NFL Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino tweeted that referee Walt Coleman’s crew erred in a strange end of half sequence in Monday night’s Bills-Seahawks game by not calling Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman for unnecessary roughness.
Blandino’s tweet came a few minutes into the third quarter. He wrote that Sherman should have been called for unnecessary roughness instead of just being called for offsides, which would have allowed Bills kicker Dan Carpenter to remain in the game.
Sherman jumped offsides on a field goal try just before the half and hit the knee of Carpenter after the play had been blown dead. Because team medical staff attended to Carpenter and because a personal foul wasn’t called, by rule Carpenter had to leave the field for a play.
Officials marched off five yards for offsides, and the Bills spiked the ball to stop the clock with one second left to allow Carpenter to return. But the umpire inexplicably stood over the ball following the spike until there were five seconds left on the play clock, and the Bills were flagged for delay of game.
Blandino said later Monday night on NFL Network that officials should have reset the play clock because the umpire was still over the ball with the play clock under 20 seconds.
Carpenter then missed from 54 yards. Blandino shouldn’t check his Twitter mentions.