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. But the head official did not really want to talk about it after the game.
Late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game between the Saints and Commanders, referees mistakenly stopped the clock for four seconds while the Saints were driving for a potential game-tying or game-winning touchdown.
The clock should have run out before the Saints had an opportunity to spike the ball to 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.”
Huchuli then told the reporter that the play was not reviewable, and it was pretty clear that he did not want to talk about it further.
Johnson asked Hochuli when he became aware of the mistake, and Hochuli flatly refused to answer the question. Instead, he just re-stated what he’d already said.
“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.
It’s worth noting that the Commanders did still go 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. However, this was still a pretty blatant mistake from the referees.
