In the Denver Broncos 38-6 demolition of the Atlanta Falcons, there were 10 accepted penalties and two reviews. These numbers show average official involvement, but the result from the field was more impressive. Here were some notable calls from the officials.

Personal Foul on Garett Bolles

Garett Bolles had a rare personal foul called on him for unnecessary roughness. In this case, I am fairly confident that the judgment of umpire Tab Slaughter was that Bolles threw his body into a player on the ground. This was a pretty borderline call if so, however, it both fit the letter of the rule and was a deescalating call. I was a bit surprised to see it in this matchup, but there were several parts of the game where tensions between the two teams got abnormally high. Calling something like this foul to the absolute letter of the rule is a good way to help both teams calm down.

Intentional Grounding

There were questions last week about a very questionable Patrick Mahomes call that easily could have been called intentional grounding. I wanted to explain intentional grounding a bit more this week because Bo Nix had a pass that very easily could have been called intentional grounding but was not. The standard for intentional grounding penalty is that the passer threw a ball, under imminent threat from the defense, with no realistic chance of completion. Intentional grounding is ignored when a quarterback outside the pocket throws a pass that reaches the line of scrimmage. This standard sucks to officiate, because there is enormous ambiguity in a realistic chance of completion. This term is defined “a pass thrown in the direction of and lands in the vicinity of an originally eligible receiver”, but the definition still does not provide us much help. Players in the NFL are so fast, and routes cross the field in such a way, that it is really impossible for officials to know what is realistic. Plus option route mistakes are relatively common, and we do not want to call the receiver making the wrong break a penalty. So officials call intentional grounding very generously. This is the type of standard that can change rapidly, because its not really a rule but rather a choice by the NFL officiating department on how the rule will be interpreted.

Replay Review

Early in the third quarter, there were two different replay reviews. The first was of a Lil’Jordan Humphrey incomplete pass that was reversed into a catch and fumble. Mike Periera expressed his astonishment that the call was overturned, believing it did not meet the elements of a catch. While I was thrilled for Denver that the call was overturned, I agreed with Periera. A catch requires two feet and something else, and I was comfortable with the notion that Humphrey had one foot and something else, or possibly two feet and nothing else, but he seemed significantly short of making a catch to me.

On the next drive, Denver challenged a spot that would have set up third and one on an Estime catch, and had the call overturned to a first down. This is an interesting situation. First, the replay was unambiguous, Estime had the first down. However, its not clear that he should have been awarded the first down. The spot that had him short was very consistent with the spotting of the ball during the game (the officials were consistently very strict and a bit stingy perhaps). That challenge made the ruling less consistent with how other similar plays were being spotted, so there is a strong argument that he should not have been awarded the first down.

These two reviews highlight one thing I continue to believe, which is that teams should be less afraid of challenging in impactful situations. Even if you think you are not going to succeed, a timeout is a relatively small price to pay and you can get surprising results that significantly break the normal expectation of the game.

Official Evaluation

This was a well-officiated game of football. There was one bad a call and a few questionable calls, but mostly it was very by the book. Line judge Derek Anderson and down judge Derick Bowers were very strict on spotting the ball, frequently making their own jobs harder than necessary to avoid the possibility of ever giving an extra foot of distance to either team. This was not my favorite kind of spotting, but it was profoundly consistent throughout the game. They were also very patient on offensive formations.

Probably the most indicative part of the game was a non-call. Referee Alan Eck described it this way “The man in motion went beyond the center, therefore there is no foul for crackback block.” This was a very confusing explanation. What happened on the play is Denver had a man in motion from left to right (Nate Adkins) who blocked downfield. At the snap, TE Adam Trautman also went from where he had bee on the left side and blocked the defensive end to the right of the formation (barely past the center). As he had gone past the center, his block was not towards the center, and therefore was legal. After seeing the replay many times, I could squint and understand what Eck meant, but live it was rather confusing. The good news is that while there was a long delay (surely replay was checking that Trautman had gone past the center), the result was a correct call. I called this non-call indicative, because like most of the work from Alan Eck and crew, it was not perfection, but it was a good day. They spotted a lot of tricky but correct penalties, and had the good judgment to leave some unnecessary things alone.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments or to send me an email. While I rarely make unsolicited comments on non-Broncos games, if you have any rules questions from other games I am happy to either reply in the comments or if the matter is of enough concern in next weeks column.

When the Atlanta Hawks have lost basketball games this year, you can usualy point to a single quarter as the reason why. They were outscored 38-17 in the third quarter in the loss to the Blazers on Sunday, they scored only 15 points in the 4th quarter in a loss to Chicago and tonight vs the No. 1 team in the Western Conference, Atlanta was outscored 41-22 in the first quarter. Golden State only outscored Atlanta 79-75 the rest of the way, but the damage was done already. Atlanta’s offense was non-existent the whole night and Golden State cruised to a 120-97 victory over the Hawks.

For most of the game, the Hawks defense was surprisingly not the problem. Golden State was red hot from three in the first quarter, but ended the game shooting 47% from the field and 35% from three. There have been plenty of games where the Hawks let their opponents have a big night shooting, but this was not one of those nights.

Atlanta’s offense could not find its rhythm all night long. The Hawks shot 33% from the field and 26% from three and it is hard to point to any good performances from anyone tonight.

Trae Young still is having trouble shooting the ball, going 4-12 from the field and 1-6 from three. He and Jalen Johnson both had double-doubles and were not the biggest problems. One of Atlanta’s biggest concerns this year was shooting and spacing and they were going to need both Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter to help with that. Bogdanovic had a really tough night, shooting 2-14 from the field and 1-7 from three. Hunter, who has been really good this season, shot 3-12 and 0-6 from three. Atlanta had been 4-0 with Hunter available and he had scored 22 points in three of his four games this year, but tonight was tough. Atlanta could not find offense from anywhere, whether it was the starters or the bench and it cost them tonight vs one of the NBA’s elite teams. The Hawks had 21 offensive rebounds tonight compared to Golden State’s seven and they still could not make it count.

Golden State was elite on defense tonight and did just enough on offense after an explosive first quarter. They shot 47% from the floor and 35% from three in the game and Andrew Wiggins led the way with 27 points. Steph Curry had 23 points on 4-6 shooting from three.

Up next for the Hawks is a big game in Chicago in the NBA Cup. The Hawks are the last undefeated team in East Group C and they would reach 3-0 with a win. This loss drops them to 7-9 and the game vs the Bulls is the final one in their current road trip.

Let’s recap tonight’s game.

The Hawks continued with their same starting lineup. Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson, and Clint Capela.

Golden State’s starters were Steph Curry, Lindy Waters III, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The first five minutes of the game were perfectly fine for the Hawks. They trailed 16-15, but they were 3-6 from three and keeping up with the Warriors.

The rest of the first half was ugly.

Golden State would proceed to go on a 13-2 run to take a 29-17 lead and that was just forshadowing what was to come for the Hawks. They could not buy a basket and Golden State was hitting open threes. The Warriors are arguably the deepest team in the NBA and their bench was far superior to Atlanta’s in the first half. Golden State stretched their lead to 41-22 after the first quarter and the Hawks were already in deep trouble after just one quarter of play.

The defense was bad in the first quarter, but the offense was the main issue. The Hawks shot 35% from the field and 29% from three. Golden State on the other hand was 60% from the field and 46% from three. The bench for the Warriors outscored the Hawks bench 19-3. It was a really rough first quarter for Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu, De’Andre Hunter, and Kobe Bufkin.

The Hawks defense in the second quarter was much better and there were times where it looked like Atlanta might close the lead up. They cut it to 16 with 5:59 left in the half, but Golden State proceeded to close the half on a 12-3 run. The defense held Golden State to 2-13 shooting from three in the second quarter, but the offense was dreadful. Atlanta shot 28% from the field and 22% from three in the second quarter and despite having some stretches to tighten the lead, Golden State led 67-42 at the half.

Atlanta shot 30% from the field in the first half and 26% from three. The lone bright spot was Jalen Johnson, who had 10 points and six rebounds.

Golden State shot 48% from the field, but just 31% from three. The Warriors bench outscored the Hawks 28-10 in the first half. Bogdan Bogdanovic particlualry had a poor shooting half, starting 1-7 from the field.

The shooting woes for Trae Young also continued. Young has struggled shooting the ball so far this year and he was 1-6 in the first half, scoring only three points.

The third quarter was the best one of the night for the Hawks. They outscored the Warriors 33-23 and looked like they might make a game out of it. With 2:38 to go in the quarter, the Hawks had cut the lead to 12 and had the momentum. The problem was that any time the Hawks appeared to have momentum, the Warriors halted it. Golden State led 90-75 going to the fourth. Atlanta held Golden State to 29% from three in the third quarter and Young led the offense (which was still struggling) with seven points and five assists.

Atlanta never made a serious run in the fourth quarter. The defense kept them in it for a period of time, but the offense was dreadful still. Atlanta lost the game by 23 points and now heads to Chicago 7-9.

On Wednesday evening, the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks will face off at the Chase Center in California.

For the game, both teams have announced their injury reports (updated as of 5:30 Eastern Time).

The Hawks have ruled out Dominick Barlow, Mouhamed Gueye, Seth Lundy and Cody Zeller.

Jalen Johnson is questionable.

Meanwhile, the Warriors will be without De’Anthony Melton.

Kyle Anderson and Gary Payton II are questonable.

Two-time MVP Steph Curry and Kevon Looney are probable.

The Hawks are the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 7-8 record in their first 15 games.

They are coming off a thrilling 109-108 victory over the Sacramento Kings (on the road).

De’Andre Hunter led the team with 24 points in 25 minutes off the bench.

All-Star point guard Trae Young also dished out 19 assists.

Following their matchup against Golden State, the Hawks will conclude their road trip with a game against Zach LaVine and the Chicago Bulls on Friday evening.

As for the Warriors, they have had a fantastic start to the 2024-25 NBA season.

They are 10-3 in their first 13 games, which has them as the first seed in the Western Conference.

That said, the Warriors are fresh off a 102-99 loss to James Harden and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins combined to score 48 points in the loss.

After they play the Hawks, they will play their next game on Friday when they travel to New Orleans for a showdown with the Pelicans.