The rare penalty that gifted the Arizona Cardinals an easy field goal for a Sunday Night Football win was a "phantom call" that should've never been flagged, according to Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
Marvin Lewis says late penalty was ‘phantom call’ to set up easy Cardinals field goal
Marvin Lewis and Domata Peko were confused by the penalty that set up Chandler Catanzaro for an easy, game-winning field goal.
With six seconds remaining in the game and the Cardinals preparing to spike and set up a 46-yard field goal to break a 31-31 tie, defensive lineman Domata Peko was penalized for "calling signals out in an effort to draw the offense into a false start."
“Who knows, they get the phantom call there at the end, it’s kind of ridiculous,” Lewis said after the game. “I trust what our player did and said. He’s alerting a run and not anything to do with what they’re saying. I don’t see how they make that call at that point in the game like that. I trust our guy to be honest with me.”
It was an obvious situation where the Cardinals wanted to spike the ball, but Peko said he was just communicating with his teammates after the opposing offense quickly got set following a kneel on the play prior.
“They were on the ball pretty quick and I am a big communicator on our defensive line about runs, passes, trying to communicate,” Peko said. “I was just saying “get set, get set” because they were on the ball quick and I guess when I said “get set” they thought I was saying hike or something. I didn’t say hike.”
Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer wasn’t buying Peko’s explanation. Via Coley Harvey of ESPN:
“It was real obvious,” Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer said of Peko’s penalty. “The ref was right there. They obviously said the snap count, and that’s a 15-yarder.”
The penalty moved the Cardinals up 14 yards and made it a 32-yard field goal for Chandler Catanzaro. The second-year kicker has only two missed field goals in 2015, one from 47 yards and his only attempt from more than 50 yards. By nailing the 32-yard attempt, he improved to 14 of 14 from inside 40 yards..
Had the penalty not been called on Peko and instead ruled a false start on the Cardinals, it would have required a 10-second runoff that would’ve sent the game to overtime.
“We had way too many penalties today,” Peko said. “I think that was the name of the game, we were fighting the refs and fighting the Cardinals.”
After back-to-back losses, the Bengals have a two-game lead in the AFC North and host the St. Louis Rams in Week 12. The Cardinals kept a three-game lead over the Seattle Seahawks and will play the first of two consecutive road games next week with a trip to play the San Francisco 49ers.
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