AFC Championship Referee Ron Torbert Addresses Botched Third Down In Second Half

The officiating was a mess in Kansas City.

CINCINNATI — "NFL Rigged" became a massive trending topic on Twitter Sunday night for a few unseemly reasons. 

Head official Ron Torbert completely lost control of the The AFC Championship Game in the second half.

There was a crazy re-do for the Chiefs on a third down, no-calls on late Joe Burrow hits, and multiple missed holds on the final offensive play of the game. It was a mess and left a dark cloud over Arrowhead Stadium.

ESPN's Ben Baby threw some questions at Torbert to explain some of the head-scratching moments.

Question: First off can you just explain what the ruling was that led to the replayed third down?

"On the previous play, there was an incomplete pass, We spotted the ball, but the line judge came in and re-spotted the ball because the spot was off. We reset the play clock and the game clock started running. It should not have started running because there was an incomplete pass on the previous play. The field judge noticed that the game clock was running. He was coming in to shut the play down so that we could get the clock fixed but nobody heard him, and the play was run. After the play was over, he came in and we discussed that he was trying to shut the play down before the ball had been snapped. So, we reset the game clock back to where it was before that snap and replayed third down."

Question: What are the normal protocols when a play can't get stopped in time and the play does get off, especially if it appeared that it did not affect the play?

"If we were trying to shut down the play and we couldn't, we would shut it down and go back and replay the down."

Walk us through the intentional grounding play in the fourth quarter and what led to the intentional grounding being called in that situation?

"The quarterback was under duress, in danger of being sacked, and threw the ball into the ground. There was no eligible receiver in the area, and he had not gotten out of the pocket and thrown it beyond the line of scrimmage. So, that was a foul for intentional grounding."

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