Hello Chicago Bears Fans! Well, this is a much sadder second installment in our series than I initially thought it would be after the game on Sunday. So welcome back to my in-season series on the striped ones, the zebras, the arbiters-of-the-yellow-flag: the referees.
Let’s briefly review the project: Upon Further Review exists to answer the questions about the calls on the field with film, the rulebook, and a consistent grading scale: Each week I isolate the flags and no-calls that went against Chicago
and against the opponent, grade every one as Correct, Arguable, Incorrect, or Horrible, then roll those grades into four numbers: a Calls-Against-Bears rating, a Calls-Against-Opponent rating, an overall referee performance score, and a differential that shows which sideline got the better of the crew. I also pull the most controversial calls from around the league so we can see what call this week has NFL fans screaming, “wait, what?” and NFL rules analysts assuring us, “always has been.”
Week 1 was a 59-point win and a pile of flags that mostly evened out. Week 2 is the first loss of the series, and it was a 9–3 slop-fest in the rain that Chicago donated on offense — then didn’t get back from Land Clark’s crew when it mattered. This week the accepted tape is mostly self-inflicted: Bradbury, Roush, grounding, a drive that started at the Minnesota 30 and ended in a punt. The Bears Tax, however, reared its ugly head in this game, and I have all of the gory details. Three no-calls in the fourth quarter, including forcible head/neck contact and a lift-and-slam on Tyson Bagent on the last two snaps from the 12, with the backup now in concussion protocol. The Vikings earned their 9–3 victory with some stellar plays in the downpour that killed near-certain Bears scoring opportunities. But that doesn’t mean the stripped ones didn’t play their own role in the Bears’ defeat. Below is every accepted flag, in order, with the player when named, the yardage, the game clock, and the score when the penalty was enforced.
First Quarter
MIN 3, CHI 0
Garrett Bradbury (CHI), offensive holding / Levi Rodriguez (MIN), roughing the passer — offsetting — 7:42. Chicago has reached 1st-and-10 at the MIN 35 after converting 3rd-and-1. Williams throws incomplete short right; Rodriguez is in on the play. Both flags come out. Down is replayed. Not in the official 8–58 / 3–25.
Braxton Jones (CHI), offensive holding, 10 yards — 7:00. 2nd-and-7 at the MIN 32. Monangai runs left tackle for 8 yards to the 24. Jones is flagged on the edge. Play comes off the board: 2nd-and-17 at the MIN 42. Williams dumps to Monangai for 4, then scrambles 6 on 3rd-and-13 to the 32. Santos still makes the 50-yarder at 5:03.
MIN 3, CHI 3
Garrett Bradbury (CHI), false start, 5 yards — 2:57. After Wentz’s aborted snap turns 3rd-and-2 into 4th-and-24 and Thorson punts, Raymond fair-catches at the CHI 42. First play of the drive: Bradbury flinches. 1st-and-15 at the 37.
Anthony Van Ginkel (MIN), defensive offside, 5 yards — 1:53. 3rd-and-12 at the CHI 40. Williams goes deep left to Odunze, incomplete, but Van Ginkel is in the neutral zone. Replay the down: 3rd-and-7 at the CHI 45.
Chicago (team), delay of game, 5 yards — 1:47. Six seconds after the offside gift, the play clock expires in shotgun. 3rd-and-12 at the 40 again. Williams throws deep middle for Burden. Byron Murphy intercepts at the MIN 36.
Second Quarter
MIN 3, CHI 3
Jaylon Johnson (CHI), illegal use of hands — declined — 13:15. 3rd-and-4 at the MIN 42. Wentz hits Jefferson over the middle for 16 yards to the CHI 42. Johnson’s flag is picked up. Catch and first down stand. Minnesota will kick Reichard’s 49-yarder at 8:18.
MIN 6, CHI 3
Dallas Turner (MIN), roughing the passer, 15 yards — 6:18. Chicago is answering. 2nd-and-10 at the CHI 40. Williams completes short right to Raymond for 5, to the 45. Turner hits Williams after the throw. Automatic first: 1st-and-10 at the MIN 40. Swift loses 2. Chicago later converts 4th-and-3 to the MIN 30 — then the next four flags live on this same drive.
Sam Roush (CHI), illegal shift, 5 yards — 3:02. 1st-and-10 at the MIN 30, already in field-goal range. Williams hits Loveland for 14 yards to the 16. Roush is flagged for an illegal shift. Replay first down: 1st-and-15 at the MIN 35. Loveland’s catch does not count.
Garrett Bradbury (CHI), offensive holding, 10 yards — 2:35. 1st-and-15 at the MIN 35. Swift right guard for 3, to the 32. Bradbury holds. Enforced from the tackle: 1st-and-22 at the MIN 42.
Caleb Williams (CHI), intentional grounding, 13 yards — 2:13. Shotgun, 1st-and-22 at the MIN 42. Wilson’s pressure. Williams throws it into the dirt short right with no eligible in the area. Loss of down: 2nd-and-35 at the CHI 45. Two-minute warning next.
Garrett Bradbury (CHI), false start, 5 yards — 2:00. After an 11-yard screen to Swift makes it 3rd-and-24 at the MIN 44, Bradbury false-starts in shotgun. 3rd-and-29 at the MIN 49. Incompletion to Kmet. Taylor punts 37 yards. Four accepted flags, 33 yards, MIN 30 to a punt from midfield.
Third Quarter
MIN 6, CHI 3
No accepted flags.
Christian Darrisaw (MIN), illegal formation — declined — 6:49. 3rd-and-2 at the MIN 32. Wentz is sacked. Formation flag is picked up. Minnesota punts.
Chicago (team), illegal formation — declined — 4:20. 3rd-and-10 at the CHI 27. Raymond catch for 7. Flag is declined. Chicago punts.
Fourth Quarter
MIN 6, CHI 3
Josh Oliver (MIN), false start, 5 yards — 14:43. Minnesota 2nd-and-10 at its own 12. Oliver jumps. 2nd-and-15 at the MIN 7. They still get enough to punt from the 21. Raymond starts Chicago at the 33 — the drive that will reach the 1 (Swift fumble) and the 5 (Rodgers block).
Tyrique Stevenson (CHI), defensive holding, 5 yards — 4:05. 1st-and-10 at the MIN 32. Wentz throws deep right for Jefferson, incomplete. Stevenson is holding. Automatic first: 1st-and-10 at the MIN 37. Hockenson then picks up 19 to the CHI 44. Chicago burns timeouts. Reichard’s 39-yarder at 1:09 makes it 9–3.
MIN 9, CHI 3
No accepted flags on the final Bears drive. The two RTP no-calls on Bagent (3rd-and-2 head/neck; 4th-and-2 Turner lift-and-slam) belong in the no-call column, which we will get to forthwith.
Upon Further Review — Week 2: Bears 3, Vikings 9
Crew: Land Clark. Official totals: Chicago 8 penalties, 58 yards. Minnesota 3 penalties, 25 yards.
The scale. Every accepted flag — and every no-call we put on the ledger — gets one of four grades:
- Correct — the rule and the tape agree.
- Arguable — judgment call; you can see both sides.
- Incorrect — the tape says the crew got it wrong.
- Horrible — bright-line foul (or non-foul) a wing official should not miss.
The weight. Impact, 1 to 4, stacked on the grade:
- 1 — housekeeping (false start that doesn’t kill a scoring chance).
- 2 — drive disruption (down-and-distance flip, stalled series).
- 3 — scoring situation / red-zone / automatic first that feeds points.
- 4 — wiped score or takeaway, dead drive flipped into points, or a last-snap foul that would have been 1st-and-goal.
Snapshot: Flags For and Against
Welp, here we are, analyzing the flags that, at least arguably, cost us the game.
Calls against Chicago
Against CHI: Eight accepted. 5 Correct, 3 Arguable, 0 Incorrect, 0 Horrible.
The “correct” pile shows Chicago beating Chicago: Bradbury’s false start, delay of game, Roush’s illegal shift (wiped Loveland at the MIN 16), Williams’ grounding (2nd-and-35), Bradbury’s false start again (3rd-and-29). That is a 33-yard self-demolition of a drive that started at the MIN 30.
The “arguable” three: Jones’ hold on an 8-yard run that still became a 50-yard field goal (Wt 2); Bradbury’s hold on the collapsing second-quarter drive (Wt 3); Stevenson’s defensive hold that handed Minnesota a first down at the 32 and fed Reichard’s 39-yarder (Wt 4). None of those is a phantom. Stevenson is the only accepted flag on Chicago that actually preceded points.
Rating, calls against CHI: Clean. The crew did not invent the pre-snap tape. It did throw the one gray holding call that mattered late.
Calls against Minnesota
Against MIN: Three accepted. Three no-calls. 2 Correct, 1 Arguable, 2 Incorrect, 1 Horrible.
Accepted Correct: Van Ginkel offside, Oliver false start.
Accepted Arguable: Turner RTP in the second quarter (Wt 3) — the only 15-yarder Minnesota actually gave Chicago, and Chicago still punted.
Then the fourth quarter:
- Felton on Raymond, out of bounds (Horrible, Wt 3). Bright-line unnecessary roughness. Returner is a spectator. Gunner hits him anyway. No flag. Chicago starts at the 33 instead of the 48 on the drive that reached the 1 and the 5.
- 3rd-and-2, MIN 12, forcible head/neck on Bagent (Incorrect, Wt 4). Would have been 15 (half-the-distance to the goal) and 1st-and-goal at the 6.
- 4th-and-2, Turner lift-and-slam (Incorrect, Wt 4). Game over instead of another snap from half-the-distance to the goal. Bagent to concussion protocol.
Same player (Turner) drew RTP when it only moved Chicago to the MIN 40. He did not draw it on the play that ended the game, because, I suppose the refs had somewhere to be.
Rating, calls against MIN: The accepted flags are fine. The unthrown flags were ultimately the game, even if the Bears bare (heh) most of the responsibility for the loss. Three personal fouls, 45 virtual yards, eight points of weight on the last two snaps. Clark’s crew that went dark when the game was on the line at the end. In terms of impact, harder to be more impactful with two no-calls than that.
Grading the officials (we’ll let Tyson sub in for this one): Blind as a Bat
Flag of the Game
No-call: Gunner Tai Felton on Kalif Raymond, out of bounds
Q4, ~12:58. MIN 6, CHI 3.
Grade: Horrible. Weight: 3.
Minnesota has just gone three-and-out from its 12 after Oliver’s false start. Brett Thorson punts 46 yards. Kalif Raymond fields it at the Chicago 33 and is already stepping toward the sideline — the play every returner is coached to finish out of bounds to kill the tackl and keep the clock honest.
Felton does not tackle him in bounds. He hits him well after Raymond has crossed the white line. That is not a bang-bang “did he get a piece in the field of play” play. It is a gunner leaving his feet or extending into a man who is already a spectator. The rule is not subtle: unnecessary roughness when a defender contacts a runner or returner who is out of bounds. Fifteen yards from the spot, first down.
No flag.
The Star Tribune — covering the winning team — called it so obvious Felton was laughing on the sideline. That is what we call in the poker world a “tell.” He knew he got away with it and was thrilled.
What it cost, exactly.
Chicago starts at the 33. A flag puts the ball around the 48. Same drive already had used more than six minutes, reached 1st-and-goal at the 1 (Swift fumble, Isaiah Rodgers recover), then later 1st-and-goal at the 6 (Williams’ hamstring play), then a 23-yard try that, as we know, Rodgers blocked. Obviously, the blocked field goal is on Chicago. The start of the drive, however, is on the crew. Fifteen yards of field position in a 6–3 game in the rain is the difference between a chip-shot that is a chip-shot and a drive that has to be perfect twice and wasn’t. And if we want to go Butterfly Effect – perhaps we never get that Caleb hamstring pull to begin with.
Why Horrible, not Incorrect.
Incorrect is a missed hold at the point of attack or a late hit that was evident from the All-22. Horrible is a foul the cheap seats in the 400 level can call. He was two feet, out of bounds, on the white, for at least a second, and the defender still hit him. There is no judgment about “material restriction.” There is a sideline. It’s…right there. Raymond is on the wrong side of it, zebras. Felton hits him anyway. The wing official is staring at the only job he has on a punt return — the sideline. The flag stays in the pocket. It was your one job. Then the guy who committed it laughs in your face.
That is the Bears Tax in a nutshell. Not Bradbury jumping early. Not Williams grounding it. A personal foul everyone in the building saw, thrown for the other color every Sunday, a flag that is called 99.99% of the time and it was swallowed when the returner wears navy, I guess.
League file — Week 2 Call of the Week
We have two candidates this week:
- Saints at Ravens — Tyler Shough 4th-and-1 sneak at the 1, late, tied game. Ruled TD. Replay kept it: no clear-and-obvious proof the ball didn’t break the plane in the pile (Butterworth). Baltimore lost 24–17. Grade under the review standard: Arguable / Correct as process, Weight 4.
- Colts at Chiefs, OT — Laquon Treadwell catch, up, fumble punched out, Chiefs recover, game over on the field. Overturned to down-by-contact on a hip touch. Florio’s complaint: New York re-officiated instead of using clear-and-obvious. Grade: Arguable, Weight 4.
My pick is the Chiefs call. If for no other reason than we as Bears fans remember a call just like this when Termaine Edmunds picked off Joe Flacco in the Bears-Bengals game last season and took the ball to the house – only to have it called back as “down by contact” despite the fact Edmunds didn’t control the ball until after the contact was well past.
Colts at Chiefs, overtime, Sunday Night Football. Final: Kansas City 33, Indianapolis 30. Referee: Craig Wrolstad.
Harrison Butker had already made a 31-yarder on Kansas City’s first OT possession. Chiefs 30–27. Indianapolis needed a touchdown to win; a scoreless possession ended the game. First snap of the Colts’ drive: Daniel Jones went deep to Laquon Treadwell. Catch, 48 yards, ball at the Kansas City 17. Treadwell bobbled it on the way down, secured it, got up, and started to run. Nohl Williams punched it out. L’Jarius Sneed recovered. On the field: fumble, Chiefs ball, game over. Arrowhead treated it like a walk-off.
Replay took about three minutes. The ruling became down by contact. Treadwell kept the ball at the 17. The rule. A runner is down by contact when a defender touches him, and a body part other than a hand or foot hits the ground. The catch process made it messy. Treadwell bobbled. Contact before control does not down him, unless it is sufficient to “cause” the player to go down. That was the part of the rule that bit the Bears against the Bengals. But that was not the call on the field in the Chiefs game – it was only a contact-incidental-to-being-down question on the call. New York: he gained control with the right hand; Sneed’s hand was on the hip after that control; the knee then hit; Williams punched the ball after the knee. Live ball dies at the hip touch. Terry McAulay on NBC: “He does have control with the right hand. He’s touched the hip. The runner’s down by contact.” Mike Tirico: “Absolutely insane.” Cris Collinsworth said he had never been part of a game decided like that. Despite the call, the Chiefs would go on to win the game on a Butker field goal.
Mike Florio objected to how New York applied the review standard. The on-field call was a fumble. Overturn requires clear and obvious error. A review that long is an argument that it was not obvious — New York re-officiated the catch-control-contact order frame by frame. That is the same “intent/process” problem as the Goff backward pass in Week 1: the book can be internally consistent and still look like a different sport than the one 70,000 people just watched.
Grade: Uhhhhh.
I still think Edmunds TD should have held up, so what do I know. Clearly it was a judgment call and, on the review standard, probably should have stuck with the call on the field and game over.
For Upon Further Review: this is the Week 1 league-wide clip. You decide the grade and the significance of the call.
How would you grade it? And what do you think about how the officials did in the Bears-Vikings game? Let us know in the comments below!
