Game-Changing Play of the Week: Late Savage Pick Called Back Upon Review

Before I dive too far into this post, I should note that I don’t particularly give the referees a whole lot of blame for the Packers’ loss to the Vikings. 

In fact, given the abysmal standards set by NFL officiating this season, I don’t even think this was that poorly of a refeereed football game. It wasn’t good by any means, but good officiating is impossible to find in today’s NFL. It is an unfortunate fact of life that there are going to be several outrageously terrible calls per game.

This, I believe, is not one of them. But it certainly changed the game.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Packers tied the ballgame at 31 after a 75-yard bomb to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. I quipped on Twitter at the time that the Packers had left too much time for Kirk Cousins. But Cousins, who had been seemingly desperate to throw an interception all game long, chucked up a prayer that landed right in the hands of Darnell Savage.

I, of course, lost my mind. The way the Packers’ offense had been playing in the second half, I believed this to be a potential game-icer. There was no doubt in my mind that Aaron Rodgers and the Packers would drive down the field and win the game, despite all the challenges they’d faced so far and the slow start they had in the first half.

But upon review, the referees ruled that Savage did not complete the process of the catch when going to the ground, thereby making the pass incomplete.

The ball certainly comes out, but the debate that has been all over the internet since the play was whether it should have been ruled an interception given Savage got two feet plus a knee down with control of the ball. See the screenshot:

Does this get ruled a catch if Darnell Savage is a WR? pic.twitter.com/bHvx53PoWy

— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) November 21, 2021

The question Peter asks here is certainly interesting. I don’t think the referees make a different call for an offensive player here, and I personally believe this to be the correct call in the circumstance. But I’m certainly willing to hear arguments to the contrary.

Really, it was just one example of a play that encapsulates an entire game. The Packers simply had too many miscues and missed opportunities, and in the end it came back to bite them. Several missed interception opportunities, a missed field goal, too many penalties. All of that adds up over the course of a game, and when you’re playing on the road against a feisty divisional opponent with a shorthanded team you can’t commit those kinds of errors en masse and expect to come away with a victory.

See you at Lambeau in a few weeks, Minnesota.