Jared Goff headed to the locker room after a massive hit in the second quarter of Saturday’s NFC Divisional Round game against the Washington Commanders. He later returned to the sidelines, but FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira said the officials missed a penalty on the play.
Quan Martin intercepted Goff and took it back for a touchdown to give the Commanders a 24-14 lead. On the play, though, Goff took a massive hit from Frankie Luvu. The training staff immediately went out to attend to him, and he went back to the locker room during the commercial break.
Teddy Bridgewater came in to replace Goff, and he led a touchdown drive. Jameson Williams took a handoff to the house on a trick play to cut the Washington lead to 24-21. Just like that, the game was off and running.
To Pereira, though, he saw Luvu hit a defenseless player. That’s why he thought the referees needed to throw a flag and call a penalty. Instead, the touchdown stayed on the board as the Commanders and Lions combined to score 42 points in the second quarter.
“The key is here that you have an interception, of course,” Pereira said on the broadcast. “And at that point, then, after the interception, during the entire play, the quarterback is considered defenseless. You can block him if he pursues the play, but you can’t hit him in the head or neck area, which Luvu did. So this should have been called, which would’ve resulted with the ball still live – a 15-yard penalty from the 5-yard line.”
Jared Goff ended up returning to the game as he completed 11 of 17 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown in the first half. However, he also threw two interceptions. On the Washington side, Jayden Daniels put on a show, completing 14 of 21 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns while adding 29 rushing yards on the ground to help lead the charge as the Commanders took a 31-21 lead into the locker room at Ford Field.
The first half set an impressive record as the Lions and Commanders combined for over 600 yards of offense. That’s the most in a half since the first two quarters of Super Bowl LII between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
