The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offense struggled to find rhythm throughout their matchup with the Detroit Lions. Quarterback Baker Mayfield connected on 28 of 50 passes for 228 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

The Buccaneers fell to the Lions by a score of 24-9. Almost everything seemed to go wrong for Tampa Bay on Monday night. Another issue that didn’t favor them was the officiating during the contest.

Buccaneers Quarterback Baker Mayfield Criticizes Officiating Following Loss to Detroit Lions

After the game, Mayfield addressed the media about how the referees managed the matchup. The Buccaneers’ signal-caller commented on the strange double review sequence, saying,

“Still pretty damn confused about the double review. A lot of moments in that game were somewhat questionable … when things don’t seem fair to me, I’m going to speak up.”

Someone truly needs to call out the awful officiating across the NFL. The quality appears to decline each week. Perhaps if more players voiced their frustration like Mayfield, the league might finally take meaningful action.

The disputed play came on a Cade Otton catch. He seemed to stretch for a first down after a fourth-down grab but lost control of the ball as he extended, though Tampa recovered and placed it back at the point of the fumble.

Detroit challenged the completion, and the Lions were awarded the win on the review since Otton was short of the first down marker, keeping their challenge. However, Detroit’s protest was about the catch, not the ball’s placement. Tampa Bay has every reason to be upset over the double review. It really feels as though NFL referees operate with shifting agendas from week to week.