Why Seahawks linemen thought Giants’ key blocked field goal was illegal—and why it wasn’t

Laken Tomlinson wanted a review.

The NFL says there was no reason for one.

Coach Mike Macdonald? He saw no need for anything — but his Seahawks to block it better.

The reason first-place, previously 3-1 Seattle lost to the previously 1-3 New York Giants on Sunday at Lumen Field went beyond the Giants blocking Jason Myers’ field goal and returning for the clinching touchdown with 55 seconds remaining. The Seahawks couldn’t stop the run, couldn’t and wouldn’t run, and their quarterback slid too early creating a failed fourth down that changed the game earlier in the fourth quarter.

But in their second loss in six days following their 3-0 start, 29-20 to New York, could have gone to overtime following a frantic rally by Seattle. That is, if not for the Giants’ blocking Myers field goal while leading 23-20.

Geno Smith threw a pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for Seattle’s only offensive touchdown with 2:09 left to cut New York’s 23-13 lead into a three-point game. Then the defense that New York had run over for 175 yards rushing finally got a stop.

Smith scrambled 32 yards when wide receiver Smith-Njigba fooled two Giants defensive backs into running with him 40 yards as if the quarterback was throwing it to them. That set up Myers for a 47-yard attempt at a tying field goal.

It would have been a shorter try, but Smith-Njigba dropped a third-down pass that would have resulted in a new series of downs for Seattle, inside the Giants 30-yard line.

“Just a lack of concentration,” a downcast Smith-Njigba told The News Tribune of the drop, while at his locker in the Seahawks’ quiet locker room after the game.

Giants coaches and players said they put in a new field-goal defense play this past week. It had Dexter Lawrence push down Seattle’s right guard, Tomlinson. Fellow defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches pushed into the back of Seahawks long snapper Chris Stoll.

That cleared a path for 6-foot-4 Isaiah Simmons to leap between the grounded Stoll and Tomlinson in the guard-center “A” gap, up the middle in the shortest route to Myers’ kick. At 47 yards, Myers had to kick a lower kick for more distance. Simmons blocked it.

New York’s Bryce Ford-Wheaton picked up the ball and ran 60 yards to the other, north end zone. Instead of Seattle’s trying field goal and overtime, the touchdown was the final points in Seattle’s 29-20 loss .

“I think it was Tuesday ‘Ghobi’ (Giants special teams coordinator Mike Ghobrial) brought that play up to me,” New York coach Brian Daboll said. “You know, he talked about who he thought would be a good candidate to do the jump. Isaiah came to mind.

“He executed perfectly.”

Tomlinson thought the play was illegal.

“I felt like (it was) something (that) probably should have been reviewed,” the 12th-year veteran guard said.

“I have feelings about it, but it went how it went. Let’s put it at that.”

The News Tribune asked him if he felt Lawrence pushing him down is illegal.

“I mean, it’s up to the refs,” Tomlinson said.

Rule 12, article 9 of the NFL rule book deals with contact on defenseless players, as the league deems long snappers with their heads down to send the ball back to holders on field goals.

“It is a foul if a player initiates unnecessary contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture,” Rule 12, article 9 starts out stating.

The rule goes on to in article 9, paragraph 12 define when a player is defenseless, including when he snaps the ball for a scrimmage kick.

“Prohibited contact against a player (includes)...forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s (in this play Stoll’s, the long snapper’s) head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder, even if the initial contact is lower than the player’s neck, and regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him.”

The Giants didn’t do that to Stoll.

That’s why NFL officiating rules analyst Walt Anderson confirmed through an NFL spokesperson via a postgame pool report that the Giants’ blocked field goal was legal.

The NFL’s explanation

Anderson told pool reporter Brady Henderson from ESPN.com there was no foul on Simmons because he was on the line of scrimmage and did not use anyone as leverage.

As for Nunez-Roches pushing down on long-snapper Stoll, Anderson said via the spokesperson that “pushing down alone is not a foul and there was no forcible contact to the head and neck.”

Neither aspect of the play is subject to the NFL’s replay-review system, even though it’s a scoring play, Anderson said via the spokesperson.

Macdonald, the Seahawks coach, had no problem with how the blocked field was officiated.

Only with how his linemen blocked it.

“Well, you know, there’s a guy in the A-gap. We need to block him,” Macdonald said, flatly. “That’s pretty much that simple.”

And the NFL’s youngest head coach, at age 37, knew the rule.

“But you’re allowed to push down,” Macdonald said. “They pushed down on our right guard, and he wasn’t able to get to Simmons.”