Ravens Enraged After Controversial Call Against The Chiefs; Demands Accountability From NFL

Penalties plagued the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs, so much so that one of their players came out against the officiating crew. The Ravens narrowly lost to the Chiefs 27-20, being mere inches from a fourth-quarter comeback victory. Baltimore, along with many NFL fans, disagreed with the number of illegal formation penalties called against them during the game.

One of those players was offensive tackles Ronnie Stanley, who decided to heavily criticize the NFL’s officiating to begin the 2024 season. “I’m looking at their tackles, especially the right side, and I know I’m lining up in front of that guy,” Stanley said after the game, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. “And they didn’t call him one time. It’s a little bit of making me feel like I’m crazy, (that) I don’t know where I’m lining up.” The officials imposed several illegal formation penalties on Stanley, especially during the first quarter.

Stanley expressed further concerns about the officiating in Thursday night’s game. He stated that the calls made during the matchup against the Chiefs deviated from the guidance provided to the team during training camp. “Ronnie Stanley said he felt the refs were trying to make an example out of him with illegal formation call. Said it was not called the way the team was told it would be called when the pro refs were at training camp practices,” The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec reported after the game. “Stanley said he was looking at how the Chiefs tackles were lining up and he couldn’t understand why Ravens were getting called and KC wasn’t. He’s calling for accountability with refs.” Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh defended Stanley, firing back at the referees as well.

“They put a thing out that they said they were going to call that differently,” Harbaugh said in his postgame presser. “I think understanding how differently we were the first offensive series of the season with that. I think they saw probably everyone watching it. It’ll be interesting to see if they call it the same way the whole season. I’ll challenge them to call it the same way they called it tonight the whole season.” Harbaugh is astute in emphasizing that fans should be vigilant about how this penalty is enforced in upcoming games. It will indeed be intriguing to observe how officials call the penalty during tonight’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil.