With 9:14 left in Monday night’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts threw a short pass to tight end Dallas Goedert. Commanders linebacker Jamin Davis was all over the play… or, at the very least, Davis was all over Goedert’s facemask. Goedert lost the ball while his head was getting wrenched around, and after an original call that the runner was down by contact, that was reversed to a fumble.
As we said, what the officials missed was about as blatant a facemask call as you’ll ever see.
Refs missed possibly the most obvious facemask in a very long time. Costly for Phillypic.twitter.com/qKOd3tpnmO
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 15, 2022
The Eagles should have retained the ball, but they didn’t, and the Commanders extended their lead to 26-21 on their subsequent drive with a 55-yard Joey Slye field goal.
Referee Alex Kemp’s postgame explanation was less than satisfactory.
Here is the response from Referee Alex Kemp on the Dallas Goedert missed face mask call.
Why don’t you just start your answer with “we missed the facemask call.” 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/LPTk5W9AB5
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) November 15, 2022
The Eagles lost their undefeated status in a 32-21 loss, and that certainly didn’t help. Nor will the inevitable letter of apology they receive from the league this week.