Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman does not feel he interfered with Julio Jones on a key play in the fourth quarter Sunday that would have given the Atlanta Falcons a chance to win. Not surprisingly, Jones disagrees.
On what turned out to be Atlanta’s final offensive play of the game, Matt Ryan threw a ball up to Jones and Sherman broke up the play. Video replays appeared to show that Sherman grabbed Jones’ right arm while the ball was in the air.
Richard Sherman pass interference. Not called. As usual. https://t.co/yewZSyNvNe
— king julien (@_c_h_a_m_p_) October 16, 2016
The Falcons wound up losing 26-24, so you can understand why they felt they were robbed. Sherman, of course, was not willing to admit he got away with a penalty.
“No,” he said, via Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com. “I felt like we won the ballgame.”
Sherman added that he felt Atlanta got away with offensive pass interference during the game more than once and that the officials were simply letting the two teams play. Jones saw it differently.
“Before I took off, [Sherman] grabbed my right side and spun me around before I jumped up,” the star receiver said. “But it was just a missed call. It’s over with. It’s done. We’re on to the next right now.”
It’s always easy to nitpick after watching a slow motion replay, but that seemed pretty blatant. There was almost no way Jones could have made a play on the ball with the way Sherman grabbed him.
Earlier in the game, Sherman went off on his teammates for allowing Jones to score a touchdown. He wasn’t about to let Jones make another big play, and he was fortunate to get away with what looked like excessive contact.
