Vikings' loss to Rams should push NFL to make new rule after controversial no-call on Sam Darnold's facemask
Thursday night's matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams was a good game, overall, but it had the potential to be a thriller once Sam Darnold and co. got the ball back at their own 5-yard line with a little under two minutes to go.The Vikings were down by eight points and had […]
Thursday night's matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams was a good game, overall, but it had the potential to be a thriller once Sam Darnold and co. got the ball back at their own 5-yard line with a little under two minutes to go.
The Vikings were down by eight points and had no timeouts, but a game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion were certainly possible. Especially when including the fact that Justin Jefferson is on the roster.
Minnesota never really got a chance to make magic happen, however, and was instead handed one of its toughest losses in recent memory thanks to a missed facemask penalty on Darnold in the end zone. Instead of a fresh set of downs around the Vikings' own 20, the Rams were awarded the sack/safety on Darnold, which immediately ended the game and handed Minnesota its second straight loss.
Refs miss calls all the time, so that's nothing out of the ordinary, but this was a really bad no-call. The facemask was clear as day, as you can see below:
This is one of the "untouchable" plays when it comes to challenging a call, so there was absolutely nothing the Vikings -nor the Eye in the Sky- could do. They simply had to take the lump and move on.
"Well, on that play, the quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me so I did not have a good look at it," head referee Tra Blake said after the game. "I did not have a look, and I did not see the facemask being pulled, obviously. The umpire had players between him and the quarterback, so he did not get a good look at it. He was blocked out as well. So that was the thing, we did not see it so we couldn't call it. We couldn't see it."
It really is a shame to see a call like this impact the game as much as it did. Sure, the Vikings did other things to lose, but this certainly played a huge role. It wiped out any chance at a comeback, which is bad enough in its own right.
The NFL must find a way to keep this from happening in the future and the solution is really simple: make all plays/penalties/no-calls reviewable in the final two minutes of the game. The "eye in the sky" is already there and it can buzz refs and overturn calls within seconds. It makes too much sense to allow that process to happen, whenever needed, in the game's waning moments.
In a perfect world every single call throughout the game should have the ability to be reviewed, At the same time, though, that would potentially and probably slow the game down to the point where it's simply an obstacle and not a benefit. But, making them all reviewable in the final two minutes would cut down on that idea, dramatically, and it would ensure teams get the best shot they can get at accomplishing whatever's needed in those final moments.
Every snap in an NFL game matters, but the importance of said snaps increase exponentially in the final moments of the game – especially under two minutes.
The booth can already buzz refs and overturn penalites, when said penalties fit the criteria of this process. One doesn't need to go far back for an example, either. In Week 1, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reeled off a 32-yard screen pass to Rachaad White in the third quarter against the Washington Commanders, only to have it negated by an ineligible receiver penalty on rookie center Graham Barton.
Within seconds, the folks upstairs buzzed the refs and informed them that Barton was actually not in the wrong on the play and the refs picked up the flag and gave the Bucs the subsequent 1st and 10. Enacting this process in the last two minutes simply makes too much sense and it requires very little effort on both sides.
Making this rule change would not only prevent awful endings like the one we saw on Thursday night, but it could also serve as a pathway to making all calls reviewable, one day. In a manageable practice, of course.
But, the one thing it will never do is give the Vikings their chance at a comeback. It can certainly help other teams avoid that particular frustration in the future, though.
