DENVER — Did the Los Angeles Rams get hosed?
They certainly have a case.
A controversial pass interference penalty against cornerback Josh Wallace erased what appeared to be a game-saving interception late in the Rams’ stunning 30-26 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football, setting social media ablaze and even drawing disagreement from NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay.
With Denver trailing 26-23 and facing third-and-six from the Rams’ 11-yard line with 1:15 remaining, Bo Nix fired toward Pat Bryant near the right sideline. Wallace worked his way inside the receiver, grabbed the football with one arm and got a knee down for what appeared to be his second interception of the night.
It should have been game over. The Rams came to Mile High and walked away with a win.
Not so fast.
A flag for defensive pass interference wiped away the turnover and gave Denver a fresh set of downs on the five-yard-line. Replays appeared to show Bryant grabbing Wallace and pulling the cornerback toward him as the ball arrived. If anything it could have been offensive pass interference.
McAulay wasn’t buying the referee’s call, either.
“I don’t see the defender do anything that significantly hinders the receiver,” McAulay said during NBC’s broadcast, noting Bryant appeared to pull Wallace toward him.
Needless to say, the internet was considerably less diplomatic in their response.
“How is this a pass interference on the Rams??” NFL reporter Dov Kleiman wrote on X, claiming Denver had been “gifted” the call and calling the game “rigged.”
Another X user sarcastically handed referee Bill Vinovich the game ball.
“CONGRATULATIONS TO #NFL REF BILL VINOVICH AND THE #BRONCOS ON THE WIN TONIGHT VERSUS THE #RAMS,” the user wrote. “HELL OF A PERFORMANCE BY THEIR STAR PLAYER.”
And our own New York Post star Adam Schein didn’t need a replay booth, a rulebook or 280 characters to dance around what he saw.
“That’s a terrible call. Awful,” Schein wrote. “Terry is right. That’s an interception. Rams got robbed here. Easy. Obvious.”
There’s the phrase Rams fans will undoubtedly carry with them out of Denver: Rams got robbed.
Calling the game “rigged” goes too far. A controversial penalty — even one this consequential — is not evidence of some grand NFL conspiracy.
But saying the Rams got hosed on this particular call?
There’s a compelling case to be made for that.
NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay believed Wallace had done nothing worthy of defensive pass interference, pointing out that Bryant appeared to grab the Rams cornerback and pull him inward as the football arrived.
Had Wallace’s interception stood, Los Angeles could have taken possession with the lead and little more than a minute remaining.
Instead, a yellow flag became Denver’s lifeline. As one Broncos reporter said, “this team has nine lives and then some.”
In fairness, with or without the controversial call, it wasn’t the referees that blew a 16-0 halftime lead. They didn’t come out of the locker room lethargic and allow back-to-back touchdowns and two-point conversions. The referees didn’t throw an NFL-record 33rd pick-six. The Rams managed that collapse all by themselves.
But just when Wallace appeared to rescue them from it in a moment of redemption, one controversial call gave Denver another life.
And the Broncos used it to steal the game.
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