In a game that already had its fair share of drama, a controversial intentional grounding call late in regulation during the Broncos’ 27-26 overtime win over the Commanders is now under the microscope - and the NFL’s own officiating department is admitting it got it wrong.
NFL officiating and rules analyst Walt Anderson went on NFL Network Sunday morning and addressed several calls from around the league, but it was his breakdown of the Week 13 showdown between Denver and Washington that turned heads. Specifically, Anderson acknowledged that the intentional grounding penalty called on Marcus Mariota during the final drive of regulation should not have been flagged.
Let’s set the scene: First-and-15, 1:25 left in the fourth quarter. Washington is driving, trying to claw back into the game.
Mariota rolls to his left, stops, and fires a pass that sails high and wide of Terry McLaurin, who was working back inside from a spot outside the numbers. The ball lands well past the line of scrimmage - and well out of bounds.
The officials throw the flag, calling intentional grounding.
But according to Anderson, that decision didn’t hold up under scrutiny.
“It wasn’t intentional grounding,” Anderson said during the segment. “There are a lot of different aspects to intentional grounding.
First, you’ve got to determine: Was the quarterback in or out of the pocket? Where did he throw the football?
Did it get past the line of scrimmage? All of those factors have to come into play.”
Let’s break that down. Mariota never left the pocket - that part’s clear.
But he did get the ball past the line of scrimmage, and he threw it in the general direction of McLaurin, who, despite breaking toward the middle of the field, was still outside the numbers when the ball was released. That’s a key detail, because the rulebook is pretty specific: If the quarterback is inside the pocket, he needs to throw it in the direction of an eligible receiver who is outside the tackle box and near the pass’s target area.
This one met those criteria.
NBC’s rules analyst Terry McAuley echoed that sentiment live on the broadcast: “This is absolutely not grounding,” he said. “(Mariota) throws it over the head of No. 17, who is outside the numbers. By rule, that is not intentional grounding.”
The call had real consequences. Because grounding isn’t reviewable, Washington was hit with a loss of down and yardage, pushing them into a second-and-25 hole. They managed to salvage a field goal to tie the game and force overtime, but it altered the complexion of what could’ve been a game-winning drive.
In overtime, both teams found the end zone, but the Commanders came up short on a two-point conversion attempt that would’ve sealed the win. So while the grounding call didn’t directly decide the outcome, it certainly reshaped how the final moments of regulation played out.
The bigger issue here? The league’s ongoing struggle with what is and isn’t reviewable. Anderson addressed that too.
“Some of them we can help with replay, but some of them we can’t,” he said. “We can help with in or out of the pocket, but we can’t help with the position of a player relative to being inside or outside the numbers - and that’s the part of the rule that’s critical, so that would not have been reviewable as a foul.”
That’s the gray area the NFL still hasn’t solved. In a league where technology has made it easier than ever to get calls right, certain penalties - grounding included - remain stuck in the realm of judgment calls with no safety net. And as we saw in Denver, that can have a real impact on the game.
For Washington, it’s a frustrating moment in a close loss. For the league, it’s another reminder that the rules around replay and reviewability still have room to grow.