TAMPA, FL – Referee Jerome Buger says the Atlanta Falcons are a defensive line Grady Jarrett ‘Unnecessarily’ threw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady on the floor as part of his interpretation of a passer-by’s call raggedness on a third key down late in Sunday’s Buccaneers win.
The Hawks fell six minutes before 3 minutes, 3 seconds to play when they appeared to stop the Buccaneers in the midfield on Brady’s third Jarrett sack, but Boger threw the flag, allowing the leadership to continue and torpedoing the Tampa Bay clock in their 21-15 win.
Jarrett had Brady roll and then roll on the floor, bringing the quarterback with him.
“What I had was that the defender grabbed the centre-back while he was still in the pocket and threw him to the floor unnecessarily,” Boger said in a post-match rally report. “That’s what I was making my decision based on.”
“No, not necessarily,” Boger said, when asked if he was instructed to monitor takedowns from quarterbacks like Jarrett Brady after the Miami Dolphins quarterback was injured. Toa Tagoviloa earlier this season.
Brady shrugged his shoulders when asked about the call, saying, “I don’t throw flags,” while Jarrett refused to speak with reporters after the game, a rarity for a Falcon’s longest-serving player.
Falcons coach Arthur Smith said he did not speak with officials after the call, but was captured by television cameras on the sidelines with a moving reaction. When asked if he thought the matter was frightening passersby, Smith avoided the question.
“I’m not going to go into that,” Smith said. “I haven’t seen the movie, and I have to worry about how to train that.”
Tampa Bay Processing Right Tristan Wirves He joked about Brady’s age — he’s 45 — but said, “I think with Tom being who he is, he’s going to get those calls more than not.”
However, the Buccaneers coach, Todd Bowles, said he did not believe the call was made simply because the midfielder in question was Brady.
“I saw him being called up,” Bowles said. “So I think they started to crack down on some things, with the response, I don’t know. Right now, the way they call it, I think a lot of people have gotten that call.”
Hawks outside full back Lorenzo Carterwho was facing Jarrett and Brady when the referee signed him, said: “It looked like soccer to me. It looked like soccer. We played hard.”
The passer’s roughness was one of six penalties against Atlanta on Sunday for 55 yards. Tampa Bay was flagged six times for 45 yards.
Earlier on the final drive, the Falcons Cornerback A.J. Terrell A defensive hold call is flagged on a wide receiver Mike Evans Which invalidated a third stop down. Terrell said he made contact with Evans on the line.
“It’s something I can’t control with the call, but they just called it the clutch,” Terrell said. “I’m trying to get out of the field.”
Bowles said there was an understanding, with concern for the league’s safety, about how the game should be named.
“The security of the league is at an all-time high, as it should be,” Bowles said. “Anything close – we understand getting into a ball game, they’ll call it.”
ESPN’s Jenna Lynn contributed to this report.
