Midway through the fourth quarter of the Minnesota Vikings’ 21-17 victory over the Cleveland Browns in London in Week 5, the Vikings called on Will Reichard for a 51-yard field goal attempt to try to tie things up at 17. Reichard, who had previously not missed a kick all season, struck the ball and it appeared to be heading between the goal posts until it took a hard right-hand turn and drifted no good.
As it turns out, the miss really can’t be blamed on Reichard, and the fact that the officials (or someone somewhere) missed what actually happened could have cost the Vikings the game.
As you can see in the video below, the ball wound up hitting the wires that hold up the “Skycam” that each NFL game has as part of its coverage now. The ball hitting the wire is what caused the kick to travel so far off course.
The way the ball turned should have been some sort of indicator that something had happened, but nobody on the officiating crew noticed anything. Neither did anyone in the league offices, apparently, despite the fact that the Vikings/Browns game was the only game happening at the time and should have had pretty much everyone’s attention.
Per league rules, when the ball hits the Skycam or the wires that support it, the play is supposed to be immediately blown dead and the down is to be replayed from the previous spot. So, based on that, Reichard should have gotten another opportunity at the kick. However, the ball just went over to Cleveland as it would for any other missed field goal.
Sure, it doesn’t matter now because the Vikings wound up winning the ball game with less than 30 seconds remaining. However, had the Vikings lost. . .particularly by three points or less. . .they could have gotten another super sweet apology letter from the National Football League out of the deal. I guess they might get one anyway, but at least this letter won’t be connected to something that wound up costing them a football game.
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