Clock Malfunction in Game's Final Seconds Nearly Changes Outcome of NFL Game
Referee blunders are nothing new to the wide world of sports.
Referees are human, and human error has become a deeply embedded part of sports.
But, normally, a referee blunder will typically clearly favor one team, leaving one side feeling the sting of defeat, while the other is celebrating.
What is not nearly as common is for referee blunders to actively upset both sides of the match-up.
That oddity cropped up Sunday, following a tilt between the Washington Commanders and New Orleans Saints.
The Commanders beat the Saints 20-19 in New Orleans, but neither side was in a particularly celebratory mood following the game.
The subtle mistake came deep in the fourth quarter of the game, with the Saints and rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler driving down the field down a touchdown.
See if you can spot it for yourself (Hint: It’s got to do with the clock):
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
With just seconds left in the game, a driving Rattler found tight end Foster Moreau for a critical gain in the red zone.
After the tackle, the game clock continued to tick down, before it mysteriously stopped at :09 for four-to-five seconds. The play clock clearly kept ticking, which means so too should have the game clock.
The weird clock malfunction allowed the Saints to spike the ball with three seconds left in the game. In other words, the four-to-five second hitch basically preserved an extra play for the Saints.
The Saints scored a touchdown after the odd stoppage, before failing to convert a two-point conversion, giving the one-point win to Washington.
“I am absolutely taking the high road,” an annoyed Commanders coach Dan Quinn told reporters after the game, according to ESPN. “Those three seconds are critical, let’s just say that. We’re on to [next opponent] Philadelphia. … In the game, I was frustrated why [the clock had stopped], but in the moment, I don’t get to ask, and you don’t get the feedback when it’s that type of intensity.”
While Quinn was clearly seething, his quarterback, rookie standout Jayden Daniels, took an even higher road, noting that if he and the offense had played better on the previous drive, all the clock malfunctions in the world wouldn’t have mattered.
In the post-game scrum, head referee Shawn Hochuli explained that “the covering official mistakenly stopped the clock in that situation. The clock should not have stopped.”
Hochuli added that those types of mistakes are not reviewable.
Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi, meanwhile, took issue with a couple of blown calls earlier in the game from Hochuli’s crew, including a clock blunder at the end of the third quarter that gave the Commanders kicker a second attempt at a key field goal.
“It was a game management from the officials’ operations,” Rizzi said of the third quarter blunder. “I’ll let the league handle it, but I hope that everybody else gets held accountable in this league. I hope that the people that mismanaged that get held accountable, too, because it was completely mishandled.”
Rizzi added, while addressing a penalty he disagreed with: “Yeah, I disagreed. You guys saw the play. I’m skating on thin ice as it is, so I’m going to bite my tongue, but I disagreed with the call.
“So, it’s a shame that seven points in the game come down to a penalty on a field goal block and a quarter that was over, and they let the play go. That’s just a shame.
“So, that’s not a criticism; it’s a shame.”
The 5-9 Saints next play the 10-4 Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin in a game that will take place on the eve of Christmas Eve.
The 9-5 Commanders, meanwhile, play NFC East rivals, the red-hot 12-2 Philadelphia Eagles, on Dec. 22.
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