Referees favor Tom Brady again as controversial call leads to Buccaneers win against Falcons

Yet another Tom Brady vs Atlanta Falcons matchup, yet another win for the iconic quarterback.

Brady's record against Atlanta, however, was far from the talking point after a blatantly bizarre call robbed the Atlanta Falcons of gaining possession to go for the win.

The scenario saw the Buccaneers lead 21-15 in the fourth quarter with 2:56 left. There was more than enough time for the Falcons to get the ball back and go on a drive of their own to score a touchdown.

With just six points separating the teams, a converted touchdown would have won the game for the Falcons.

Bear in mind, the Falcons trailed 21-0 at the end of the third quarter and accumulated 15 unanswered points in the final quarter.

The Buccaneers had the ball, but Tom Brady was sacked by Grady Jarrett on a third down for a loss of yards. That would have given the ball back to the Atlanta Falcons to have another shot at going and scoring a touchdown and the form they were in during the fourth quarter made it eminently possible.

Had they done so, the Atlanta Falcons would have felt a smidgen of closure on their still-open wounds from the 34-28 Super Bowl LI loss after leading 28-3 at one point to the New England Patriots comeback led by Tom Brady.

But the referees were on hand to ensure no such fairytale wrote its script as they decided to inexplicably help out Tom Brady with a roughing the passer call which beggared belief.

On the play, Tom Brady was brought down with the ball in hand. There was no use of extreme force, and no ,taunting either; in fact, there was a hint of Brady kicking out at Jarrett after the sack.

Instead, the Buccaneers were awarded the penalty and they retained the ball to see out the game.

The referee later explained his rationale, saying that he saw it in a way that it was unnecessary to throw Tom Brady to the ground.

Tom Brady has a history of calls going his way

Those of opposing persuasions to Tom Brady's teams have often felt that officials have been kind to the quarterback and bailed him out on occasion.

Even today, Brady went off at the referees that, had any other player done so, would have invited sanctions.

Someone with a conspiratorial bent might even assume the verbal assault affected the way the referees reached their judgment on roughing the passer call.

More famously, the "tuck rule game" against the Oakland Raiders when he was still with the New England Patriots stands out.

In that game in 2021, the Patriots were trailing by three points when Brady lost the football and the Raiders recovered.

That should have allowed the Raiders to see out the game and progress to the next round of the playoffs, leading to the Patriots' elimination.

But instead of awarding a recovered fumble, it was ruled an incomplete pass, giving the ball back to the Patriots, allowing them to tie and then eventually win the game. The Patriots would later go on to win Super Bowl XXXVI.

Such was the fallout from the game that the tuck rule was later repealed and even Tom Brady admitted later that it might have been a fumble.

Two decades away from that game, it seems the current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback can get whatever he wants; namely, getting the ball back even when the opposition has legitimately halted his progress and should ideally have been awarded possession.