The Los Angeles Chargers certainly benefitted from some favorable calls in Week 16, and this flop from Justin Herbert is evidence of one. In perhaps one of the worst calls of the 2024 NFL Season, Justin Strnad got called for a personal foul penalty on this horrifically egregious flop-job from Justin Herbert:
Insane flop job from Justin Herbert 🤣
— The Kevin Harlan Effect (@KevHarlanEffect) December 20, 2024
Should the refs have picked up the flag? pic.twitter.com/JEInvqWTys
Justin Herbert is a master-flopper
As you can clearly see, Strnad barely makes contact with Herbert. It legitimately looked like Strand ended up grazing his elbow across Herbert's upper body, and you have to wonder what else Justin Strnad was supposed to do here? I mean, Herbert was sliding right at his legs, so if Strnad had just stood there, we're talking about the Broncos linebacker likely getting hurt.
So of course, the officials call Justin Strnad for the infraction, and this drive ended in a Los Angeles Chargers touchdown. It was one of many missed calls and flat-out bad calls in Week 16 that went against the Denver Broncos. In total, the Broncos got called for seven penalities for 61 yards, and the Chargers got called for two penalties for eight yards.
You just have to wonder how there was this big of a difference in penalties called, especially with this being a divisional game. Heck, I also recall the officials missing a few holding penalties and wrongly calling Zach Allen offside.
Oh well. The Broncos didn't score as many points as the Chargers did, but I am not sure the NFL did themselves any favors with this product on the field. You have to wonder if the league will eventually do something about the QB slide, as it puts defenders in an impossible position here. Justin Strnad clearly had no other choice but to try to make the play; he also clearly made an effort to avoid hitting Justin Herbert, and Herbert himself made sure to flop and act like he got hit in the head.
The NFL cannot let those types of plays unpunished. They should have picked up the flag in this instance. And I am not the only one who believes NFL officiating has been shaky. Heck, this is a years-long thing that many NFL fans across the landscape believe in.
It's becoming a horrible issue where officials are having way more influence on a game than they should have, and it's really harming the product. This was a bad call on Justin Strnad, period, and it had a huge impact on the outcome of the game.