The Philadelphia Eagles are facing off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. And fans took exception to the officiating through one half of football after officials missed an obvious false start on Eagles star offensive lineman Lane Johnson.
Johnson is regarded by most fans as one of the best linemen in all of football for the majority of his career, which dates all the way back to 2013.
However, Johnson seemingly had several early starts on a number of plays. One play in particular was very obvious to most at home, but was not called by the officials.
The play in question occurred at the end of the first half, where Johnson clearly jumped way before the ball was snapped. A video from Doug Farrar of USA Today Sports shared on Twitter shows the play in slow motion.
This is apparently not a false start! pic.twitter.com/Odaf7R60AX
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 26, 2023
Fans took notice of this play and couldn’t believe that nothing was called considering how blatant the false start was from the Pro Bowl tackle.
Teams with “star” QBs have different rules
— It’s Me (@UWP49) September 26, 2023
Juwan Taylor goes straight to jail if he does this
— Tom Fehr (@TJFsports) September 26, 2023
EMBARASSING
— macc | heyy.eth (@MackVogrot) September 26, 2023
Inexcusable refs
— John Quinn (@johnquinn83) September 26, 2023
I honestly don’t know why this is allowed
— 🦅🦅K1LL3RW31N3R 🦅🦅 (@K1LL3RW31N3R) September 26, 2023
The Eagles ended up benefitting slightly from this no-call, completing a two-yard pass on the play. They would go on to convert on a short field goal attempt at the end of the half to extend their lead to 13-3.
It will certainly be interesting to see whether the officials look at Johnson more closely in the second half, especially since fans complained about him starting early on numerous other plays in the first half.
#Eagles RT Lane Johnson has been getting an early start a few times tonight — but hasn’t been called yet.
Brings up the interesting topic of Jawaan Taylor getting so many flags for it. pic.twitter.com/VwuWhFqgZ1
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) September 26, 2023
Shocker Lane Johnson is lining up exactly where Jawaan Taylor did this whole drive not called for one penalty! This crap needs to stop @NFLOfficiating 😡
— Brad Henson Productions (@BradHensonPro) September 25, 2023
[Doug Farrar on Twitter, Photo Credit: ESPN on ABC]
