Bucs can’t complain too much, but premature whistle still stings

NASHVILLE — Good teams create their opportunities. The Bucs made far too many miscues in their 27-23 loss to the Titans Sunday to whine loudly about one play that didn’t go their way.

And inside the Bucs locker room, players were frustrated by another game they had given away. But the premature whistle that nullified what would have been a go-ahead 72-yard fumble return for a touchdown late in the game still stung.

The Titans were trying to clinch it by running a fake field goal on fourth-and-two at the Tampa Bay 28. Punter Brett Kern, the holder on a 46-yard field goal attempt, kept the ball and turned toward the left sideline.

Bucs rookie linebacker Devin White wasn’t fooled, almost clothes-lining Kern with a strike across his chest with his right arm, bringing him down before he could reach the first-down marker. Kern lost the ball, and it was scooped up by safety Andrew Adams, who had a caravan of three other Bucs accompanying him on the way on his way to the end zone.

But line judge Mark Stewart whistled Kern down by contact, ruling the play dead and sending the Bucs sideline into a frenzy.

“It was obviously a very disappointing loss, the way we lost the game,” Bucs head coach Bruce Arians said. “To have a fumble and pick it up and run it for a touchdown and (have) an inadvertent whistle, it’s always tough. ... The inadvertent whistle was a huge huge play. You pick up a fumble and run it in for a touchdown to win the game, it’s not good.”

Interviewed by a pool reporter after the game, referee Adrian Hill said he did not see the play as it happened but said that once a play is whistled dead, an advance can not be granted by review.

Because it was a fourth-down play, a review wouldn’t have done anything since the Bucs were already be awarded the ball at the same spot.

“The reviewable part of that play is if the runner was down by contact,” Hill said. “If it’s reviewed and we saw that the ball came out early and Tampa Bay recovered, we could give Tampa Bay the ball at the spot of recovery, but we cannot award any advance after.”

“Certainly after the whistle, we definitely saw the ball come out. But the ruling on the field was that the runner was down by contact before the ball came out. That’s why the whistle blew. The whistle was blown because the ruling was that the runner was down by contact.”

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Officiating has come under scrutiny this season. After several missed calls were made by whistling plays dead — then making them unreviewable or more difficult to overturn because of clear and decisive video evidence needed for an overturned call — officials have been told as the season progresses to allow plays to play out.

“I thought in the NFL, nowadays, they just let the play go through and go back and review it,” White said. “I played all the way until the touchdown because I knew the ball came out.”

The Bucs didn’t get the touchdown but drove to the Titans 32 before they were stopped on fourth-and-one. They had one more offensive drive late, but it ended with Jameis Winston’s second interception, the Bucs’ fourth turnover of the day.

Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard

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