Did refs miss tripping penalty on Giants' final snap vs. Eagles?
Odell Beckham Jr. of the Giants reacts after he thought a pass interference call should have been made against Cre'von LeBlanc of the Eagles in the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday in Philadelphia. Credit: Getty Images/Elsa
The Giants probably should have been given one last try to tie or win the game on Sunday.
On what went down as the final snap, a pass was thrown to Sterling Shepard, who then lateraled it to Odell Beckham Jr. Eagles linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill was tackling Shepard, and when the ball went to Beckham, was able to bring him down with a leg swipe that two former members of the NFL’s officiating department who are now broadcasters, Dean Blandino and Gene Steratore, said should have been flagged for tripping. No penalty was called.
“I don’t think you’re allowed to trip,” Pat Shurmur said on Monday.
There are two possible penalties that could have been called on that play. Tripping is a 10-yard infraction while a leg whip is 15 yards. Had it been called a leg whip – and given Grugier-Hill’s less-than-inadvertent leg swipe to make the play, it probably should have been – that would have given the Giants the ball at the Eagles’ 44 for an untimed down with a chance to send the game into overtime.
“I did the math on that,” Shurmur said. “If that is in fact a penalty then we would have been kicking with the wind for a 62-yarder with a strong-legged kicker. I mean, we had a 63-yarder made against us. So who knows?”
Even a 10-yard penalty would have made it a 67-yard attempt.
Giants kicker Aldrick Rosas, who has a career-long of 53 yards and kicked a 51-yarder on Sunday, said he would have been up for that challenge.
“That was the good way to go," Rosas said of the wind. “Anywhere from 70 and in I would've had to go out there. I would've been pretty confident. Just get it up there, hit it nice, and let it carry."
Of course with the ball at the 49 the Giants may have elected to try a Hail Mary pass instead of an NFL record-setting 67-yard field goal.
But that they were not given the opportunity to try either play just adds another layer of frustration to an already difficult result to digest.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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