Officials made two clock errors in the Saints-Commanders game | Saints

The officiating team had several clock issues on Sunday – and they may have influenced the outcome of the game.

The first came at the end of the third quarter when Washington kicker Greg Joseph lined up for a 41-yard field goal to extend the Commanders’ lead to 20-7. The officiating team allowed the game to begin even after time expired in the third quarter.

Joseph missed the attempt and after the miss the referees determined that time had expired in the quarter before the ball was snapped. On a second chance, Joseph scored his next field goal, points that became important after the Saints mounted a fourth-quarter surge.

Before Joseph missed his first shot, Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi wore down the referees on the sideline and shouted that the quarter was over.

“The play shouldn’t have continued,” Rizzi said. “They basically gave the field goal kicker a freebie. They gave him the crap. I have been training kickers for 30 years. You give a guy a warm-up shot, and you have a pretty good shot that he’s going to take on the second shot. The success rate goes through the roof when a man is given a second chance.

“That was my point of criticism. It was a game management, a civil service operation. I’ll leave it to the league. Everyone else will be held accountable in this league. I hope the people who did this wrong are also held accountable. It was completely mishandled.”

However, the Saints benefited from the second timing error. As New Orleans prepared its potential go-ahead late in the game, Spencer Rattler completed a pass to Foster Moreau in the middle of the field, just short of the goal line. The clock ticked down to within 10 seconds and New Orleans didn’t have a timeout.

But then the clock briefly stopped at nine seconds. After about four seconds of pause (the music box continued to run), the music box continued to tick. New Orleans shot the ball over the top with four seconds left in the game. Rattler then hit Moreau for a touchdown on the ensuing play.

After the game, referee Shawn Hochuli said, “The referee accidentally stopped the clock in that situation. “The clock shouldn’t have stopped.” He later added that the play was not reviewable.