The Minnesota Vikings were on the receiving end Thursday of arguably the single worst missed call of the NFL season.
Minnesota suffered their second loss of the season to the Los Angeles Rams on “Thursday Night Football,” falling by the final of 30-20. The big storyline of the game however was a blatant miss that the referees had at a crucial moment in the fourth quarter.
With the Rams leading 28-20 and under two minutes left to play in the game, the Vikings were facing a 2nd-and-10 from their own five-yard line. Rams linebacker Byron Young came rumbling in and got to Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold. But Young threw Darnold to the ground using Darnold’s facemask as leverage, which should have been a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down for the Vikings. Instead though, the referees did nothing, and the sack of Darnold in the end zone just went down as a safety. That made it 30-20 in favor of the Rams, effectively ending the game.
Here is the video (which showed that two referees were in the back of the end zone staring right at the play … but neither threw a flag).
— dubs408 (@dubsvidstouse) October 25, 2024
A few other angles showed how clear and obvious the facemask was there.
THE REFS MISS A CLEAR FACEMASK ON SAM DARNOLD ON THE SAFETY.
INEXCUSABLE!!! #Vikings #SKOL pic.twitter.com/FZv0CM58n4
— Locker (@PlayLockerLive) October 25, 2024
Facemask or no? #Vikings #Rams pic.twitter.com/8ol8GWs66y
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) October 25, 2024
That’s a FACEMASK!! You have to reverse that call unbelievable #Vikings #Rams pic.twitter.com/YTRIGhnxTO
— Alex Monaco (@Alex__Monaco) October 25, 2024
By rule, the sequence there was unreviewable. But for that kind of no-call to occur in the last two minutes of a one-possession game was an absolutely brutal look, to say the least.
The NFL has seemingly gone to extreme lengths in recent years to protect quarterbacks, resulting in more than a few paper-soft roughing-the-passer calls. That is what made Thursday’s non-call on Darnold’s facemask getting grabbed all the more jarring, especially with multiple referees having a clear angle of that play.
