In the span of three plays the Chargers, Ravens and NFL referees gave us some of the most incomprehensible nonsense all season — and it was absolute perfection based on how the game had been.
The Chargers, Ravens and refs teamed up for the dumbest 5 minutes of football all weekend
A hilarious moment in a game so bad it was good.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
To appreciate the gravity of the situation you really need to understand just how bad this game of football was. In the NFL taxonomy of bad games you have a few tiers.
- Bad football game.
- NFL game in London.
- Unwatchable.
- So bad it’s good.
Chargers vs. Ravens had firmly cemented itself in Tier 4. A boring, no-offense, all-field goal game quickly devolved into blocked kick and missed attempt debauchery, deserving of sublime appreciation for how bad it was.
And, with that established, please enjoy Derek Watt rolling across the goal line like the tumbleweed this game deserved.
So the refs rule this as no touchdown, which the Chargers challenge (obviously) and despite the evidence appearing overwhelming they say no touchdown, down at the 1-yard line.
Naturally the Chargers decide to run it in on 3rd-and-goal, and Melvin Gordon trip-dives and seemingly fumbles into the end zone.
Nobody on the field knows if the ball is dead, so the Ravens run it back 100-plus yards and everyone in the stadium is losing it. That is, until, referees rule that it’s a touchdown — despite it being more obviously not a touchdown than Watt’s attempt moments earlier.
So we have this scenario where literally everyone on the field of play is inept. The Chargers can’t punch it in, the Ravens don’t know whether the ball is live or not, and the refs can’t decide what is going on.
Then the Chargers punch it in for an easy touchdown, like it’s nothing. But oh, dear reader, if you think that’s all then you have no idea. The Chargers go for a 2-point conversion that’s they make so easily it’s like the Ravens didn’t have anyone covering the receiver.
Because they didn’t.
The TV angle sure appears to show 10 men on the field for Baltimore, which leaves us with the following sublime situation that reads like a mad lib.
The Chargers scored, which was overturned. Then they didn’t, but the refs said they did — but the Ravens thought they scored. Then the Chargers finally scored, and the Ravens forgot a defender.
Football is truly the most beautiful and stupid game.
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