Houston Texans get myopic call from refs, lose clear fumble recovery

The Houston Texans were victims of some of the worst referee work in the 2021 NFL season.

It appears the bad referees weren’t left behind in 2021, as in the first game of the 2022 calendar year, they have reared their ugly head again. In the third quarter of the Houston Texans road matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, the Texans dropped back to pass with Davis Mills. Mills fired the ball close to tight end Brevin Jordan but was picked off by the 49ers Marcell Harris.

Then wide receiver Chris Conley punched the ball loose, and running back, Rex Burkhead recovered the football. Somehow the refs thought otherwise and awarded the ball to San Francisco, and David Culley did not challenge the call. The 49ers turned that into points and took the lead, 10-7 on a Trey Lance touchdown pass to Elijah Mitchell.

There is so much to talk about here and how botched this call is.

The Houston Texans get screwed over by the zebras, aka the refs

How in the world can this even be ruled the 49ers ball when they didn’t even have an attempt to control at the end? If Burkhead came up with the ball, HOW can you say that it’s a turnover? Ruling that his forward progress was stopped when he was wrapped up is NOT an acceptable answer.

This is arguably the worst call against Houston all year, and it’s been a losing season, but any football fan who knows the rules knows that these refs got it wrong. It’s time to start holding the refs accountable in each game and track their stats like the players.

If there’s no accountability, then nonsensical calls like this will continue to foster everything the NFL is trying to do right.