Inadvertent whistle takes Buccaneers touchdown off the board The New Orleans Saints caught a significant break against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers late in the second quarter Sunday. Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler completed a short pass to wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, who had the ball punched out by Buccaneers cornerback Jamel Dean when the wide receiver turned upfield. Antoine Winfield Jr. scooped the ball up and raced nearly 50 yards for what looked like a touchdown that would have given Tampa Bay a two-score lead. Instead, an inadvertent whistle took the touchdown off the board for the Buccaneers. The officials announced that because a whistle was blown, the play was ruled dead where the ball was recovered. The Buccaneers' offense took over at the spot, which was the Saints' 47-yard line. The broadcast replayed the play, with color analyst Jonathan Vilma saying, "I didn't hear a whistle, I don't know if you did, Kenny. Did you?" "I did not on that replay, no," play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert responded. Players on the field also appeared to continue playing as if there were no whistle blown. The mistake proved to be a consequential one in the game, as the Buccaneers' offense fumbled the ball three plays later. The Saints recovered the fumble and set themselves up for a field goal just before the half, making the halftime score 7-3. Tampa Bay came out of halftime and went on a 10-play drive that ended in a 1-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal to go up 14-3. After a Saints three-and-out, the Buccaneers extended the lead further with a 55-yard Chase McLaughlin field goal. That three-and-out spelled the end of the day for Rattler, who completed 15 of 21 passes for 136 yards and an interception. He was replaced by rookie Tyler Shough at the start of New Orleans' next drive. Shough, a second-round pick this year, had played in just one of the Saints' first seven games, throwing two passes (both incomplete) in a Week 3 blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He completed his first pass Sunday, a 6-yard throw to Taysom Hill, but his initial drive ended when he was picked off by Winfield. Winfield again thought he had a touchdown on that play when he snatched away a pass out of the hands of Chris Olave and popped up and returned it for a score. But officials ruled him down by contact for colliding with Olave as he was making the interception. Saad Yousuf, The Athletic, published 27 October 2025