New England Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe threw the first touchdown pass of his career in Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers and the rookie got a huge assist from the officiating crew on the play.
Zappe found a wide-open DeVante Parker for a 25-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter to give the Patriots a 17-14 lead. The play should not have counted, however. As you can see from the video below, the play clock had expired when the ball was snapped. It looked like New England was given about three extra seconds.
CBS analyst Tony Romo noted that the Patriots just had a delay of game the play before, so the back judge may not have been expecting them to burn up the entire play clock again. It is rare that a team takes back-to-back delay of game penalties, for obvious reasons.
Zappe, a fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky, was in the game after veteran Brian Hoyer suffered a concussion in the first half. Hoyer started in place of Mac Jones, who has been dealing with an ankle injury.
This is the second week in a row that the handling of the play clock created major issues in an NFL game. We saw another situation that raised questions in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ loss to the Packers last Sunday.
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