Minnesota Vikings tight end T. J. Hockenson had a touchdown overturned by a replay review late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and he clearly was not happy about it.
Hockenson appeared to catch a touchdown pass from Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz with 2:58 remaining on the clock, but the score was taken away after a replay review. During his postgame press conference, Hockenson made his feelings very clear, calling the officiating decision “ridiculous.”
“There was nothing to overturn it,” Hockenson said after the game, according to Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “I mean, I was out there. I felt it. Hands under the ball; snag it; and I don’t understand. I don’t basically understand the catch rule at this point. I don’t understand how New York can call in and just be like, ‘Yeah, that’s not a catch,’ when there was no evidence that it wasn’t. I mean, I had it. I think it’s ridiculous.”
Hockenson also claimed that two members of the officiating crew disagreed with the decision to overturn the call.
### NFL Explains Decision
The decision to overturn the touchdown came from the NFL’s office in New York. Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth defended the ruling.
“The ruling on the field was a touchdown,” Butterworth explained. “So it’s replay’s jurisdiction to stop the game. We used broadcast-enhanced shots to show that as he was going to the ground he needs control of the ball throughout the process of the catch. He lost control of the ball. The ball hit the ground. Then, he regained control of the ball. So therefore, we overturned it to an incomplete pass.”
### Vikings Could Have Done Better
While the overturned call was pivotal in the game’s outcome—leading to more than a minute of additional time off the clock late in the contest—Hockenson readily acknowledged that the Vikings had other opportunities to secure the win.
“It is what it is,” he said. “Got to move on to other plays. I mean you can’t go one for six [in the red zone] and win a ball game with two turnovers. We had the [opportunity] at the end, obviously. But yeah, tough one.”
The Vikings managed to score on just one of six trips to the red zone. Meanwhile, Wentz threw two interceptions during the game, including one that was returned for a touchdown by the Eagles.
https://thecomeback.com/nfl/tj-hockenson-referees-official-decision-touchdown.html