There are, at least, thousands of words in the English language that start with the letter A.
It’s anyone’s best guess which one Sean Payton was referencing Monday, in discussing yet another controversial defensive pass-interference call on Broncos cornerback Riley Moss during Sunday’s game against the Packers.
“He continues to compete. I can’t say the word, but it begins with an ‘A,’ relative to that call,” Payton said on a Monday conference call with reporters. “And it’s just — holy cow.”
Awful? Asinine? A three-letter synonym for donkey? Fill in the blanks.
Tony Romo himself dismissed the call live on CBS’s broadcast Sunday afternoon, as Packers rookie wideout Matthew Golden isolated on the right side against Moss on a third-quarter third down. As Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love reared back and fired, Moss was in perfect position in chasing Golden — but his left hand grabbed Golden’s right arm just enough to encourage officials to toss a flag.
Moss stood on the sidelines with his arms outstretched in the seconds after the yellow laundry came out. It was good for a 25-yard penalty, placing the Packers in Denver territory and leading to a subsequent 40-yard touchdown run from Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs.
“Well, he’s holding his arm right there,” CBS commentator Jim Nantz said on air Sunday, watching the replay of the Moss penalty.
“Yeah,” color analyst Romo added, “but every DB does that. That doesn’t affect the play.”
Moss himself scoffed postgame that the officials “wanted to throw the flag from across the field” and said he had “great coverage” on Golden. Overall, it was Moss’s 12th penalty of the season — tied for the league lead among cornerbacks, according to Pro Football Focus.
Moss had gotten so desperate to fix a habit of grabbing receivers that he’d turned to wearing boxing gloves for a few reps during team periods in practice, a technique that defensive backs usually use in individual drills to avoid getting too handsy in their technique. After a couple of massive calls in the Broncos’ win over the Chiefs in mid-November, Moss hadn’t committed any penalties for two straight weeks before the call against the Packers on Sunday.
“It was time for me to put ‘em on, obviously,” Moss told The Denver Post in the locker room last week. “And so I put ‘em on, the last two weeks. No PIs, for the record. OK, so it worked. Right? So the boxing gloves are tried-and-true.”
Moss surrendered six catches for 68 yards on nine targets in coverage against Green Bay overall, according to Next Gen Stats, while also recording a tip-drill interception. He recorded three passes defensed, bringing his season total to 15 on the season — tied for the fourth-most in the NFL.
“That’s the biggest thing with man-to-man — I feel like I gotta be all over ‘em, and I am,” Moss told The Post last week when asked about balancing aggressiveness with technique. “But to a fault at times, like you said. And it’s being able to turn my head and play the ball, and know that I’m in a good position. And fighting for the ball strong. Not fighting the man, but fighting for the ball.”
Payton lambasts another flag
Broncos receiver Troy Franklin had one of his best games of the season Sunday, catching all six of his targets for 85 yards and a touchdown. Franklin could’ve had another, though, on a second-quarter throw from Bo Nix where the receiver spun out of a tackle and continued sprinting into the end zone.
Franklin was arm-tackled to the turf, and officials blew the play dead. The replay showed, though, that Franklin’s knees never touched the grass, and he kept himself upright with his hand.
“Those are the calls that are hard to… I’m just going to say I disagree with the call,” Payton said Monday. “How’s that?”
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