The Eagles got away with one on Sunday in Detroit.
In the second quarter of the Eagles’ 38-35 win over the Lions, the officials at Ford Field failed to call intentional grounding on Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. Now, the NFL has apparently admitted its mistake.
“We turned it in,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said to Detroit reporters on Wednesday. “They said they were wrong. But no, you can’t review that.”
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The play in question came on a 1st-and-goal from the Lions’ 6-yard line at the 7:56 mark of the second quarter. Take a look for yourself:
According to the game broadcast, the officials said there was a receiver in the area but that seems like a stretch if they’re talking about Boston Scott.
If there wasn’t a receiver in the area, then Hurts needed to do the following to avoid a grounding:
NFL
“Intentional grounding will not be called when a passer, who is outside, or has been outside, the tackle position, throws a forward pass that lands at or beyond the line of scrimmage, even if no offensive player(s) have a realistic chance to catch the ball (including when the ball lands out of bounds over the sideline or endline). If the ball crosses the line of scrimmage (extended) beyond the sideline, there is no intentional grounding.”
On the play, Hurts gets close to leaving the tackle box, but either way, it’s very clear the ball didn’t make it past the line of scrimmage.
This non-call set up the Eagles with a 2nd-and-goal from the Lions’ 6. If the penalty was called it would have been 3rd-and-goal from the Lions’ 16. Of course, calls get missed in every game and you could argue the refs missed some that could have gone against the Lions for late hits on Hurts.
After the non-grounding, the Eagles and Lions traded 5-yard penalties and the Eagles punched in a touchdown on a 1-yard Miles Sanders run to take a 14-7 lead.
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