With 56 seconds left in Sunday night’s game between the Washington Commanders and the New York Giants, Washington had fourth-and-goal at the New York six-yard line. After a scramble, quarterback Taylor Heinicke threw incomplete to receiver Curtis Samuel. The reason the pass was incomplete is that Giants cornerback Darnay Holmes was draped all over Samuel throughout the play. But there was no flag from referee John Hussey and his crew.
Because the pass was incomplete, the Giants had the ball to end the game, a 20-12 win in their favor. Pass interference would have given the Commanders another chance for a potential game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion.
4th down, game on the line, and the refs call absolutely nothing here on Darnay Holmes all over Curtis Samuel #NYGvsWAS pic.twitter.com/jTa2W7sE86
— Bad Sports Refs (@BadSportsRefs) December 19, 2022
“Pass interference is a judgment call,” Hussey told pool reporter Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post. “To the officials, it didn’t rise to what they felt was a restriction, thus they didn’t call it. That’s basically the bottom line there. It’s a judgment call and they didn’t believe it was pass interference.”
But per Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the league told the Commanders that pass interference should have been called on Holmes. Which matches up with anybody who saw the play in real time could have said in real time — except for Hussey and his crew.
“It’s clearly a foul,” NBC rules analyst and former NFL official Terry McAulay said right after the game. “Grabs his arm, plays through the back, it’s clearly before the ball gets there. This is defensive pass interference, and it really should be called whether it’s the end of the game, beginning of the game, doesn’t matter. It’s always a foul. It should have been called… if it’s a foul in the first minute of the game, it’s a foul in the last minute of the game. When it’s that obvious, it has to be called.”
Hussey and his crew made several questionable calls against both teams in the game. But that drive seemed to get quite a bit up the Commanders’ collective nose, and for good reason.
With 1:03 left in the game, a rushing touchdown by Brian Robinson was negated by an illegal formation penalty on receiver Terry McLaurin. McAulay said that he wouldn’t have called that one. It looked as if McLaurin checked with line judge Carl Johnson to make sure he was on the line of scrimmage, to no avail.
“That’s just too technical,” McAulay said. “We watch the wide receivers… they’re in the vicinity… technically, he’s off the line, but it’s just too technical. Especially without warning, it shouldn’t have been called.”
Hussey saw it differently… or, to be more specific, he didn’t see it at all.
“Well, I didn’t see any of that, because I’m in the backfield,” Hussey said.. “What I was told and what has been confirmed is that the ball was snapped at the half-yard line, and he was lined up a yard back at the one-and-a-half-yard line. In order to be deemed legal he needs to break the belt line, the waist of the center, and he was not breaking the waistline of the center. That’s why the penalty was called, because he was not in a legal formation.”
When asked whether Johnson was obligated to tell McLaurin whether he was at the line of scrimmage or not, Hussey said this:
“Not typically, and the official could be doing other things, like counting the offense – there’s a multitude of different duties. So, I can’t confirm whether the official even saw that or not, but he was clearly off the line of scrimmage.”
Ron Rivera on the Giants loss – “It pisses me off” pic.twitter.com/EvycJ5dZgB
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) December 19, 2022
The win put the Giants at 8-5-1, with an 89% chance of making the playoffs. Washington is now 7-6-1, and as a result of that loss, their playoff odds have slipped to 25.5%.
