The Thursday Night Football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams ended in controversy. Sam Darnold fell for a safety as the Vikings tried to claw back an eight-point lead in stoppage time, but the officials appeared to miss a facemask penalty. Instead of getting the flag and the ball back, Minnesota lost 30-20 and the Rams held on to win. After the game, fans complained that the referee missed a call. After the game, Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News asked referee Tra Blake what the officiating team saw regarding the safety. “Well, on that play, the quarterback was facing away from me, so I wasn’t really looking at him,” Blake said. “I didn’t look, I didn’t see the mask come off.
There were players between the referee and the defender, so they didn’t look at him. Also stuck. The problem was, I couldn’t scream because I couldn’t see. We couldn’t see him.”There was controversy when team members, including Darnold and coach Kevin O’Connell, complained to the refs, but Blake said the refs “couldn’t throw the flag because they couldn’t see it from the field.”Blake also said that the game will not be reviewed. The Vikings and their fans are upset about the missed calls, but there’s nothing they can do about it other than move on to next week’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. Fortunately for Minnesota, a strong start to the season means a loss won’t necessarily hurt their playoff chances.
