ESPN rules analyst Russell Yurk criticizes officials for missing critical penalty on Emeka Egubka TD
The officials appeared to miss a pivotal call during Monday Night Football’s Week 2 game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans. The play resulted in a touchdown.
Bucs offensive tackle Charlie Heck appeared to trip a Texans defender on a touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka from Baker Mayfield in the second quarter. However, it wasn’t called. Rules analyst Russell Yurk provided an explanation during the ESPN broadcast.
“You look, No. 77 extends his leg and trips the defender up,” Yurk said. “That should have been a foul for tripping, it would have been 15 yards from the spot of that trip.”
Refs miss a tripping penalty on the Bucs pic.twitter.com/x8OC8M7NkF
— Tedd Buddwell 🏀🏈 (@TedBuddy8) September 15, 2025
While the trip wasn’t called, the 15-yard touchdown reception did. This continues a fast start for Egbuka during his rookie season out of Ohio State. During the Bucs’ 23-20 Week 1 victory over the Atlanta Falcons, he caught four of his six targets for 67 yards and two touchdowns.
It’s not a complete surprise to Egbuka already playing a large role for the Buccaneers. He was reportedly impressive during the team’s training camp and has been excited to contribute to the team.
After all, Tampa has high hopes for the former Buckeyes wideout after selecting him 19th overall during the 2025 NFL Draft this offseason. He certainly proved his worth during college.
At Ohio State, Egbuka tallied a career-high 81 receptions in his senior season for 1,011 yards and 10 touchdowns. With the standout campaign, he joined Marvin Harrison Jr. as only the second player in program history to record back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons.
For his efforts, he was named an All-Big Ten Third-Team selection. He was also a team captain on the Buckeyes, guiding them to their first national championship since 2014. Egbuka notched six catches for 64 yards in the win, which was ultimately his final game at the collegiate level — not a bad way to go out.
Egbuka’s all-conference selection in the 2024 campaign was far from the only accolade he collected during his illustrious collegiate career. He is a two-time All-Big Ten Third-Team selection, one-time All-Big Ten Second-Team member and three-time Academic all-conference honoree. Moreover, His 205 career receptions are the most in school history. So not only is he a national champion, but he’ll be in the Buckeyes record books for the foreseeable future.
Fans can tune into the Buccaneers’ Monday night matchup against the Texans live on ESPN. Tampa is looking to improve to 2-0 on the young season with a victory.
Red Sox Announce Surprise Move on Rookie Payton Tolle
After electrifying fans at Fenway Park in his MLB debut on August 29 against the Pirates (5.1 innings, eight strikeouts, two runs), top Red Sox pitching prospect Payton Tolle has looked much more the part of a rookie in his last two appearances, getting knocked around by the Diamondbacks in a road start (five runs in 3.0 innings) and giving up two runs in 2.0 innings in a piggy-back start last week against the A’s.
Tolle’s MLB record now stands at 0-1 with a 7.84 ERA, and because of that, the team has decided to pump the brakes on how much it is asking from its promising fire-baller.
The team has announced its upcoming pitching rotation, and while fellow top prospect Connelly Early will get another start–this time at home–on Tuesday, the Red Sox will bump up Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello in the rotation.
As the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reported, “Red Sox announce their rotation against the A’s: Early, Giolito, Bello. They’re skipping Tolle and having Giolito and Bello pitch on four days’ rest.”
Payton Tolle Pitched Career-High Innings
Of course, four days rest is normal for Giolito and Bello, so the Red Sox are essentially using this opportunity to keep those two in their normal rhythm, as well as to give Tolle a break. The team has been very wary about how it uses Tolle and during his time in the minors this season, regularly pitched him on a six-day schedule.
Tolle was the team’s second-round pick in 2024, and has not pitched more than 85.2 innings in a season in his career, which he did at Wichita State in 2023. He spent 2024 at Texas Christian and did not pitch in the Red Sox’s system after his college season was over.
So the 101.2 innings he has thrown in 2025, which began at High A and has brought him all the way to Boston, is a career-high. The Red Sox are eager to preserve his arm.
Red Sox Holding Onto Wild-Card Spot
While the downside is that fans won’t get to see Tolle this week in Boston, the upside is that Early will make his Fenway debut after making his own electric debut last week against the A’s in Sacramento. That was a late, West-Coast game, meaning many in New England were not able to see Early tie a franchise record with 11 strikeouts in his first game.
The Red Sox are 82-68, with 12 games to play. They got a much-needed win over the Yankees on Sunday, but find their playoff position weakened considerably after a poorly timed 3-6 stretch.
Boston is 5.5 games behind the Blue Jays in the AL East, and in the No. 2 wild-card spot behind the Yankees, by 1.5 games. They’re just 1.0 games ahead of the Astros for the final wild-card spot.
The hard-charging Rangers are just 2.0 games out of the final wild-card spot, with 15 wins in their last 20 games.
