Officials said they did not have a clear view of an apparent mask grab on Vikings QB Sam Darnold.
INGLEWOOD, California — Una apparent mask grab al Minnesota Vikings field marshal Sam Darnold, was not penalized at the end of the fourth quarter Thursday night at SoFi Stadium why no official had a clear view of the playhe said referee Tra Blakea a reporter after the game.
Las broadcast replays showed the Los Angeles Rams linebacker Byron Young grabbing Darnold’s mask and throwing it to ground in the end zone for a sack and a safety, giving Los Angeles a commanding 30-20 lead with 1 minute, 46 seconds remaining in the game. The game ended with the same score.
According to the fundamentals of NFL officiating, the referee has primary responsibility for fouls that involve hits on the quarterback.
“The quarterback was looking in the opposite direction from meso I didn’t see it well,” Blake assured. “I didn’t look and I didn’t see the mask being taken off.obviously.”
He referee Carl Paganelli had the responsibility secondary to making the decision. But was also blockedaccording to Blake.
“He official had players between him and the quarterbackso he couldn’t see it properly,” Blake added. “It was also blocked. So that was the problem. We didn’t see itso we couldn’t sanction the play“.
The play cannot be reviewed, according to NFL rules.
The Vikings coach, Kevin O’Connell assured that he would not use this situation as an explanation to lose the game.
“It seemed that he had touched his mask quite a bit“, said O’Connell. “I’m not going to talk about the sanction, or the non-sanction, or all that. I talked to our team, the referees and all that… let’s talk about it, let’s find solace in that, This is not how we are going to respond to this.. It’s just not going to happen. I’m going to do the same thing right now. I don’t really have a comment on that. “It looked like he had touched a piece of the mask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the handkerchief.”
Darnold added: “The mask is what it is. “I think we could have done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we’re in… So we just have to continue to play better and not put ourselves in that position from the beginning.”
