It would be one thing if the Chicago Bears lost on Monday night because the Pittsburgh Steelers were the better football team. That is something people can accept. Yet when watching the replays? It is fairly evident that the Bears outplayed their opponent for significant stretches of that game. Still, they lost 29-27. Much of that resulted from a series of questionable penalties by Tony Corrente and his crew of referees. No play exemplified this more than what happened to Cassius Marsh.
Everybody remembers the sequence. The defensive end, just recently signed by the Bears, gets a huge sack on Ben Roethlisberger on 3rd and 8 in the 4th quarter. It should’ve forced a punt. However, after staring at the Steelers sideline for a few seconds, he began trotting back to his own. Along the way, Corrente seemed to bump into him. Only then did the ref yank the flag, declaring Marsh had committed a taunting penalty. People couldn’t believe it. How in the world could he make that call at that point of the game? It was so flimsy. Enough to where even former ref Dean Blandino admitted on the Rich Eisen podcast that it was questionable.
Everything about it didn’t make sense.
Corrente’s positioning alone made it iffy. All he saw was Marsh staring at the sideline. He had no way of knowing if the defender was saying anything. He made an assumption. Upon seeing the tape, that was incorrect. Marsh merely stared. That is not taunting, even by the NFL’s baffling definition. The league was quick to put out a video by former coach Perry Fewel defending the call. The word he used was “posture.” What?
In this official explanation from the NFL, Perry Fewell uses the same word referee Tony Corrente did to justify the taunting call: “posture.”
The word “posture” is used 13 times in the 2021 NFL Rulebook, but never in the context of taunting. pic.twitter.com/i9ISBYrvnI
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) November 10, 2021
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This is merely proof that the entire rule is leaning way too much on the judgment of the refs. That makes it subjective rather than objective, as not every ref may see that play and think the same thing happened. For example, just look at Jaguars defensive tackle Taven Bryan. He sacks Bills quarterback Josh Allen, sits down, puts his hands together, and then bows. That is taunting and yet it wasn’t called despite a ref literally being right there.
Taven Bryan's sack celebration is an all-timer. Can literally see Josh Allen point at him and ask for a flag at the end lol pic.twitter.com/ihZHsBts8H
— John Shipley (@_John_Shipley) November 9, 2021
Cassius Marsh was a victim of a brutal string of bad decisions
The NFL’s decision to implement the rule in the first place and Corrente’s decision to make a judgment call on Marsh’s “posture” despite being in a bad position to see it. As a result, the Steelers got a first down and ended up with a field goal. Those three points proved the difference in the football game. Now the Bears head into their bye week at 3-6 with minimal hope of staying in the playoff hunt. It is never a good thing when a ref can so clearly decide the direction of a team’s season.
One can only feel bad for Cassius Marsh. The kid wanted to play football and that game marked his first opportunity since last season. That play would’ve been his first sack since 2019 and against a team that was the last one to cut him. He had every right to celebrate. Instead, he was punished in the worst way possible.
By ultimately costing his team the game.
All the Bears can do is move forward. Having to go into the bye week with this cloud hanging over them isn’t easy. It is something that could fester if not handled properly. No doubt it will be interesting to see how they come out against Baltimore two weeks from now.
