By james art 
When Monday Night Football kicked off in Week 9, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced a tough task on the road against the world champion Kansas City Chiefs. In the first half, the Bucs handled Kansas City and gave them all they could, going into the locker room down just 10-7 in a tight game.
Tampa Bay’s defense looked active, motivated and as good as it has looked all season, for the most part. They tried this offense on a night when Baker Mayfield was without Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jaylen McMillan.
The third quarter ended up being eventful for this offense as well, as the Bucs would go down on their first drive of the second half and score on a Cade Otton touchdown reception. After the score, Tampa forced the Chiefs to punt and tried to really grab the momentum at this point.
The next drive, however, would end in a less than ideal way. Tampa Bay had the drive while they weren’t — and without fault.
With the Bucs driving and leading 14-10 midway through the third quarter, running back Bucky Irving took a first down, for eight yards, to the Chiefs’ 20-yard line.
After Irving’s run, it would have only put the Bucs on 2nd-and-2. Yet the refs continued to flag a facemask penalty on Tristan Werfs’ left shot. On replay of the video, it was clear and obvious that Wirfs did not receive the face mask, only the shoulder pad of his opponent.
Still, the call was a call and it backed the Bucs up to 1st and 25 at the Chiefs 43-yard line, which completely changed the momentum of this drive.
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The Bucks would gain 14 yards on three plays and were able to set up kicker Chase McGlaughlin for a 47-yard field goal attempt. The kick was good, putting the Bucs up by seven total points.
But as we know against the Chiefs, a 7 point lead is far from comfortable.
It was a tough pill for fans to swallow because the Bucs certainly looked like they were on their way to scoring a second straight touchdown in as many drives. Not to mention, this wouldn’t be the first time this season the Bucs have been called with a facemask.
The most recent example was the one that completely changed the outcome of the game about a month ago against the Atlanta Falcons.
It was a sight Bucs fans definitely didn’t want to see and something the league certainly needs to look into. After a Week 9 filled with plenty of questionable calls, this wasn’t the only bad or missed call of the weekend.