Key calls go against Houston Texans in controversial loss to Oakland Raiders

With all the talk about how players might be affected by the altitude of Mexico City, nobody even thought of the possibility of the officials struggling in those conditions. But they did.

Whatever the reason, the officials had a pretty bad night, and the Houston Texans have a lot to complain about.

Three key calls went against the Texans in a close 27-20 loss to the Oakland Raiders. Two happened on consecutive plays.

In the first quarter, a really close call went against the Texans. DeAndre Hopkins caught a pass down the sideline, turned up field and kept his balance. He was running for a touchdown but the play was whistled dead. Officials said he stepped out of bounds, although it’s hard to see that conclusively on any replay. But because the play was whistled dead, the Texans couldn’t challenge. The defense stopped when the whistle blew, so they didn’t have a chance to chase down Hopkins after officials said he stepped out. But had the play been allowed to continue, it didn’t seem like anyone would catch Hopkins and it’s hard to believe the play would have been overturned on review. That cost the Texans a touchdown. They got a field goal at the end of that drive.

“I considered challenging many plays. Let’s go back to the first quarter,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said after the game. “Was Hopkins out of bounds on that play? No. I’m not going to sit up here and get fined. I’m just a third-year coach in the NFL. But I think we really have to look at all those things. We have all these cameras, and we can’t get that right?”

NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino posted a video explaining that call.

The next two calls had to do with spotting the ball. It looked like the officials blew both calls.

In the fourth quarter, Lamar Miller ran around the left side on third down and appeared to have the first down as he fell forward. But officials did not give the Texans a favorable spot, and ruled that Miller was short by a few inches.

In a tie game, O’Brien decided to go for it after Miller was ruled short. Akeem Hunt got the fourth-down handoff and went through the middle. He seemed to clearly get enough for the first down. But again, the spot seemed to be well short of where the runner actually landed, and the measurement was barely short of the first down. Spots like that rarely get overturned with a challenge, but O’Brien had to try. Even though the replay seemed to show Hunt got the first down, the call on the field stood.

After the Texans didn’t pick up that first down, Derek Carr hit Amari Cooper for a 35-yard touchdown and the Raiders took a 27-20 lead they never relinquished.

Officiating wasn’t the Texans’ only problem. O’Brien had some curious decisions that cost his team. He kicked a 28-yard field goal on fourth-and-1 early in the fourth quarter, from Oakland’s 11-yard line. He would have been justified to go for it in that spot. Then he went for it later on the ill-fated fourth-and-1 to Hunt. After that, trailing by a touchdown and having just one timeout left, O’Brien had the Texans punt on fourth-and-5 with just 3:13 left. The Texans, predictably, never got the ball back. O’Brien was bad in the fourth quarter. Maybe the Mexico City altitude got to him too.

But in the aftermath of those bad calls, and some terrible coverage from the Texans in the fourth quarter that led to two long touchdowns, Houston will feel like they got the short end of the stick from the officials. It’s far from the first time we’ve seen that happen on “Monday Night Football.”

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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