After the Packers beat the Bears by blocking a field goal on the final play of the game, Bears coach Matt Eberflus claimed victory. The packers should have been marked because “they were obviously on our long snapper.”
The NFL disagrees.
The Bears sent the play to the league for an explanation, and the league’s officiating office informed the Bears that the Packers made a clean playaccording to the Chicago Sun-Times.
NFL rules prohibit lining up directly in front of the long snapper or making contact with him while his head is still down immediately after the snap. Packers defensive lineman TJ Slaton was lined up legally, but made contact with Bears long snapper Scott Daly on the blocked field goal. But the league ruled that Slaton’s contact was legal. Contact can be made with long snappers as long as it is not when the long snapper’s head is down immediately after the snap.
If the officials had ruled that Slaton had illegally contacted Daly while his head was still down, it would have been a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty and the Bears would have had another chance to score the field goal. But the referees didn’t throw the flag and the Packers won. And the league office says that was the right decision.