Referees Defend Game-Changing Missed Call in Cardinals Game

The Arizona Cardinals could not overcome the Detroit Lions - or the officials.

Sep 22, 2024; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon looks on against the Detroit Lions during the second half at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

ARIZONA -- The Arizona Cardinals thought they had potentially taken the lead against the Detroit Lions near halftime of their Week 3 matchup.

As the clock was winding down to two minutes to play in the second quarter, Lions quarterback Jared Goff took the snap, was pressured and turned the ball over to Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson. Wilson bolted down the field for what many at State Farm Stadium was a pick-six.

An extra point would have gave the Cardinals a 14-13 advantage over the Lions with little time left in the first half. Set to receive the ball back at halftime, Arizona could have potentially taken firm control of the game.

Except, the interception counted for nothing, as officials blew the play dead - announcing the ball was snapped after the clock hit the 2:00 mark.

It did not.

Oh the Cardinals just got SCREWED!!

Pick 6 off pressure, officials claimed the 2 minute warning hit first.

Ball clearly snapped before it hit 2.00 pic.twitter.com/l3RcPmyac2

— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) September 22, 2024

Since the whistle blew the play dead, it wasn't something Cardinals could challenge.

After the game, referee Brad Rogers was interviewed and offered the following:

Question: "Just a few questions about the play right at the two-minute warning of the first half.
What happened leading into that two-minute warning when the play was called dead?"

Rogers: "Mechanically, we have an official that is watching the clock and what he had as a ruling was the clock was at two minutes and the ball was snapped. So, by rule when the clock is at two minutes, it is then dead. We're not going to let the play get off. We started killing the play by blowing whistles. I know the play started, but when we start blowing the whistle, it shuts it down. Some of the players were still going because they couldn't hear our whistles apparently - so it looks like there's part of the action that's still moving and some of the action is stopping. So, when we start blowing our whistles, it shuts the play down completely."

Question: "Can we expand on the mechanics of that a little bit more? Who's watching the clock in that situation? And I guess the follow up to that is, how does that differ from a play-clock situation when we see the clock going to zero, often times, the ball still gets snapped?"

Rogers: "What we want to do on the game clock is be 100 percent. When it shows two minutes, we stop it. When it shows zero, we stop it. And in respect to what we're doing here mechanically, the side judge is the one that is responsible for the clock. So physically looking at that and communicating a countdown and letting us know whenever it hits two minutes. When he says, 'Two minutes,' we shut it down because we have to also see the ball and he when the clock is at zero or at two."

Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon wasn't looking for excuses after the game.

"They call what they call," said Gannon, who was asked about it later in his post-game press conference.

The Lions would march down the field and later extend their lead to 20-7 with 36 seconds left. Detroit ultimately won 20-13.

Gannon when asked if the play took any emotion out of the team:

"Yeah, but with saying that, our guys are psychologically trained - that's an uncontrollable for us. So what we can control is let's play defense. They hit us on the one well-designed play there. But I thought that when we came in at halftime, no one was down. Everyone's [like], 'OK. Here's what we need to do'. And I thought the defense played extremely well in the second half to give us ourselves a chance to get back in the game."

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