{"id":38240,"date":"2025-12-19T12:49:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=38240"},"modified":"2025-12-19T12:49:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T12:49:30","slug":"rams-puka-nacua-doubles-down-on-referee-criticism-after-one-of-wrs-best-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=38240","title":{"rendered":"Rams&#8217; Puka Nacua doubles down on referee criticism after one of WR&#8217;s best games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<p>After the Los Angeles Rams&#8217; 38-37 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Rams star wide receiver Puka Nacua re-ignited one of several controversies he caused this week, posting &#8212; and then quickly thereafter deleting &#8212; criticism of the officiating on X.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Can you say i was wrong,&#8221; Nacua posted. &#8220;Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Nacua <span class=\"link\">criticized referees<\/span> while on a live stream with popular streamers Adin Ross and N3on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The refs are the worst, [because] just some of the rules aren&#8217;t &#8230; These guys are lawyers; they want to be on TV too, bruh,&#8221; Nacua said. &#8220;You don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s texting his friends in the group chat like, &#8216;Yo! You guys just saw me &#8216;Sunday Night Football.&#8217; Like, &#8216;That wasn&#8217;t [pass interference] but I called it.&#8217; These guys are normal human beings too, bruh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nacua was likely frustrated with a pair of calls that played significant roles in the outcome. Early in the game, the Rams were called for an ineligible man downfield at the 1-yard line, a call that nullified a touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Terrance Ferguson. Terry McAulay, a former referee who now works as an analyst, said on the broadcast it was an incorrect call. The Rams settled for a field goal.<\/p>\n<p>In the fourth quarter, the Seahawks scored a touchdown to get to within 30-28. On the two-point conversion attempt, Jared Verse batted down a Sam Darnold for what appeared to be an incompletion. After review, however, the officials <span class=\"link\">ruled that the pass went backward<\/span>, and because Zach Charbonnet picked up what was a live ball in the end zone, it counted as a successful two-point try.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When a backward pass is ruled forward and incomplete, Replay can reverse if there is a clear recovery in the immediate continuing action,&#8221; McAuley posted on X. &#8220;The recovering team is awarded the ball at the spot of recovery.   Let me make this perfectly clear: whether a whistle is blown or not is completely irrelevant.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nacua clearly disagreed with the referee&#8217;s decision, either there or elsewhere, and he made his feelings known shortly after the game ended. Rams coach Sean McVay declined to comment on Nacua&#8217;s post, saying he hadn&#8217;t seen it and didn&#8217;t have enough information.<\/p>\n<p>Nacua\u00a0produced one of the best wide receiver stat lines ever Thursday, catching 12 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns, including a 41-yard score that put the Rams up in overtime.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Rams&#8217; defense couldn&#8217;t hold on; the Seahawks drew to within one on a Darnold touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and won on a walk-off two-point conversion from Darnold to Eric Saubert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the Los Angeles Rams&#8217; 38-37 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Rams star wide receiver Puka Nacua re-ignited one of several controversies he caused this week, posting &#8212; and then quickly thereafter deleting &#8212; criticism of the officiating on X. &#8220;Can you say i was wrong,&#8221; Nacua posted. &#8220;Appreciate you stripes for your contribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[6948,4214,378,17222,17221,5770,9193,8990],"class_list":{"0":"post-38240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-criticism","9":"tag-doubles","10":"tag-games","11":"tag-nacua","12":"tag-puka","13":"tag-rams","14":"tag-referee","15":"tag-wrs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}