During Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and the Washington Commanders, the Saints benefitted from an error from the referees late in the game. And one of the officials even admitted it.
Late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, referees mistakenly stopped the clock for four seconds. The clock should have expired before the Saints had an opportunity to spike the ball, which set up a late touchdown.
However, because the officials mistakenly stopped the clock, the Saints were able to score just before time expired.
Refs stopped the game clock for 4 seconds when it should have been running
freezes at :09 while play clock ticks from :39 to :35
game should have been over
how can they make a mistake like this pic.twitter.com/aWyIGWb9Hy
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 15, 2024
After the game, referee Shawn Hochuli was questioned about the mistake by pool reporter Luke Johnson.
“At the end of the game, it was the third-to-last play, the Saints completed a pass short of the goal line and the clock kept running and it appeared that the clock stopped at nine seconds. I was wondering if you had an explanation for the stoppage?” the reporter asked.
Hochuli admitted that one of the officials made a mistake by stopping the clock.
“The covering official mistakenly stopped the clock in that situation,” Hochuli said. “The clock should not have stopped.”
When questioned further, Huchuli then indicated that the play was not reviewable.
When asked by the pool reporter when he was made aware of the mistake, Hochuli declined to talk about the incident any further.
“That’s all I have for you, Luke. The covering official mistakenly stopped the clock at nine seconds and it is not reviewable,” Hochuli said.
The Commanders still went on to win the game by a score of 20-19 after the Saints failed to convert what would have been a game-winning two-point conversion. But this is obviously still a horrible mistake from the referees that almost cost the Commanders the game.
