The Seattle Seahawks could’ve had a 2017 version of the Fail Mary that would've caused Twitter to explode last Sunday, when the Seahawks lost to the Washington Redskins, 17-14.
Near the end of the game, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was sacked by Redskins defensive tackle Terrell McClain with only 11 seconds remaining on the game clock. That should’ve been the end of the contest, as Wilson was ruled down with his knees clearly touching the ground. Under that circumstance, the clock should’ve kept on running, leaving Seattle with no time to run one more play.
But that’s not exactly what happened. Instead, they were able to line up for one more time with Wilson firing a Hail Mary attempt that didn’t connect in the end zone.
Seattle shouldn’t have had that opportunity in the first place had the game clock not been mistakenly stopped by the operator who thought that Wilson had thrown an incomplete pass instead.
NFL V.P of Officiating Mike Pereira tried to clarify things in an appearance on Fox sports video, and here’s what he had to say, per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
“You had a clock error,” Pereira said. “You had 12 seconds when Russell Wilson went down on a knee, a whistle was blown ending the play. The clock operator stopped the clock. He stopped the clock with 11 seconds left to go. Seventeen seconds later — 17 seconds later, on a clock that was not supposed to stop . . . you had a buzz from replay. . . . The clock should never have stopped. I think it’s reasonable to say Seattle would have never gotten another play without this clock erroneously stopping.”
Pereira also suggested that someone must answer for the confusion. In his opinion, that’s no the man who had one job; operate the game clock.
“Obviously there’s a mistake made. Who’s accountable? To me, the league is pretty damn lucky that that pass was incomplete in the end zone and not a touchdown by Seattle.”
In the end, Washington dodged a bullet and so did the NFL, which could've found itself in another controversy.
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