The Atlanta Falcons were cheated against the Buffalo Bills

In the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Falcons were down by two scores to the Buffalo Bills and faced a second and goal. Quarterback Matt Ryan scrambled to the right and ended up finding his way into the endzone until they reviewed it and ruled that Ryan gave himself up when his knee was down short of the goal line—no touchdown.

To pile on top of that, Matt Ryan was also called for “taunting.” It was a weak call but based on this year, it is a penalty, so the Falcons faced a third and goal from the 16-yard line due to the penalty, but the refs missed a crucial part of that play.

If the Falcons QB “gave himself up” then where was the penalty for unnecessary roughness?

As many know, if you hit a player who is giving up on the play, it results in a 15-yard penalty, so why did the Falcons QB not get the same treatment if he was “giving himself up?”

The reasoning is due to a hole in the NFL’s system, they cannot go back and assess a penalty after the fact, but they can go back and determine Matt Ryan gave himself up. They need to fix this in some way so that this does not happen again.

Matt Ryan was hit late and hit in the head, which should easily warrant a penalty that would have offset his taunting penalty, giving the Falcons the ball at the original location.

There is no excuse for the NFL, refs should have the ability to go back and determine there was a late hit on the play if they are allowed to determine that Ryan “gave himself up”, even though he did not.

Not to mention, if Ryan was known as a scrambling QB, there is a good chance they would have given him the touchdown. There needs to be more clarity and consistency with these calls and a few things need to be changed.

However, due to the Falcons defense, it likely would not have changed the result of the game. Despite three interceptions, Atlanta’s defense was struggling to stop Buffalo’s run game.