During the Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts matchup, a likely penalty on Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold was picked up by referee, Shawn Smith. The no-call ultimately led to a Colts touchdown on the play as Darnold fumbled the ball, and it was returned for a TD. Even though Minnesota came up with the 21-14 win, the decision left marks of skepticism.
Immediately after the game, Kevin Seifert of ESPN questioned why the referees pulled the flag. Smith said that he thought there was a potential face-mask penalty on that high hit on the quarterback. After picking it up, he said that the officiating crew determined that the contact was to the shoulder area and that contact to the head and neck was incidental.
Also, they didn't see a forearm strike in Darnold's helmet. Furthermore, the replay review wasn't able to assist them in the decision.
Still, this makes a very frustrating point for the Vikings. It's the second-straight game where a no-call has allowed the opposing team to score. In the Week 8 Thursday Night Football showdown, the world blasted the Vikings and Rams officiating crew for blatantly missing a face-mask penalty.
It occurred on a fourth down in the end zone, which resulted in a safety. Darnold was pulled by his face mask down to the ground.
Could the Vikings and Sam Darnold have referee issues for a third week?
While officials make mistakes because they're human, consecutive games with major missed calls are a bit surprising, not to mention, with it being the same team and the same player, nonetheless. This time was different, as it wasn't a game-deciding call. Regardless, the no-call gave the Colts a touchdown. That swung the momentum of the game in a big way.
Minnesota will head to Jacksonville in Week 10, and the question arises again. Will the Vikings have another crucial penalty call missed? Since we can't predict the future, we can't say for certain. However, history could repeat itself. If there's another big-time face-mask penalty, then it'll truly be frustrating.
Pro Football Talk says that “Face mask must be reviewable.” With that conclusion, both the Rams and Colts' no-calls should've gone to video review. While they didn't, it revealed fans believing in a level of incompetency for calling a fair game. The Vikings are second in the NFC North and will aim to add more to their win total.
Against a struggling Jacksonville team, they could get back on the dominant track. Hopefully for Minnesota, they'll have a fairly called game on both sides of the ball,
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