Well, not that it matters much now, but the NFL has told the Washington Commanders that they missed a pass interference call at the end of the game against the New York Giants. The entire world had to sit back and watch a brutal defensive pass interference miss the eyes of the officials on the final play of the game. It was a fourth and six at the Giants goal line, with the potential to score a touchdown and keep the game alive. Instead, the pass fell incomplete.
The lead referee John Hussy spoke out after the game and said, “Pass interference is a judgement call. To the officials it didn’t rise to what they felt was a restriction, thus they didn’t call it. That’s basically the bottom line there.” Obviously, hearing this after the game doesn’t give you much of any relief. It’s basically like the league telling you, whoops, we messed up, but at least we are honest about it. Washington still gets the loss and falls down into last place in the division, making it that much more difficult for them to get a postseason appearance now.
Some sources have since talked about how the league has privately contacted Washington front office personnel to discuss the missed call while explaining that it should have been whistled. Unfortunately, though, this wasn’t the only bad call against Washington in the final few seconds.
Other Penalties Killed Washington
Two plays before this pass interference call was missed, Terry McLaurin was called for an illegal formation penalty on a play that Brian Robinson scored on. Replays showed that McLaurin looked over at the side judge, asked if he was in correct position, the referee told him to move up a little bit, so he did so. Despite that, the ref still called the flag on him for positioning. No matter which side you support here, there’s not much defending this from the referee.
There was also an offensive pass interference call on Jahan Dotson late in the third quarter. The penalty wiped away a two-point conversion that Washington made, which could have drastically changed the outcome of the game later on. Especially because Washington settled for a field goal after the call and their kicker missed it wide right.
IF you’re Washington, this was the worst-case scenario. Multiple controversial calls in a game that you had to come away with is devastating for them. Washington is now 7-6-1 on the season, seventh place in the NFC conference coming into the final few games of the year. The road doesn’t get easier either, with them p laying the ridiculously tale3nted San Francisco 49ers next. Their playoff chances are rapidly declining and the chances that they actually make it are very little at this point. Here’s to hoping that the league can start to get these things right moving forward. The biggest plays of these games shouldn’t be the calls that were made or should have been made.