Seahawks lose critical onside kick due to illegal formation penalty

The Seattle Seahawks nearly pulled off an improbable comeback against Washington on Monday night, but one pesky penalty at the end interfered.

Russell Wilson threw a touchdown pass to Freddie Swain with 15 seconds left in the game to make it 17-15 Washington. Seattle attempted a 2-point conversion to tie the game but Wilson’s pass attempt went incomplete.

Seattle’s next chance was trying an onside kick and hoping to recover and then kick a winning field goal. They actually recovered the onside kick attempt, but it was undone by an illegal formation penalty.

Here is video of the kick:

Seattle recovers the onside kick but it’s called back because of an illegal formation 😭
pic.twitter.com/AJ3TkeUeSb

— PFF (@PFF) November 30, 2021

And this shows the illegal formation, which involved a player lining up inside the hashmarks instead of outside it.

The Seahawks recovered an onside kick down by just 2 points. But a penalty was called for a SEA player illegally lining up inside the hash mark.

They replayed the kick and WFT recovered. WFT won the game. pic.twitter.com/o8hqvcZpuE

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 30, 2021

The hashmark rule is in place to try and spread players out on onside kick attempts for player safety purposes. That player’s position had no bearing on the kick recovery, but the penalty was called nonetheless.

It’s a shame for Seattle to lose that way, but you can’t say they haven’t benefited from bogus calls in the past.