I watched the NFL Thursday Night Football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams when I woke up this morning and was quite shocked at the closing moments.
The Vikings were eight points down and had the ball with less than two minutes remaining on the clock. On the second down, Sam Darnold was sacked in his opponents' end zone. As we know, that is a 'safety' and the Rams received two points for that.
However, what was not called was the fact that Rams' linebacker - Byron Young - had caught Darnold's facemask when he made the tackle. Had the referees seen it, the safety would have been voided and the Vikings would have had a new set of downs and the ball would have been placed a few yards further up the field for them to attempt the tie before the end of regulation.
A couple of things stunned me.
First - an official was right there when the facemask tackle was made. I don't know how he could have missed it from where he was standing.
Human error, I suppose.
So, when there's human error, you'd assume the video will show it. Right? That leads to my second gripe.
Per the NFL rules, all scoring plays inside the final two minutes are reviewed. However, this does not include safeties!
How ridiculous is that? A safety is a scoring play. The Rams had two points added to their... SCORE.
It's hard to argue that the missed facemask call cost the Vikings a win. They were losing. But, we've seen comebacks before.
The lack of human or video seeing the potential foul ruined the closing moments.
I'm sure this conclusion will be one of the things reviewed during the off-season when rules are looked at ahead of next season. If not, then it should be.
A safety has to be regarded as a scoring play. The only way it cannot be a 'scoring play' is if a team isn't awarded points for causing one.
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