As the Saints were driving at the end of Sunday’s game against the Commanders, it looked like the clock stopped when it shouldn’t have, with nine seconds to play.
It did.
Referee Shawn Hochuli admitted during a postgame pool report that one of the officials on the crew mistakenly stopped the clock after a throw from quarterback Spencer Rattler to tight end Foster Moreau took the ball from the Washington seven to the Washington one.
“The clock should not have stopped,” Hochuli said.
It’s unclear why the mistake was made.
The stoppage, which by our estimation lasted 2.7 seconds, gave the Saints time to line up and spike the clock. Which gave them enough time to throw a touchdown pass that brought the game to within one point, setting the stage for a win-or-lose two-point try. (The Saints failed to convert.)
Hochuli added that the mistake is not reviewable. And he’s right. Under the rulebook, replay review can be used to put time on the clock, but it can’t be used to remove time from the clock.
The league got lucky that the extra time didn’t result in the Saints winning the game. If they had, it would have been a much bigger deal.
Even then, we don’t know — and won’t know — whether the Saints would have gotten the clock stopped with time left, if the clock hadn’t erroneously stopped. Per a league source, the NFL doesn’t know the answer to that question, either.
