Vikings coach and QB respond to controversial no-call on obvious face-mask penalty against Rams

The Los Angeles Rams beat the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night, but that 30-20 win came with a lot of controversy thanks to an officiating gaffe in the final minutes. 

With 1:36 left to play in the fourth quarter, the Vikings were trailing 28-20, but they had the ball at their own five-yard line with a chance to drive down and score a game-tying touchdown. On second-and-10, Sam Darnold got sacked in his end zone for a safety that iced the win for Los Angeles. However, the safety shouldn’t have counted because there was an OBVIOUS face mask on the play by Rams linebacker Byron Young. 

The penalty went uncalled, though, and the Vikings never got a chance to mount a game-tying drive. 

Following the game, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was asked about the no-call and took the high road. Kind of. 

“I really don’t have a comment on whether it was a [penalty],” O’Connell told reporters. “It looked like he got a piece of the face mask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the flag.”

Although O’Connell didn’t specifically call out the officiating crew for not throwing a flag, he did make sure to note that he definitely thought Darnold’s face mask got pulled. 

“You know, it looked like he got a pretty good amount of face mask there,” O’Connell said. “Not going to get into the call or no call and all that stuff. I told our team — officiating and all that stuff — for us to talk about that, for us to seek comfort in that, is not how we’re going to respond to this, it’s just not going to happen, and I’m going to do the same thing right now.”

For his part, Darnold seemed frustrated about other parts of the game than he did with the face mask no-call. 

“The face mask, it is what it is,” Darnold said following the game. “I thought we could’ve done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we were in. You know, the penalty before that. We just have to continue to play better and not put ourselves in that situation to begin with.”

As Darnold noted, the Vikings got called for an illegal formation on first down, one play before he was tackled for a safety. If Young had been flagged for the face mask, the Vikings would have had first-and-10 at their own 20-yard line with 1:36 left and no timeouts. Instead, the safety put the Rams up by 10 and effectively ended the game. 

After the game, referee Tra Blake said his crew didn’t throw a flag because the penalty was blocked from their view.