The NFL’s Moment of the Year, Justin Tucker’s 66-yard record-setting field goal against the Lions, never should have happened.
On its face, Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker’s record-setting and game-winning 66-yard field goal against the Detroit Lions in Week 3 probably should have been the NFL’s Moment of the Year, as it was named at Thursday Night’s NFL Honors show.
All good, right? Well, not exactly. Let’s revisit the events that led up to Tucker’s historic field goal. With 26 seconds left in the game, the Lions completely blew coverage on a fourth-and-19 throw from Lamar Jackson to Sammy Watkins, which turned into a 36-yard gain, and put the ball at the Detroit 48-yard line.
Then, Jackson spiked the ball to stop the clock with seven seconds left, and threw the ball out of bounds with six seconds left. But it was what happened before the throwaway that was rather important.
Yes, Jackson was given a full two seconds after the play clock expired. That should have been a delay of game call and a five-yard penalty. Since the game clock was not moving, there would not have been a ten-second runoff to end the game, but asking Tucker to kick a 71-yard field goal when his 66-yarder just barely made it, bouncing off the bottom of the upright, would have been a rather large ask.
“As far as our mechanics, the back judge is looking at the play clock and if it were to hit zero, he sees the zero, and he then looks to see if the ball is being snapped,” referee Scott Novak said after the game. “If the ball is being snapped, we will let the play go. If it’s not moving, it’s delay of game. Those are the mechanics that we apply on that play.”
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh had his own version of events.
“That’s not going to be a delay of game because of the way they operate,” Harbaugh said. There’s always leeway on that. It happens all the time when we’re on defense. There’s a mechanic that the officials go through. They look to see if the ball is up, then they go to the clock. So, it’s not like they’re looking at the clock and they can’t see both things at once. They’ve got a way that they do that, and the mechanic would not have made that a delay of game.”
Maybe Novak and his back judge shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell said after the game that he was expecting an apology from the NFL, but that never happened.
So… in the end, the NFL’s Moment of the Year wasn’t quite the moment the NFL wanted. Given the way the 2021 season went, perhaps a better choice would have been a reel of the league’s officiating misdeeds… starting with that one.
