to use a notecard to decide if it was a first down? That’s the kind of technology the officials are using to determine the most important plays of the game.
But it doesn’t have to be! In fact, we can figure this out without making any existing changes to the equipment! The NFL has already had a chip in the football but hasn’t used it to track the spot of a football for first downs, at least not yet. The NFL has used an optimal camera tracking system, but back in August, they said they wanted to do some more testing before implementing it into the game.
“The whole effort was to begin taking a look at it, to see what worked, what didn’t work,” NFL officiating rules analyst Walt Anderson told the Washington Post last August.
“You certainly had some of them that went very smoothly,” he added. “And then we had others where obviously there were some challenges. All of that is part of the learning curve. We’ll end up continuing to collect data [on] that. It’ll be a topic for the Competition Committee in the spring.”
The Bills should be doing everything in their power to get into the ear of the Competition Committee to get the technology perfected and implemented. We shouldn’t continue to rely on Denny’s Senior Menu-eligible officials making decisions that could impact who wins a game when there is technology that could make the call with greater accuracy and reliability.
And while the Bills are at it, they should also lobby to get penalties to become reviewable.
🚨🚨WILD: MISSED CALL🚨🚨
REFS MISS A BLATANT FACEMASK PENALTY ON THE #CHIEFS DEFENDER… would’ve given Buffalo 15 yards and an easy chance to score a touchdown.
It was an obvious penalty, per the booth.
REFS CHANGING THE GAME AGAIN. #BILLS GET SCREWED pic.twitter.com/0flsP3qrKp
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) November 17, 2024
The questionable spots had a much greater impact on the game, but there were a couple of missed calls that didn’t go the Bills’ way, either, like a pretty obvious facemask on Ty Johnson.
Nothing will change the result for Buffalo. The AFC Championship Game will still go down as a gut-punch loss, a feeling that has become all too normal for Bills fans. But if this can head to a couple of rules finally getting changed to get calls right, at least the NFL can take some benefit from Buffalo’s heartbreak.
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