In a game that has seen big play after big play, the best may have been saved for early in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s Eagles-Seahawks game. Leading 17-10 on 3rd and 9, Seahawks QB Russell Wilson was looking to run for the first down. But Russell’s quick thinking seeing Mike Davis outside resulted in a lateral to him in order to get the crucial first down which led to the game clinching touchdown.
While this was a great looking play, this seemed dangerously close to looking like a forward pass. And in all actuality, the Eagles could’ve had a case had they challenged the play. The ball seemed to move slightly forward, maybe half a yard, as the ball traveled through the air. Seeing the line in this clip where the toss started makes it even more noticeable.
It’s important that the rule is based on how the ball is traveling in the air and not based off where the receiver was standing at the time of the lateral. There, it showed that Wilson had slightly thrown a forward pass. Would it have been turned over? Well, the referee probably wouldn’t have that blue line to see and given it didn’t go forward all that much, it wouldn’t have been a guarantee that it would have been overturned. Hindsight being 20/20 and that play contributed to putting the game out of reach for the Eagles, maybe they should’ve challenged the play.
