INGLEWOOD, Calif. — An obvious face masks on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold went unpenalized late within the fourth quarter Thursday night time at SoFi Stadium as a result of no official had a transparent view of the play, referee Tra Blake instructed a pool reporter after the sport.
Broadcast replays confirmed Los Angeles Rams linebacker Byron Younger grabbing Darnold’s face masks and throwing him to the bottom in the long run zone for a sack and a security, giving Los Angeles a commanding 30-20 lead with 1 minute, 46 seconds remaining within the recreation.
In accordance with NFL officiating fundamentals, the referee has major duty for fouls involving hits on the quarterback.
“The quarterback was going through the wrong way from me. So I didn’t have take a look at it,” Blake stated. “I didn’t take a look, and I didn’t see the face masks being pulled, clearly.”
Umpire Carl Paganelli had secondary duty for making the decision. However he was additionally blocked, based on Blake.
“The umpire had gamers between him and the quarterback, so he didn’t get take a look at it,” Blake stated. “He was blocked out as properly. In order that was the factor. We didn’t see it, so we could not name it.”
The play will not be reviewable, based on NFL guidelines.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell stated he wouldn’t use the missed name as a proof for dropping the sport.
“It seemed like he acquired a fairly good quantity of face masks there,” O’Connell stated. “I am not going to get into the decision, or no-call, or all that stuff. I talked to our workforce, officiating and all that stuff … for us to speak about that, for us to hunt consolation in that, will not be how we will reply to this. It is simply not going to occur. I’ll do the identical factor proper now. I actually haven’t got a touch upon that. Seemed like he acquired a bit of the facemask, however they did not assume so, in order that they did not throw the flag.”
Added Darnold: “The face masks, it’s what it’s. I assumed we might have completed loads to not put ourselves within the scenario that we had been in. … So we have simply acquired to proceed to play higher and never put ourself in that place to start with.”