Lot of BS takes that the call was ticky tack and inconsistent with the rest of the game (you Klatt!). Wrong.

Jake: I saw the hold and…

Jojo was his first read. No hold, Phillips breaks, is open, Jake throws, no sack. Is there a catch? No way to know. If Phillips drops it, it’s game over. If a catch, it’s probably a 40 yard run minimum.

Defender knows all this, so he calcs: even if busted for hold, it’s better than my guy beating me for a score. No safety cover on that play.

Defender holds, Jake progresses on his reads. Ref throws flag.

If you say, “the ref shouldn’t decide the outcome of the game,” then you are arguing in this instance that the cheating defender SHOULD decide the outcome. That’s what he tried to do.

He could have risked letting Jojo drop it or making a play on him if he catches. No. He chose to hold, he got his consequence. It’s actually a calculated risk. And it is a calculation he was taught! That loss is on KW and the way he teaches his guys to play. Right or wrong you gotta live with it.

Stop pretending the ref made a difference in the game. The PLAYER made the difference.

No words for Harlan here. Sad.

Edit: apparently Matich made this take minutes before I typed but I didn’t see it. Kudos to Trevor for calling it out on a big stage.