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John Elway: NFL admitted it was 'dead wrong' on pivotal Bradley Chubb roughing call

The Denver Broncos lost a heartbreaker at home last week when the Chicago Bears concluded a frantic comeback with a 53-yard game-winning field goal from Eddy Piñeiro.

The Bears marched into field goal range after receiving a Broncos kickoff trailing 14-13 with 31 seconds remaining.

Controversy at Mile High

The final drive was aided by a controversial 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty on Broncos pass rusher Bradley Chubb for a hit on Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

Without the penalty, it’s unlikely the Bears would have gained the yardage to put Piñeiro in field goal range. The flag drew widespread criticism for what looked like a routine, legal hit.

Elway: NFL admitted to getting call wrong

Broncos general manager John Elway addressed the play on Thursday while speaking at a Denver business conference.

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While the discussion didn’t focus on Sunday’s game, he was more than happy to share some information he says the NFL relayed to him about the controversial call.

According to Elway, NFL officials admitted to him the officials on the field were “dead wrong” about the Chubb penalty.

“So, that didn’t help,” Elway said, according to the Denver Post.

John Elway lamented a critical penalty against his Broncos that he said the league admitted to getting wrong. (Reuters)
John Elway lamented a critical penalty against his Broncos that he said the league admitted to getting wrong. (Reuters)

Tough start for Broncos

Elway alluded to the call earlier in the discussion while talking about the overall performance of the Broncos through the first two games of the season.

“We have to be able to overcome bad plays, bad refereeing and mistakes on our part,” Elway said. “Great teams are able to overcome these things.”

Sunday’s loss was a missed opportunity to break into the win column for the Broncos. Instead, they’ll head into Sunday’s road game against the Green Bay Packers with a 0-2 record.

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