Falcons deserve apology from NFL for missed OPI on A.J. Terrell

Officiating can be seen as a problem in one way or another in every single game of every single sport. You can find one play here or there where something is or isn't called. Some are worse than others and the Atlanta Falcons had a non-call go against them on Sunday and it may have cost them the game.

The Titans scored their first points of the game when Will Levis threw his first touchdown pass of his career to DeAndre Hopkins and it should have never happened as the refs missed the most blatant offensive pass interference you will ever see.

NFL, once again, sweeps bad officiating against the Atlanta Falcons under the rug

I get it, you should never let the officials determine if you win or not. There were plays that the Atlanta Falcons could have made that would have prevented that, but we also shouldn't completely ignore those times when an official makes an egregious mistake.

Most of you saw it already but on the first touchdown of the game by the Titans, DeAndre Hopkins, while the ball was in the air, wrapped his arms around the neck of Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell and controlled his positioning on the play.

This hug that fellow Clemson alum DeAndre Hopkins gave Terrell prevented Terrell from making any type of play on the ball. It was as blatant as blatant gets and the ref just simply botched it.

Some comments that I have seen fans make is that Terrell gave up on the play and was relying on the ref throwing the flag. Well, look at the play closer and you will understand how stupid that reasoning is.

Terrell may have had a peek at the ball but he did not know where the ball was headed. He was trying to position himself to turn around and make a play but Hopkins prevented him from doing that.

Much of playing cornerback is having good footwork. What Hopkins did was screw Terrell's footwork and momentum completely up. All of a sudden, Terrell is stumbling and falling towards the sideline while Hopkins is able to keep his body under control and snatch the pass.

From the angle that most people saw, it still looks like Terrell had a chance to fight back to Hopkins and make a play but if you look at the overhead angle, Terrell was a good five to ten yards away from Hopkins. As soon as Hopkins wrapped his hands around Terrell, Terrell had zero chance.

If this was Terrell wrapping up Hopkins, the ref, without a doubt, would have thrown a flag. Even Gene Steratore—the CBS rules analyst—agreed it should have been offensive pass interference. If you are going to call it one way, then call it the other.

Offensive players already have the advantage and if they can get away with a play like this, then every team would be putting up 70 points on the board.

The infuriating part is that the Falcons lost by five points. If the ref throws the flag on Hopkins, the Titans don't get the touchdown and are in a 1st and 25 with their rookie quarterback. While the Falcons' defense didn't play a great game, I still like their chances of getting a stop there. And then who knows how the game ends?

I did like how this lit a fire in A.J. Terrell and he started getting extremely physical with D-Hop the rest of the game.

Last year we had Grady's roughing the passer, this year we have Terrell's strangulation. Both are ridiculous and both will go by the wayside. The NFL needs to hold refs accountable, just like they hold their players accountable.