Head referee Shawn Hochuli admitted to a potentially costly officiating error in the Saints-Commanders game Sunday.
The Washington Commanders narrowly escaped a spirited upset bid from the New Orleans Saints Sunday afternoon, conceding a touchdown on the final play of the game before turning away a decisive two-point conversion try to win 20-19.
However, the Saints' buzzer-beating touchdown seemed to be made possible by a clock error from Sunday's officiating crew, which veteran referee Shawn Hochuli admitted was a mistake to a pool of reporters.
"The covering official mistakenly stopped the clock in that situation. The clock should not have stopped," Hochuli said. The 10th-year referee added that the play was not reviewable and declined to answer a subsequent question regarding whether the officiating crew was aware of the mistake.
The Commanders ended the Superdome as seven-point favorites Sunday and were tracking toward an expectedly comfortable win to begin the fourth quarter, holding a 20-7 lead. However, New Orleans kicker Blake Grupe knocked through a pair of field goals to pull within one possession before quarterback Spencer Rattler shook off some early struggles to lead a two-minute drill deep into Washington territory.
On 4th and 3 at the eight-yard line, Rattler kept the game alive with a completion to Foster Moreau, but the tight end was tackled in bounds which should have kept the clock running. However, the game clock was erroneously stopped for four seconds and Rattler managed to spike the ball with three seconds remaining, meaning that the game would have likely ended without the officiating error.
Rattler capitalized on this good fortune with another pass to Moreau, this time in the end zone that trimmed New Orleans' deficit to just a point. With a loss effectively eliminating the Saints from playoff competition, interim coach Darren Rizzi boldly elected to go for two, but Rattler's pass fell incomplete and New Orleans dropped to 5-9.
"I just felt like the way the game played out. AK [Alvin Kamara] had gone out. He was out for the game. MVS [Marquez Valdes-Scantling] got banged up," Rizzi said, per John Hendrix of Sports Illustrated, about his decision to go for two. "I don't regret it whatsoever."
