Mark it down: The referees gave Washington Football Team a break.
Yes, it actually happened. And in the end, it was a crucial call that helped Washington start a comeback from 14-0 down to beat the 11-0 Pittsburgh Steelers.
With Washington out of timeouts, the officials incorrectly stopped the clock after quarterback Alex Smith took a sack with 23 seconds remaining in the half. This allowed Dustin Hopkins time to make a 49-yard field goal to make it a 14-3 game. Washington would go on to win 23-17.
The confusion came about when the officials struggled to get the proper ball on the field. Smith, who knew time was short, ran off the field holding the ball he used for the 3rd down play. In the NFL, separate “K-balls” are used on all kicking plays and the refs did not have an immediate replacement ready.
Related
However, in the instances when an offense scrambles the kicking team on the field, the referees are instructed to use a non-K-ball. Unfortunately, Smith had run off with the ball.
After the game, Smith explained his move wasn’t some devious tactic to confuse the officials, but just something to try and save time as he expected a new ball to be used on the play.
“I knew we were going hurry up, field goal, I was pretty upset with myself for taking the sack
at that point but I was running off to trying to get that ball off so they could get the K-ball on,” Smith said.
Related
“Because usually that happens very seamlessly with the changeover, but from what I understand talking to the refs I think there was a little bit of a problem with the COVID, there's less people on the sidelines, less ball boys and that wasn't as fluid,” Smith explained after the 23-17 win.
With Smith gone with the ball, the referees signaled for a new K-ball from the sideline crew, but when that didn’t happen right away, they delayed the game and the clock expired. However, the referees announced an “administrative issue” that forced them to stop the clock and gave Washington eight seconds before halftime to attempt the field goal.
Related
Former NFL referee and rules analyst Terry McAulay said since the offense’s actions caused the delay in spotting the ball, the officials should not have stopped the clock.
“So it was not intentional really I was just trying to speed up the process of us getting off and getting the K-ball on so they could go kick it,” Smith said.
Ooops. Oh, well.
Related
Related
