In a wild Thursday Night Football finish at NRG Stadium, the Houston Texans escaped with a 23-19 victory over the Buffalo Bills — but the real story after the game wasn’t the scoreboard. It was Texans icon and current CBS analyst J.J. Watt absolutely unloading live on air about what he called “rigged calls” from replacement referee Roy Ellison and his crew, calls that Bills fans (and apparently Watt himself) believe directly cost Buffalo the game.
The chaos started in the third quarter when head referee Adrian Hill suddenly grabbed his left leg with no contact and collapsed on a Texans punt return. Medical staff helped him off the field; he eventually left in a wheelchair with a suspected torn Achilles. Per NFL protocol, when the referee is injured, the umpire — in this case veteran Roy Ellison — puts on the white hat and takes over as head referee for the remainder of the game. That left the crew short-handed at the umpire position for the final 20+ minutes of a one-possession game.
Ellison, who has been an NFL official since 2003 and umpire since 2010, is no stranger to controversy — he was suspended one game without pay in 2018 after a heated post-game argument with Bills player Jerry Hughes. Many Bills fans immediately flashed back to that incident when they saw Ellison don the white hat.
What followed, according to Bills Mafia, J.J. Watt, and thousands of posts on X, was one of the most lopsided and consequential officiating stretches of the 2025 season. Here are the
five most heavily criticized calls under Ellison’s crew that fans and analysts say swung the game:
- Play-clock malfunction on 4th-and-27 (4th quarter) After a sack on Josh Allen, the play clock froze and then displayed incorrect time when it resumed, forcing the Bills into a frantic trick-play lateral that failed. No timeout was charged, and the down was not reset. Watt on CBS: “That clock just killed them. That’s not football — redo the down!”
- Offensive PI on Buffalo instead of obvious Defensive PI on Houston (4th quarter) On a crucial third-down deep shot, the flag flew for offensive pass interference on a Bills receiver while the Texans defender had his arms all over him. Replays showed clear defensive holding/PI. If called the other way, Buffalo gets an automatic first down. Watt exploded: “That’s DPI all day! How do you throw that flag?!”
- False start on Dion Dawkins turning 4th-and-1 into 4th-and-6 (4th quarter) In the red zone, with the Bills going for it on 4th-and-1, a twitch from LT Dion Dawkins was flagged for false start in an extremely loud NRG Stadium — pushing Buffalo back five yards and essentially ending the drive. Fans screamed “home cooking.”
- Missed intentional grounding on Davis Mills (Texans’ final possession) With the Texans trying to run out the clock, Mills threw the ball into the ground well away from any receiver to avoid a sack — textbook intentional grounding — but no flag. The drive continued, and Houston kneeled it out. Bills fans pointed out Allen had been flagged for far less earlier in the season.
- One-sided holding & illegal man downfield calls Multiple Texans screen plays featured offensive linemen 5–7 yards downfield with no flags, while Buffalo was flagged repeatedly for the same infraction. The penalty yardage disparity ballooned in the second half, repeatedly stalling Bills drives.
As the clock hit zero, cameras caught J.J. Watt still fuming in the booth: “I bleed Texans red, but this isn’t right. The league has to be better than this. Those calls were rigged, plain and simple.”
#RiggedForHouston and #FireRoyEllison trended worldwide within minutes, with Bills Mafia flooding the NFL’s complaint portal and demanding an investigation. Whether the league responds remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: this Thursday night controversy will be talked about for a very long time.
