Turf Show Times
Should the refs have allowed the Eagles to change a declined penalty into an accepted one?
It appears that an assumption by the referees in Sunday night’s Rams-Eagles game let Philadelphia head coach trick or use them into letting him get a look at L.A.’s offense that should have never happened. If Sirianni broke an unwritten rules of the game, it could be the reason that the Rams lose.
Down 27-14 late in the third quarter, the Rams were facing 3rd-and-3 at the Philadelphia 14 and Matthew Stafford threw an incomplete pass. At the same time, the Rams were called for holding and it was announced to everyone in the stadium that the Eagles declined the penalty.
Now setting up to go for it on 4th-and-3, Sirianni ran up to the refs and asked to accept the penalty. The refs said “OKAY” and allowed the Eagles to overturn the penalty decline and give the Rams 3rd-and-13 instead of 4th-and-3.
Stafford was sacked on the ensuing play, putting the Rams all the way back at the Eagles 29. Kicker Josh Karty missed the 47-yard attempt. Of course it is possible that the Rams would have failed their fourth down attempt, but the refs took away the opportunity for them to go for it on fourth-and-3 by letting the Eagles see what they were going to do before deciding.
The decision would have almost gone unnoticed if not for the fact that Mike Tirico asked Terry McCauley on the broadcast if it was okay to let a coach decline a penalty and then accept it. McCauley said that it was not okay, but that what probably happened is that the refs assumed the Eagles wanted to decline the penalty to setup fourth down and then Sirianni told them that’s not what he wanted to do.
It goes a step further when Tirico says that nobody on the Eagles sideline was saying anything to the refs until after they saw the Rams lining up to go for it.
Essentially, Sirianni was intentionally passive until after he saw what Sean McVay decided to do and then reacted based on that. To no real fault of his own, Sirianni saw an advantage and he took it because the refs were either too lazy, too complacent, or if Sirianni changed his mind, then too generous.
In all cases it boils down to the referees not doing their jobs properly.
The game could have been cut to a one-score lead if the Rams went for it on fourth down, converted, and scored a touchdown. Or Karty could have had a closer field goal attempt if it was converted and they didn’t get into the end zone.
Either way, this looks like a costly blunder by the refs and a savvy move by Sirianni.
