Terry McAulay questions why officials picked up penalty flag on critical play

Shortly after the Indianapolis Colts scored the first touchdown in Week 9’s Sunday Night Football game against the Minnesota Vikings, NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay questioned whether the touchdown should have been negated by a penalty.

The Indianapolis touchdown came thanks to its defense. Defensive tackle Grover Stewart sacked Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold and forced a fumble. Defensive back Kenny Moore II picked up the loose ball and returned the fumble 38 yards for a touchdown.

While a flag was initially thrown on the play, it was soon picked up and the touchdown stood. But should that have happened? According to McAulay, no.

Looking at the play, McAulay noted that he thought Stewart should have been penalized for unnecessary roughness and explained why.

“That’s a pretty big blow to the head from the forearm/hand/wrist of the tackler. He’s a defenseless player. That’s forceable contact. If they would have called that, left the flag down, that’s certainly supportable as a foul for unnecessary roughness.”

Interestingly, this came a week after McAulay was criticized for defending the on-field officials after they picked up a flag to call off an offensive pass interference penalty, which would have negated a San Francisco 49ers touchdown in their SNF game against the Dallas Cowboys.

This was also the second week in a row where the Vikings were on the wrong end of a controversial call in a standalone game. During Week 8’s Thursday Night Football loss to the Los Angeles Rams, a blatant facemask was missed as Darnold was sacked in the end zone for what ended up being a game-sealing safety.

[Photo Credit: NBC]