Calls Mount Against Lamar Jackson’s Ravens for Ignoring NFL Referee & Running to the Locker Room vs Bills

With just 2 seconds left in the second quarter, Bills QB Josh Allen threw a 22-yarder to Dalton Kincaid, who caught the ball near the sideline before being pushed off the playing area by Marlon Humphrey. With the play coming to an end at 20-10 in favor of the Ravens, Lamar Jackson and team started jogging towards the locker room. It was halftime after all. Except Allen was convinced it wasn’t. And referee John Hussey was in agreement.

“Hold on, Baltimore. Hold on, please,” Hussey kept calling out as Jackson and some of his teammates were seen disappearing into the tunnel, leaving the commentators chuckling. The replay showed 1 second was still there on the clock. The Ravens had to walk back in, and Matt Prater, playing his first game for the Bills, took full advantage of the moment to score a 43-yard field goal to bring his team’s deficit down to 20-13. Fans weren’t happy.

The night opened with Buffalo striking first. Josh Allen looked sharp on the opening scoring drive, capping a seven-play march with a 15-yard dart to Dalton Kincaid. Matt Prater’s extra point made it 7-0 midway through the first quarter, and it felt like the Bills were ready to set the tone. But Baltimore steadied itself.

Lamar Jackson controlled the tempo on a long possession that chewed up nearly eight minutes before Tyler Loop drilled a 52-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 7-3. The second quarter belonged to the Ravens. Derrick Henry reminded everyone of his power, bursting through for a 30-yard touchdown that gave Baltimore its first lead at 10-7. Just minutes later, Jackson turned a broken play into brilliance, dashing 10 yards for another touchdown to push the margin to 17-7.

Buffalo fought back with a long, methodical drive that ended in a 25-yard Prater field goal, but the Ravens weren’t done. Loop nailed another kick, this one from 49 yards, to stretch the lead back to double digits at 20-10 with just half a minute left before halftime. Soon after came the field goal, which got fans raising eyebrows.

Social media in frenzy over Ravens’ mistake

Shannon Sharpe couldn’t hold his emotions as he joked on X, “That’s the longest 2 seconds in history 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.” Meanwhile, one netizen wrote, “Ravens tried to cheat the game.” That seems far-fetched, blown out of proportion.

Last year, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs were the center of all the negative talk. This year, Josh Allen is in the middle. So, there is a shared belief among fans of Lamar Jackson that the league is favoring Allen. One fan commented, “They changed the definition of what a second is in the NFL.”

And yes, the referee calling them back is really unheard of. So, the fans were confused as one of them pointed out, “Never heard an Unpire having to stop a team from running into the locker room before.” However, the onus for this mistake lies on Lamar Jackson and his teammates.

They need to be game-aware on the ground. “Absolutely unreal that the Ravens defense let the Bills get three points before the half in that fashion,” analyst Kevin Oestreicher mentioned. That’s right. Although they won, the Ravens should remember, they lost the AFC Divisional game early this year by 2 points. That’s the cost of complacency.

Yet, it was a great game for the fans. And the QB and his coaches will work this out.