There was some frustrating officiating on Saturday afternoon, especially if you are a fan of the Minnesota Vikings. Not only were there some poor calls, but most importantly, the Vikings had two touchdowns on fumble recoveries by Chandon Sullivan that were arguably unfair calls.
One of those was Michael Pittman Jr. who was deemed to have stopped forward progress and the other was late in the fourth quarter when Deon Jackson fumbled it while standing up in traffic and the whistle was blown dead.
The PWFA pool report came out where they interviewed referee Tra Blake and the NFL’s SVP of Officiating Walt Anderson and they walked through what happened, and it all made complete sense. Pittman Jr. was deemed to have stopped moving forward and they thought Jackson was down (when it was clear he wasn’t).
Surprisingly though, nobody asked why.
Why was the whistle blown so quickly on both? That’s the issue here but the question wasn’t asked and quite frankly, it’s disappointing that it wasn’t. That’s what everyone wants to know.
In the end, it didn’t make a difference as the Vikings still scored enough points to win the football game.
PFWA pool report with referee Tra Blake and NFL SVP/officiating Walt Anderson, explaining the 2 Chandon Sullivan TDs that were called back. pic.twitter.com/cXSs3b2hcG
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) December 17, 2022
