The Arizona Cardinals’ most exciting play of the afternoon in their 20-13 loss to the Detroit Lions never technically happened. The Cardinals appeared to force a bad throw by Lions quarterback Jared Goff that was picked off by linebacker Mack Wilson and returned for a touchdown, which would have given the Cardinals a 14-13 lead with under two minutes remaining in the first half.
However, the officials blew the play dead, saying it reached the two-minute warning before the play started.
It looked liked the Cardinals were hosed.
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Instead of a 14-13 Cardinals lead, the Lions scored on that possession to make it 20-7.
The Lions went on to win 20-13.
Referee Brad Rogers was asked about the non-play after the game by pool reporter Josh Weinfuss.
Here is what Rogers explained:
Question: Just a few questions about the play right at the two-minute warning of the first half. What happened leading into that two-minute warning when the call was played dead?
Rogers: Mechanically, we have an official that is watching the clock and what he had was a ruling was the clock was at two minutes and then the ball was snapped. So, by rule when the clock is at two minutes, it is then dead. We’re not going to let a play get off. We started killing the play by blowing whistles. I know the play started, but when we start blowing the whistle, it shuts it down. So some of the players were still going because they couldn’t hear our whistles apparently — so it looks like there’s part of the action that’s still moving and some of the action is stopping. So, when we start blowing our whistles, it shuts the play down completely.
Question: Can you expand on the mechanics of that a little more? Who’s watching the clock in that situation? And I guess the follow-up to that is, how does that differ from a play-clock situation when we see the clock going to zero, often times, the ball still gets snapped?
Rogers: What we want to do on the game clock is be 100% (accurate). When it shows two minutes, we stop it. When it shows zero, we stop it. And in respect to what we’re doing her mechanically, the side judge is the one responsible for the clock. So physically looking at that and communicating a countdown and letting us know whenever it hits two minutes. When he says, ‘two minutes,” we shut ut down because we have to also see the ball and hear when the clock is at zero or at two.
That explanation probably won’t help Cardinals fans feel better about the play.
Head coach Jonathan Gannon’s only reaction to what happened was, “they call what they call,” which makes sense because if he suggested criticism, he could get fined by the league.
The officials say it hit two minutes before the snap. To fans, it looked like the snap came with time left.
It ended up being a critical moment that was game-changing. But as for a big play, all it was is a play that never happened.
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