The Washington Commanders beat the New Orleans Saints 20-19 in Week 15. The Saints scored a touchdown on the final play of regulation to put themselves in position to send the game to overtime with an extra point or possibly win the game with a two-point conversion. The Saints went for it, but Spencer Rattler's pass to Juwan Johnson was unsuccessful.
Since the Commanders held on to win, it doesn't even really matter that the Saints probably scored that last second touchdown because of an unwarranted clock stoppage with nine seconds remaining in the game.
On fourth-and-three form the eight with 17 seconds remaining, Rattler hit Foster Moreau for a first down. Moreau was tackled at the one and one of the officials ran in waving his arms above his head, signaling to stop the clock despite the fact that the Saints had not called timeout because they were out of them.
Many fans noticed the clock stopping for approximately four seconds, which allowed the Saints just enough time to get one final play off.
I've never seen anything like this before. Check this out in the Saints and Commanders game.
— Nick Newman (@NinerNick_22) December 15, 2024
The game clock mysteriously pauses for FOUR SECONDS with 9 seconds left in the game, even though the Saints couldn't stop the clock.
Time should've expired. pic.twitter.com/lTvxhEFkEa
Referee Shawn Hochuli was asked about the clock stoppage after the game and confirmed that the clock should not have stopped, but since the play was not reviewable there was nothing they could do and it doesn't matter when they realized what had happened because the play was not reviewable.
This is quite the pool report: https://t.co/mPTaZ7LRao pic.twitter.com/4ReDW1DE9E
— Matthew Paras (@Matthew_Paras) December 15, 2024
Let's just say the NFL would have a pretty big headache on their hands if the Saints had converted that two-point conversion and the Commanders had dropped to 8-6 in the middle of a very tight playoff race.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ref Explains Mysterious Clock Stoppage That Allowed Saints to Score a Last-Second TD.
