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USA Today

The New York Giants almost pulled off a shocking win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday, but their upset bid fell one play short and it's a play that most Giants fans probably won't be forgetting anytime soon due to its controversial nature. 

After the Giants scored a touchdown with just 28 seconds left to play, they needed a two-pointer to tie things up at 25, but that didn't happen because Tampa Bay's Antoine Winfield broke up a Daniel Jones pass that was intended for Giants running back Dion Lewis. The twist here is that Winfield was actually flagged for pass interference. However, the penalty was never enforced because the officiating crew made the controversial decision to pick up the flag. 

So why did they call off the penalty?

According to referee Brad Rogers, the two officials closest to the play agreed that there was simultaneous contact between Winfield and Lewis, which doesn't constitute pass interference. 

"The side judge [Eugene Hall] had the flag thrown on the play and came to the down judge [Jerod Phillips] who was on that side of the goal line," Rogers said in the pool report, via quotes provided by the team. "The communication between the side judge and the down judge was that the defender contacted the receiver simultaneously as the ball came in. And in order to have defensive pass interference, it has to be clearly early and hinder the receiver's ability to make the catch."

You can check out the play below and decide for yourself whether interference should have been called. 

"You want to make sure that it meets the qualifications for pass interference," Rogers said. "And in our communication on the field, the down judge and the side judge communicated about the action and believed that it was appropriate to pick that flag up."

Even if interference had been called, there's no guarantee the Giants would have won. For one, they would have still had to convert a two-point conversion from the one-yard line after the penalty was enforced. If they did that, then they would have had to stop Tom Brady, who would have had three timeouts and 28 seconds to get Tampa Bay in field goal range, and if they did that, they would have had to win in overtime. 

After the flag was picked up, the Giants still had one more chance at the win. With 28 seconds left, they attempted an onside kick, but the Buccaneers recovered, which allowed Tampa Bay to escape MetLife Stadium with a 25-23 win. 

To check out our takeaways from Tampa's wild win, be sure to click here. If you want to know how Giants coach Joe Judge and Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians each reacted to the no-call, then you're definitely going to want to click here.