SI

The Eagles Benefited From One of the Worst Calls of the NFL Season

In Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: a boneheaded blown call, another monster game for D.K. Metcalf and more.

Dan Gartland

How do you not throw a flag there?

The only thing that fans of all sports can agree on is that the refs stink. It doesn’t matter that they go through rigorous training and spend years proving their worth at the lower levels of the game before moving up to the big leagues. They stink!

Nobody pays attention when officials get calls right, only when they get them wrong. And on Monday night, the crew working the Eagles-Seahawks game got one very, very wrong. 

Late in the first half, Eagles center Jason Kelce sent a snap whizzing past Carson Wentz’s head. By the time Wentz regained control of the ball, he was 24 yards behind the line of scrimmage with Carlos Dunlap breathing down his neck. Dunlap managed to clip Wentz’s ankles as he desperately tried to throw the ball away, now 29 yards behind the line. The ball went out of bounds three yards short of the line of scrimmage. 

That’s as clear-cut as intentional grounding gets. Since there was no receiver in the area, the ball has to get back to the line of scrimmage to avoid an intentional grounding call. There’s even an official standing two yards from where the guy on the Seattle sideline caught the ball. And yet, no flag!

There are plenty of bad calls in the NFL every week, but this one has to rank among the worst, simply because it was so obvious. Things like pass interference, roughing the passer and holding are judgment calls. Intentional grounding can be a judgement call, too, if it’s debatable whether the quarterback was outside the tackle box or whether a receiver was close enough to be considered “in the area.” There’s no room for interpretation here. The throw was significantly shy of the line of scrimmage, and right under the nose of an official. It should have been an easy call. 

The call was so bad that even the usually reserved Peter King said it could be considered a fireable offense. 

The NFL has a helpful guide explaining what each of the seven on-field officials are responsible for, and it makes it a little easier to explain why this particular call would have been missed. Intentional grounding calls are the responsibility of the referee, in this case Brad Allen. Allen, a longtime college ref who’s been an NFL crew chief since 2014, is supposed to “shadow” the quarterback as he drops back. Because of the bad snap, by the time Wentz gets rid of the ball, Allen is nearly 40 yards behind the line of scrimmage. It must have been impossible to see from all the way back there whether the ball crossed the line of scrimmage. 

The official in place where the ball ended up is the down judge, Danny Short. His responsibility on pass plays is to look for pass interference, so he wasn’t watching Wentz scramble around the backfield. But there’s nothing stopping Short from throwing a flag and conferring with Allen to see whether the crew chief had any problem with an intentional grounding call. There’s also nothing stopping Allen from asking Short whether the ball got back to the line of scrimmage. 

The blown call ended up being a big break for the Eagles. If there had been a flag there for intentional grounding, it would have put Philadelphia in a second-and-39 situation that would have totally killed the drive. Instead, the Eagles were able to march down the field and score their first touchdown of the game. They still lost, though, 23–17, and now sit in third place in the NFC East. 

The best of SI

An inside look at life on the NFL’s chain gangs. ... The Big Ten football season is in full crisis mode as it enters the final stretch. ... Five teams that should trade for Cubs star Kris Bryant. 

Around the sports world

Adam Gase had a new explanation on Monday for the Jets’ play-calling structure. ... ESPN is going to air its NFL wild-card round playoff game on five networks, including a broadcast on Freeform supposedly geared toward younger viewers and women. ... Colts punter Rigoberto Sanchez will have surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. ... Five minor league teams that were stripped of their MLB affiliation will be part of the new MLB Draft League, a wood-bat showcase for draft-eligible prospects. ... The 49ers are playing two upcoming “home” games in Arizona due to new local restrictions on contact sports. 

That’s some relentless running

It’s just not fair for him to be that big and that fast

And have hands like this

There’s a lot to keep track of

Steelers players found out on Twitter that their game was postponed again

Marshawn Lynch used to do a shot of Hennessy before every game—from a bottle he brought in his backpack

I’m happy for this guy, but angry at the Broncos’ quarterbacks for putting him in that situation

Not sports

A big metal monolith similar to the one discovered in Utah showed up in Romania. ... Two rare birds were stolen from a California zoo under the cover of darkness. ... A man in Taiwan was forced to sell his PS5 after his wife discovered that it was not an air purifier as he had promised. ... Universal Studios Japan is opening a Super Nintendo Land with a Mario Kart rollercoaster. ... Felicity Huffman’s first acting gig since getting out of prison will be in an ABC comedy about a female baseball owner. 

David Chang won $1 million for charity as the first celeb in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? history to take home the big prize

Isn’t this from a Bond movie?

A good song

Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

Published
Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

Home/Extra Mustard