The first game of Week 2 of the 2021 NFL season has given the football community arguably the biggest officiating-related controversy, to date, of the campaign.
Washington Football Team kicker Dustin Hopkins received a second opportunity to convert a game-winning field goal Thursday night, which he did, after New York's Dexter Lawrence was flagged for jumping early and being offside before Hopkins missed his first attempt. However, multiple reporters and handfuls of fans later took several looks at the first kick from different angles and said Lawrence did not cross the line of scrimmage before the snap of the ball started.
Former Giants player and two-time Super Bowl champion Lawrence Tynes took the investigation into his own hands, and he says the game film confirms Lawrence shouldn't have been penalized and the contest should've ended after Hopkins' first kick went wide:
Just confirmed with a Giants source that Dexter Lawrence was NOT offsides (coaches film).
— (@lt4kicks) September 17, 2021
The referees missed it and the Giants will get the obligatory phone call from the head of officials saying, sorry we missed it. #TogetherBlue
Lawrence hinted earlier in the day that he knew he wasn't in the wrong.
"My opinion really don’t matter," he said of the play when speaking with reporters. "We lost the game. The refs called what they called."
Snappers have hitches, the moment he moves his hand or breaks those wrists he can go. We would study snappers every week.
— (@lt4kicks) September 17, 2021
As Tynes noted, the Giants will receive little more than a phone call from somebody within the league if his report is, indeed, accurate.
Nevertheless, 0-2 Big Blue must get over Thursday's result and prepare to face the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 26.
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