Officiating department admits several missed calls went against the Jaguars in Week 1

The NFL acknowledged a number of missed calls that went against the Jaguars in their Week 1 game against the Packers, according to a report on Sunday by Adam Schefter of ESPN.

In total, the league admitted the officiating crew missed 16 calls, according to Schefter, citing Jaguars team personnel, that went against Jaguars. At least one key missed call was late in the game on a holding non-call on Packers defensive back Micah Hyde, which would have given the Jaguars a 1st-and-10 from the Green Bay 9-yard line. Instead, the Jaguars failed to convert a 4th-and-1 and lost the game 27-23.

According to Schefter, Jaguars team officials believe that the game officials missed at least four pass interference calls on wide receiver Allen Robinson.

Carl Cheffers was the referee, heading the crew of Terry McAulay. McAulay was on medical leave in Weeks 1 and 2, and is expected to rejoin his crew in Week 3.

Teams regularly submit calls each week to senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino, who will get back to teams within two days because teams need to know so they do not coach around an incorrect call. The submission for the Jaguars would come from head coach Gus Bradley and his staff.

Football Zebras has found that the Jaguars personnel that Schefter talked to might have mischaracterized the number of questionable calls. We were not able to get exact numbers, but officiating sources are saying it is likely that the Bradley submitted 16 plays as part of their weekly submission to Blandino. This is an unusually high number — although we’ve seen 17 and “several paragraphs” claimed by coaches in the past. However, our sources indicate that not all of the 16 of the Jaguars’ submitted calls were acknowledged as incorrect. The crew got “a bunch of them” wrong, according to one source, “but it was not as high as 16.”

In those 16 calls, it is likely that there were some additional borderline calls, which are not downgrades for the crew if the supervisor determines that there were enough mitigating factors to “support” the call.