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Things got a bit awkward between Cris Collinsworth and NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay during the Bengals-Bills.
On Sunday night, Bills QB Josh Allen was called for intentional grounding when he overthrew a potential receiver.
Did the officials make the right call with this intentional grounding flag on Josh Allen during the Buffalo Bills vs Cincinnati Bengals game? pic.twitter.com/xzHWsjCfHy
— Chris Beasmore (@CBeasmoreSports) November 6, 2023
NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay was brought to discuss the call, and he agreed with the refs on the field.
“If the receiver is outside the numbers, the quarterback can throw it over his head as far as he wants to. However, as that looked right there, he threw it way downfield, I don’t see that as overhead, I do think it’s intentional grounding.”
Collinsworth chimed in to disagree with the intentional grounding rule in this instance where a receiver changes route on the fly.
“Let me tell you what happened, it’s an option route so if you’re cut off as a receiver by the coverage and you’re trying to go deep, the quarterback thinks you’re going deep, you have the option if you feel the quarterback is in a better position than you are to stop, so that ball was released before Gabe Davis had stopped”
“Nobody was trying to intentionally ground anything I understand the rule and the definition of it, but in the game of football, that wasn’t grounding, he wasn’t trying to throw that away it was just a mistaken read.”
"I understand the rule and the definition of it. But in reality — the game of football, that wasn't grounding. He wasn't trying to throw that one away. It was just a mistake in read."
NBC's Cris Collinsworth and Terry McAulay banter over an intentional grounding penalty called… pic.twitter.com/poOYDUOm8e
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 6, 2023
McAulay immediately fired back at Collinsworth’s take.
“But Cris let me just say, the route doesn’t matter, it’s where the ball lands, is it in vicinity of the receiver and it’s just not there, that’s the way we’ve officiated it for a very long time”