Thursday night’s game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Minnesota Vikings had quite a controversial end as the Chargers forced a late safety that put the game out of reach. However, it’s pretty clear that it shouldn’t have been a safety at all.
On the play, Rams defender Byron Young sacked Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold in the end zone for the safety, but he clearly pulled Darnold down by his facemask, which should have been a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down for the Vikings.
However, the referees did not throw a flag, and Los Angeles was instead given two points and the ball, effectively ending the game.
After the game, referee Tra Blake said that the officials did not call a facemask because they were unable to see the play clearly.
“Well, on that play, the quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me so I did not have a good look at it. I did not have a look, and I did not see the facemask being pulled, obviously,” Blake said according to Ian Rapoport. “The umpire had players between him and the quarterback, so he did not get a look at it. He was blocked out as well. So that was the thing, we did not see it so we couldn’t call it. We couldn’t see it.”
Blake said that they did discuss the possibility that Darnold was tackled by his facemask after the Vikings sideline expressed concern about the call, but they were unable to see it, so they could not make the call.
“On the field we definitely did discuss it because they did bring up a concern. We discussed it as a crew, but we weren’t able to see it on the field so we weren’t able to make that,” Blake said.
While this would be a reasonable response, a photo emerged that suggests this is a lie – the referees were in a position to see the play and make the call.
“Our view of the quarterback was blocked, we could not see anything” https://t.co/YzRFoehANp pic.twitter.com/4rQZbusJix
— ⚡️Garrett Ferguson⚡️ (@GarrettSprints) October 25, 2024
It’s not clear why the referees still didn’t make the call when the photo shows a referee clearly looking right at the tackle while Darnold was being pulled down by his facemask. Perhaps they were not looking for a facemask penalty and simply did not notice it, but to say “we couldn’t see it” just is not true.
One of the officials was looking directly at the play and still did not make the call.
