There seemed to be some questionable calls by the officials in Week 2 as the Denver Broncos fell to the Washington Commanders. Did they cost the Broncos the game? In my opinion, I don't think the officials called a consistent game on Sunday. The Broncos fell to the Commanders after opening up an 18-point lead in the first half. The offense was cooking. Russell Wilson had two early touchdown passes, including a moon ball to Marvin Mims Jr.
It was great to see, and even though the offense died down a bit in the second half, they still scored 33 points. Scoring 33 points should have been plenty enough to win, but Vance Joseph's defense was clearly not up to the challenge. To me, Joseph is a major problem. Ejiro Evero, the Broncos' DC in 2022, had this same unit playing much, much better through two weeks.
It's clear that whatever Vance Joseph is doing isn't working. But anyway, the Broncos managed to pull of a Hail Mary to end the game. They needed to get the two-point conversion to tie the game at 35 and to send it to overtime, and this was the play:
How is this not pass interference? Oh yeah because it’s Courtland Sutton, who has never ever ever benefited from defenders cheating pic.twitter.com/BihTzDptVh
— ThatsGoodSports (@BrandonPerna) September 18, 2023
To me, this is textbook pass interference. The cornerback, Benjamin St. Juste was clearly grabbing onto Courtland Sutton's shoulder and was obviously impeding his ability to make a play on the ball. It's baffling how this was not called a pass interference. I also think the officials missed a facemask penalty on Russell Wilson, coming on this play:
FUMBLE!
— NFL Brasil (@NFLBrasil) September 17, 2023
Russell Wilson tenta correr com a bola e sofre o FUMBLE do Jamin Davis. #HTTC pic.twitter.com/YH39oOsXFx
Jamin Davis clearly grabbed Wilson's facemask as he was making the sack and forcing the fumble. At the end of the day, the Denver Broncos did not do enough defensively to win the game, but these two obvious missed calls greatly impacted the result of the game. I do not think that fumble should have counted because of the facemask, which would have allowed Denver to have kept the ball.
And, perhaps if that fumble doesn't happen, the two-point conversion attempted isn't needed because Denver perhaps has the game wrapped up. It's frustrating to not only see the Broncos' offense playing well, but now all of a sudden the defense looks like a bottom-three unit. And then, adding these questionable non-calls by the officials just adds more insult to injury.
What do you think? Did the officials miss these calls on Sunday? Would the Denver Broncos have won the game if those calls were correctly made?