Phantom Offside Call Changes Game, Season for Packers in Loss to Vikings
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MINNEAPOLIS – One play, especially in the first half, doesn’t decide a game.
But for the Green Bay Packers, who are stinging from another big-game loss to a division rival – and what it could mean in the grand scheme of things – they can only wonder what might have been had Edgerrin Cooper not been flagged for being offside at the end of the first half against the Minnesota Vikings.
With 4 seconds left in the half, Vikings kicker Will Reichard missed a 55-field goal. Even though the Packers were completely outplayed, they trailed just 10-3.
But wait. There was a flag. Cooper was flagged for defensive offside.
“I didn’t think I was,” Cooper said.
The replay seems to support Cooper’s contention.
Edgerrin Cooper is the second defender on the top. pic.twitter.com/MCZKm7DUU2
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) December 30, 2024
Cooper was the second player from the right in Green Bay’s alignment. Just before the snap, he crept forward a couple inches.
“I’ve just got to get back,” he said.
Really, the biggest alignment issue appears to be the Vikings’ right guard, David Quessenberry.
With Reichard’s kick in the air, the flag was thrown.
And it wasn’t on the Vikings.
“I’m not going to make excuses for it,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We put ourselves in a bad position, ultimately. I was standing right down the line for that, I didn’t see it that way, but I’m not an official, either. That’s not my job and that’s not what I get paid to do.”
The penalty was a killer for the Packers. Reichard made the mulligan to make it a 13-3 game at the break.
Simple math would suggest a three-point penalty in a two-point game was a seismic turn of events.
Of course, football isn’t so simple. The Vikings took the second-half kickoff and drove to a touchdown to lead 20-3. Would everything have transpired the same if it was a two-score game rather than a three-score game?
“I think at that point, the defense is playing a little softer,” quarterback Jordan Love said of the fourth-quarter comeback.
Maybe those three points really were the difference in the game, but we’ll never know.
Blaming the officiating is something only losers do. LaFleur didn’t blame the officials for anything, but the Packers were on the wrong side of two close calls for alignment errors.
Trailing 10-3 late in the first half, the Packers needed to score at least three points before halftime because the Vikings were going to get the ball to start the second half. Facing a third-and-1, Josh Jacobs rumbled up the middle for 7 yards to the 46. It was a big step toward getting those points.
Instead, receiver Dontayvion Wicks was called for illegal formation.
“That was a tough call. It was a tough call,” LaFleur said. “I’ll tell you what I saw and, obviously, the official disagreed with what I saw. I saw our tight end clearly signal he was off the ball and I saw Wicks take the ball. They obviously saw it differently.”
Instead of a first down near midfield, Jordan Love threw a deep incompletion to Bo Melton. The Packers punted and the Vikings scored the controversial field goal to end the half.
Trailing 27-10 to start the fourth quarter, right tackle Zach Tom was flagged for illegal formation on a 10-yard run to the Vikings’ 47. Instead of first-and-10, it was second-and-13 and, later, a fourth-and-23 punt because Love was pressured on second down and sacked on third down.
As for Cooper, he played a tremendous game. An every-down player for the first time in his career, Cooper had 10 tackles on defense plus another on special teams. The last of his four tackles for losses stopped what would have been the Vikings’ clinching drive in the fourth quarter.
The Packers are “so close” to earning a breakthrough win, Cooper said. However, a slow start on offense and the inability to stop Sam Darnold led to the Packers falling to 1-4 in NFC North games and 0-5 against the NFC’s elite teams.
By losing the game, the Packers fell to the No. 7 seed. If that holds after next week’s games, the Packers will play a wild-card game at the Philadelphia Eagles, who beat Green Bay in Week 1 and are one of the hottest teams in the NFL.
The playoff road couldn’t possibly be any more difficult than needing to upset the Eagles to earn a trip to the No. 1 seed – either the Lions or a return trip to face the Vikings.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing,” Cooper said. “We’ve got a lot of people who are determined to keep going, not give up. We’re going to take some punches like this, we’ve just got to get ready for next week and we’ve got the playoffs.”
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Here's yesterday's #Packers report card by Professor @JacobWestendorf. ⬇️https://t.co/y1Q0r28szb
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) December 30, 2024
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