NFL referees put on embarrassing display in first half vs Cowboys

With a decimated roster making a long road trip on a short week to play a Dallas Cowboys team with its sight sets on the NFC’s No. 1 seed, we’d by lying if we said we set high expectations for the Washington Football Team tonight.

We’d also be lying we expected much from NFL officiating, too, because it’s been objectively abysmal all season.

That continued into Week 16, as the Sunday Night Football crew didn’t take very long to embarrass itself on national television.

First up, the refs decided it was okay for Cowboys center Tyler Biadasz to be chilling almost five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Instead of flagging for illegal man downfield, the refs kept their flags in their holsters.

What ensued, you ask? That would be a conversion for Dallas and a nine-yard subsequent touchdown catch by Dalton Schultz .

Look at how OBVIOUS this is.

The refereeing in Sunday night game’s between the Washington Football Team and the Cowboys has been laughable.

Doesn’t get much worse than that. It’s bad enough that Washington has to overcome missing an untold number of starters AND play a seemingly fully-healthy Cowboys squad. But to have to battle the refs, too?

That’s an impossible ask.

Despite setting a ridiculously low bar for themselves, the refs made a similarly egregious call a few sequences earlier.

After a Randy Gregory quarterback hit forced an incompletion on third down, the Dallas edge rusher celebrated by rolling over to Taylor Heinicke, who was still recuperating from the big hit, and staring him in the face.

Anyone watching the game was just waiting for Gregory to get flagged for taunting. Much like the earlier non-call, the ref, who literally would’ve tripped over the two players if he was standing any closer, decided this was fair play.

Are we joking? It also looked like Gregory got a piece of Heinicke’s facemask on the play. That’s suddenly legal, too?

Again, we didn’t expect much from Washington tonight. All we wanted was a competitive effort and somewhat fair officiating.

Through the first 20 or so minutes, we’ve gotten neither.