What exactly happened on the Terry McLaurin exchange with referee before key illegal formation call on ‘SNF’?

What a bizarre moment.

The headline is exactly it: What happened here on Sunday night when the Washington Commanders scored a touchdown while down 20-12 with just over a minute to go against the New York Giants … but Terry McLaurin was flagged for illegal formation?

I ask because there are some strange parts of the play, specifically that the Commanders receiver interacted with the side judge — maybe a couple of times? — before the ball was snapped.

Let’s review the whole thing: McLaurin looked to the official and had some kind of exchange. Ball is snapped, flag flies from said side judge, no touchdown. It looks like he was just off the ball in hindsight:

But McLaurin said the official told him he was lined up correctly before the snap after he was told to move up:

Then everyone broke down the film to figure it out — maybe the official did tell him to move up so he was on the line?

Here’s the pool report with the referee, John Hussey, and not the side judge:

It doesn’t really elucidate anything beyond the fact that McLaurin probably wasn’t lined up correctly but maybe he got a mixed signal from the official. And the next play? An uncalled pass interference on the Giants. Not a great night for officials here! And now you know why Ron Rivera answered like this when asked:

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