The Vikings had one last chance to tie things up late on “Thursday Night Football.”
A safety on their final drive, though, all but sealed their 30-20 loss to the Rams.
But on that play, the referees missed what appeared to be a clear-as-day penalty that would have given the Vikings major life — and yardage — with under two minutes to go.
On a second-and-10 from the Vikings’ own 5-yard-line, quarterback Sam Darnold took a snap out of the shotgun and was sacked by outside linebacker Byron Young in the end zone, which gave the Rams two points and the ball back on an ensuing kick.
But right after Young made the tackle, he put his hands on his heads as if he knew he had made a mistake.
Because as replays showed, he grabbed Darnold’s face mask as he brought the signal-caller down to the ground.
“He got the facemask, he sure did,” Prime Video analyst Kirk Herbsteit said on the broadcast. “The cannot review that. But he definitely got the facemask. … And he got away with one right there.”
“Viking fans are going ‘What the hell?” Al Michaels replied.
A face mask penalty would’ve given the Vikings 15 yards and a first down.
Instead, though, the Rams got the ball back and killed out the rest of the clock to secure the win.
“As an offense, we’ve got to just be more consistent,” Darnold said after the Vikings’ defeat. “The facemask, it is what it is. I thought we could have done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation we were in.”
The reaction to the non-call on social media was rather scathing.
“Can’t see a facemask 3 feet in front of them, but we want refs to decide what is and isn’t a “hip drop” tackle in real time,” wrote ex-NFL defensive end JJ Watt.
“Referee thought Sam Darnold decided to just twist his own head off. No facemask. Just Darnold trying to go full Exorcist out there. Yikes,” wrote Boston radio host Michael Hurley.
“Yes. We’re still offering free LASIK for NFL refs,” wrote LASIK.com in combination self promotion and critique of the officials.
“The back angle showed the ref looking literally right at it,” wrote another user with a thinking emoji.
The Vikings moved to 5-2 with the tough loss, while the Rams improved to 3-4.
— with AP
